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After a year of delay caused by the pandemic, five students of the Able Flight “Class of 2021” arrived at Purdue University on May 22, and by the next day, most were in the air for their first lesson.

Attending training at Purdue are David Snypes, Jr, Peyton Wolter, Sheila Xu, T’angelo Magee, and Michael Price. Each student is paired with an instructor dedicated to them, and instructors for 2021 include Zach Hill (Lead Instructor), Nicolas Kass, Colleen Finnell, Steven Stoyko and Aaron Wall. Also assisting is Lucero Duran who has been a key volunteer instructor for more than five years.

Shortly after meeting their instructors, the new student pilots attended orientation, covering topics such as safety practices, communications, aircraft fueling, and for those who use wheelchairs, how to transfer from chair to plane.

Strong health safety protocols are being adhered to both at the airport and in the dorm housing the students, and almost all students and instructors have been fully vaccinated.

By the end of their first ten days, as a group this year’s class had already logged over 71 hours in the air, and as least as many hours of ground instruction, and they are well on their way to first solos.

As they came on stage at EAA AirVenture to receive their pilot’s wings, the Able Flight Class of 2018 clearly represented our mission of enabling people with a variety of physical disabilities to become licensed pilots. From a young man who was born without hands or feet, to two pilots who are deaf, to a man paralyzed in an accident, and to a wounded veteran, this year’s new aviators may not be typical of the pilot population as a whole, but they are typical of the more than 65 people who have earned a pilot certificate through Able Flight.

On July 24th at a special ceremony at AirVenture’s Theater In The Woods, Kory Purderbaugh, Julia Velasquez, Asher Kirschbaum, Rob Shardy and Staff Sgt. Robert Bartlett were honored for their hard work and success in becoming licensed pilots. Puderbaugh, Kirschbaum and Velasquez trained at Purdue University, and Shardy and Bartlett trained at The Ohio State University. On hand for the ceremony were family, friends and Able Flight sponsors, and pinning pilot wings were Jason Miller of Foreflight, John Herman of Tempest Plus, Michael Brown and Jonathan Stoy of Shell Aviation, Daniel Bachmann of Embraer, and Aviation Hall of Fame member Patty Wagstaff who did the honors for Lockheed Martin.

Designated as recipients of named scholarships for 2018 were:

Kory Puderbaugh: Tempest Plus

Asher Kirschbaum: Embraer

Julia Velasquez: ForeFlight

Rob Shardy: Shell Aviation

Staff Sgt. Robert Bartlett: Lockheed Martin

Special guests included a number of the flight instructors who taught this year’s student pilots, including Josh Fisher of OSU, and Christina Gorsky, Austin Decker, Andrea Hayek and Andrew Geers of Purdue. During the ceremony, Geers was named the Able Flight 2018 Flight Instructor of the Year, and selected as co-recipients of the Seidel Award honoring their volunteer service were Brian Stirm and Lucero Duran of Purdue University.

Able Flight thanks EAA for making the venue available for the ceremony.