Trailblazing female pilot celebrates 100th birthday with joy flight over Sydney Harbour

A trailblazing female pilot has taken to the skies to celebrate her 100th birthday, piloting a joy flight over Sydney harbour. 

"It's just like riding a bike,” Pat Rutherford told 9NEWS, unfazed about taking the controls despite today notching up a century. 

The Sydney woman was accompanied by a co-pilot as she set off from Bankstown Airport, before cutting two celebratory laps above the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

"It's just a thrill,” she said.

"I wish everyone knew this feeling. There is just nothing better than being up there and having the skies to yourself.

Ms Rutherford learned how to fly way back in the 1950s, when being a pilot wasn't exactly a commonplace job, let alone a female pilot.

Since then she's clocked up thousands of hours in the air, for a time even working as an aerobatics expert, performing flips and tricks.

But this is the first time she's taken the controls in six years, and she admits probably her last time.

"It's been a huge part of my life, and for me, this has been the best birthday of my life!”