It was the largest group of Able Flight pilots ever assembled, and April 20th was their night to be celebrated and honored at Able Flight’s annual benefit party.  From throughout the Eastern U.S.  twelve of Able Flight’s 28 pilots  traveled to Orlando where they were the guests of honor at an event at Fantasy of Flight that both recognized their success, and  raised funds for the scholarship program. Attending were Jessica Scharle. Jorge Urea, Jeremy Maddox, Tony Pizzifred, Wesley Major, Heather Schultz, Sean O’Donnell, Jason Jernigan, Kevin Crombie, Tyrell Rhodes, Matt Sponaugle and Stephany Glassing.

Some of the early arrivals were treated to a private tour and simulator time at SimCom’s Orlando facility, arranged by Able Flight supporter Jeffrey Goldberg and courtesy of SimCom.  Just prior to the party, guests were given an after-hours tour of many of  the historic aircraft in Kermit Week’s collection. Then, with two beautiful P-51s, an Albatross and a Sopwith Snipe decorating the hangar, the party began with dinner and introductions of the pilots and special guests followed by music from the Paul Thorn Band.

The benefit was made possible with the generous support of sponsors Sennheiser U.S.A, Embraer Aircraft and Signature Flight Support. The event sponsors underwrote all costs,  making it possible  for proceeds from donations for seats and an auction to go directly to the scholarship fund. Signature Flight Support also served as the host FBO for the party at its Kissimmee location,  waiving ground charges and providing discounted fuel for arriving guests.

Guests included  Matt Brandon of Bombardier, David Armstrong of Embraer, David Dunlap, Chris Throndsen, Christain Pulm and Tim Mell of Sennheiser,  Patrick Sniffen of Signature Flight Support,  Katie Pribyl, Adam Smith and Stephany Keynon of AOPA,  Mike Suckow of Purdue University, Gene Schmidt of Schmidt Consulting, Bill Perrone Sr. and Bill Perrone, Jr. of Perrone Aerospace, John “Lites” Leenhouts, president of Sun ‘n Fun, Tom Bliss, publisher of AVweb, airshow greats Steve & Suzanne Oliver,  Andy Matthews of iFlightplanner.com, and Able Flight board members Steve Merritt and Julia Spicer.

A live auction included items donated  by Sennheiser, Perrone Aerospace, ForeFlight, Bombardier, Signature Flight Support, Sandia Aerospace, Dynon, Sam Lyons,  Kermit Weeks and Team Aerostars. A special thanks to Bill Campbell of Atlanta for bringing five Able Flight pilots to the event in his Cessna 421, and to Jeffrey Goldberg of Chicago for bringing Able Flight pilot Tyrell Rhodes in his TBM 850. And thanks to Gina Hubbard and Scott Dickie  and the rest of the Fantasy of Flight team and Tom Pittman of American Audio Visual for their help in making the evening a success. Most of all, thanks to everyone who came to honor our pilots and make it possible for others to join them in the freedom of flight.

When they arrive at Purdue University on May 19th, five new Able Flight scholarship recipients will immediately begin five weeks of intensive flight and ground training leading to a pilot certificate. This is the fourth year of the Able Flight/Purdue joint program to bring people with physical disabilities into aviation, and as with the first three years, the student pilots selected to train there share the common goal of  changing their lives by becoming a pilot.  Scholarship recipients this year pilots include a  Marine who lost both legs to an IED, a woman with multiple sclerosis, a man who had polio as a child, a young man injured in a skydiving accident and a man paralyzed in a trampoline accident as a teenager. All five now use wheelchairs and will train in Sky Arrow LSAs adapted with hand controls.

Andrew Kinard

Andrew Kinard chose the Marines when he graduated from the Naval Academy, and passed on a slot as a Marine aviator to choose the infantry instead. Only five weeks into his first deployment  in Iraq an IED cost both of his legs and led to 17 months of rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center. Soon Andrew will graduate from Harvard with both law and business degrees. And after five weeks at Purdue,  Andrew will become an aviator. In his application he wrote, “Becoming a pilot will be the ultimate expression of my sense of adventure and my yearning for freedom. In the air, there are no limits!   With an impressive list of  educational and aeronautical accomplishments on the horizon, he says, “I have spent the last seven years trying to restore the man I used to be. I am now ready to become the man I ‘m meant to be.”

Deirdre Dacy

Deirdre Dacey of Massachusetts was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at 16.  Over the next ten years her MS progressed to the point where she had to begin using a wheelchair. Refusing to  be “held back”, Deirdre not only went on to complete college, but also earned a Master of Science Degree and graduated with honors. She is a Girl Scout Leader and works for a nonprofit that specializes in adoption, foster care and independent living. In her scholarship application Deirdre wrote of always wanting to learn to fly, and of her need to “make a difference in the world” and “to be known and remembered for something other than my disability”.

Young Choi

Young Choi of California had polio as a child in Korea; an experience that not only affected his ability to physically navigate through the country of his birth, but also shaped his view of himself. He recalls his early years in Korea as being very confining and  “difficult because of the country’s severe lack of focus on disability”, an outlook that changed dramatically when he moved to the United States at age 22. Later he became a U.S. citizen and is now the father of three and a software engineer for a very well-known company. Young’s goal is to change the way people view disabilities not just in the Asian community in the United States, but in Korea.  He wants to be an advocate “for those who have challenges and encourage them to achieve their own goals and push through their limitations”.

