Rising above disabilty...

[flint4xx]

Another thread got me thinking about this:

Who has flown with or known a certified pilot, that despite disability, has made it into commercial flying?

I know one guy that had polio, a couple guys with permanent injuries to hands/fingers, and one guy with no legs. I've also heard comment that there are a couple of guys out there (121/135) with only one eye.

 

[avbug]

I knew an individual with severe chronic asthma that was told as a fifteen year old by the AME that he would never hold a medical certificate, or fly. The AME took his money up front, made him fill out the paperwork, then slowly tore it up in front of him and told him not to waste his time. The kid insisted, and fought for the medical. He got it and ended up with a career in aviation.

I know another pilot missing a leg who flies a leadplane for the US Forest Service.

Another missing his legs who flies aerobatic routines at airshows.

My hero as a kid was Douglas Bader...an English pilot who lost his legs in an aerobatic accident. He'd been an underprivileged kid who managed to get into military flight school as a cadet, against heavy odds, and became one of the British demonstration pilots. He was horsing around after a demo at his home aerodrome, and crashed, costing him his legs.

He learned to walk on his false legs, then learned to dance. He learned to drive a stick shift with no legs, then met a girl and took her dancing...she didn't realize he had no legs and he didn't tell her right away. They were married. He managed to get re-accepted to the service, and became a pilot again. He became well recognized and if I recall held the position of Wing Commander or Group Commander, flying fighters. He was shot down, and in the damaged aircraft, his legs were trapped. He survived because he was able to unbuckle his legs and jump.

The Germans caught him, and the allies dropped him a fresh set of legs. The germans let him have them, and he used them to escape. He was caught again, and sent to a prison in a castle. The germans let him take walks, thinking him no flight risk, and he would steal vegetables for the other prisoners and hide them in his hollow legs, on those walks.

After the war, he returned to England and started his own flying service.

Paul Brickhill wrote a book about him called "Reach for the Sky," and I believe someone made it into a movie at some point.

 

[Lilah]

Leo Loudenslager was pretty well known in the acro world. His numerous US aerobatic championships are unmatched, even today (although Kirby Chambliss is working on that). He was also a World Champion back in 1980.

In 1997 Leo had several irons in the fire. He was an AA Captain, flew the Bud Light BD-5j, and his Laser in airshows. What wasn't known to the world at the time was that he was building a plane to perform unprecedented manuvers, the Shark.

On his way home one afternoon on his motorcycle he was struck and severly injured. Partially paralyzed most would say his career was over. He wasn't. He insisted on plans being made to modify his unflown plane to allow control with hands only (maybe inspired by the pilot Avbug mentions). Sadly, these plans were never realized, as he died as a result of his injuries over a month after the accident.

Today his dream hangs in the EAA museum in Oshkosh. It would have been something, an IO-540 powered two seat aerobat weighing only 950lbs. You have to see the control deflection to believe it.

Lilah

PS> Hey Avbug, you weren't the 15 year old, were you? (BTW, I'll look for that book).