A student pilot on his first lesson in a Cessna is being hailed as a hero for landing the single-engine plane — with guidance from an air traffic controller — after his instructor lost consciousness.

Max Sylvester, 29, of Australia, was about an hour into his flight Saturday when he realized he was alone at the controls of the small two-seater, according to abc.net.au.

“He’s leaning over my shoulder, I’m trying to keep him up but he keeps falling down,” the married father of three is heard telling a controller.

It was his first lesson in the Cessna 152 and the third overall — though he hadn’t landed by himself previously, according to the news outlet.

“Do you know how to operate the airplane?” the controller asks.

“This is my first lesson,” Sylvester points out as his wife and kids were waiting at the airport.

“We’re tracking where you are at the moment,” the controller says. “You’re doing a really great job. I know this is really stressful. But you’re going to do an amazing job and we’re going to help you get down to the ground, OK?”

The controller explains to the novice pilot how to reduce the plane’s airspeed and prepare for landing.

“Just keep an eye on your speed that you’re not going into the red too much and keeping those wings level and keeping your nose nice and level on the horizon,” the controller says.

“Yep, copy that,” the rookie responds.

“Have you landed any aircraft before by yourself or with someone else at the controls with you?” he asks.

“No, I haven’t,” Sylvester replies, adding that he tried to lift his instructor’s head up, but that there was no response.

The controller then encourages Sylvester to focus on landing.

“Well, my flight instructor did say I was the best student he’d had,” Sylvester replies, injecting humor into the predicament.

After almost an hour, Sylvester made a textbook landing at Jandakot Airport.

His instructor, New Zealand-born Robert Mollard, was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition after suffering what is believed to have been a seizure.

Sylvester credited studying hard prior to getting into the cockpit for his ability to handle the emergency.

“It was adrenaline and my knowledge of flying, which I love, that kept us going,” he said, according to perthnow.com.

“If I hadn’t studied, I wouldn’t be here, it’s as simple as that,” he added. “I was pretty messed up and it was hard to know my instructor wasn’t well and it was just a case of getting us down to the ground safely.”

Chuck McElwee, owner of Air Australia International, which employs the pilot, said he had never seen a similar situation in his 28 years running the flying school.

“This could have gone way, way bad,” he said. “But everything worked out right, and it worked right, mostly because of the cooperation of the tower, the fact that he was a student — that he was dedicated and he knew what he was doing and he pulled it off — and that my flight instructor went up to the tower and they all worked together.”

McElwee said he warned Sylvester’s wife not to let her hubby get behind the wheel of their car later “until he had calmed down.”

The fearless aviator, meanwhile, was awarded his maiden solo flight certificate for his heroics — with just a handful of hours under his belt.