Warren Cleary

Warren Cleary has probably spent more hours in flight than many pilots. Those were hours quickly gaining altitude and more quickly returning to earth after jumping out of an airplane. The Georgia resident has been a professional skydiving videographer, an Accelerated Freefall Instructor and a FAA Senior Parachute Rigger. A member of the U.S. National Skydiving Team, Warren placed seventh in world competition in Dubai in 2011 and was training for the 2012 world meet when an accident caused his paralysis. All along he had planned to become a pilot, now  he has that opportunity thanks to his Able Flight scholarship.  In his application Warren wrote, “Being an active member in the spinal cord injury community as a Christopher Reeve Foundation Peer mentor, I could be a great example to others by showing them what can be accomplished in spite of a disability.”

Dennis Akins of Texas was only fourteen when he became paralyzed as the result of an accident on a trampoline.  He has spent more than three decades in a wheelchair and during that time he earned a degree from Texas A&M, became a father, and has had a long career as an engineer, now with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That’s a long time to push back the dream of flying for the young boy who would “sit inside a cardboard box that was decorated with dials and switches, pretending I was a fighter pilot flying P-40s in China with the AVG”. His childhood aviation fantasy was fully revived in 2003 when a chance flight led him to becoming a member of the Civil Air Patrol where he now serves as Unit Commander and  Aerospace Education Officer.  At Purdue, the Sky Arrow will substitute for a P-40 when Dennis begins flight training.

Dennis Akins

The Able Flight student pilots will be trained by university graduate school instructors and will live in university housing located just minutes away from the school-owned towered airport  (KLAF).  Able Flight’s Charles Stites said, “When we look at applicants for training at Purdue we make sure they understand that this is not an easy program. In fact, it is just the opposite and that’s by design.  Able Flight pilots who train at Purdue follow a strict syllabus developed by the university and they receive double the minimum training hours required by the FAA.”

While in training the students study together and are mentored by their instructors, and this year they will have the advantage of  support and mentoring by two Able Flight pilots who previously trained at Purdue and are now enrolled in the university’s Department of Aviation Technology.  Kevin Crombie earned his license in 2011 and is now an undergraduate at Purdue, and Wesley Major earned his license in 2012 and is a graduate student at the university. Major will also serve as a volunteer program coordinator for Able Flight during this year’s training, with responsibility for coordinating training and aircraft maintenance schedules.

The five to six week course will require five instructors and two aircraft. Able Flight rents the Sky Arrows from Hansen Air Group of Atlanta and Philly Sport Pilot of Philadelphia, and a week before training begins the planes will be moved to Purdue for the duration of the training. Able Flight’s Stites said,” Not only does this program provide a life-changing experience for our students, but we use funding from our donors and sponsors to support small aviation businesses each year. It’s a perfect combination.”

Most pilots look at Adam Kisielewski and can’t help but wonder how they would deal with flying an airplane without an arm on their left side and with a prosthetic leg below the knee on their right. But Adam leaves the wondering to others and just goes about his life with the thoughtful and quiet determination he has shown since being critically injured in Iraq in August of 2005. Somehow he survived the blast that occurred when he attempted to pass though a door rigged with hidden explosives; a blast that took the life of a fellow Marine.

To say that his survival and recovery have been remarkable is to sell Adam short. With extraordinary battlefield emergency medicine and intensive post-injury rehabilitation, many wounded veterans have survived and recovered. It’s just that Adam is a special case. Undaunted by the magnitude of his injuries, he worked his way through rehab, declined the use of a prosthetic arm that would have to be attached at the shoulder, and found his own adaptations. The father of a young son can now often be seen riding his unmodified Harley, and has fulfilled a dream that began when he was a teenager. On April 19th, Adam become a licensed pilot.

With his Able Flight Scholarship Adam trained at  the busy Frederick, Maryland airport, mixing in with near constant helicopter and fixed wing traffic. And for the Marine who once served on the presidential security detail at nearby Camp David, the importance of  never losing situational awareness in the airspace around Washington, DC added another layer of complexity to his training.

Adam credits his instructors Dean Stickell, a retired Air Force test pilot, and Dave Hirschman, Senior Editor of AOPA PILOT Magazine with giving him the skills and confidence to work through the challenges of learning to fly using only one hand and adjusting to  the limited feedback provided by a prosthetic leg. As humble as he is in thanking them, Stickell and Hirschman are quick to praise his creativity in working around what others might see as limitations. The evidence of that came during his check ride; a check ride preceded by several months of training in a Flight Design CT.

Adam with CT owner Joe D'Aguair

Most Able Flight pilots now learn to fly in a joint Purdue University/Able Flight program in the spring of each year, but Adam needed to remain close to his Operation Second Chance office  to continue his work helping other wounded veterans. So Able Flight located a CT based at Northampton Aeronautics in Massachusetts, and with the assistance of flight school manager Rich MacIsaac and CT owner Joe D’ Aguair, arranged for the CT to “live” at Frederick during late winter/early spring so that Adam could fly an average of 3-5 times a week. That training paid off  with an unusually long student cross country to deliver the CT back to  its home where Adam would take his check ride to become Able Flight’s 20th licensed pilot to date.

For an indepth look at that experience, read Dave Hirschman’s report on Adam’s check ride.