Able Flight

Changing Lives Though The Challenge and Freedom of Flight

WE HAVE NEW PILOTS! CLASS OF 2019

Lt. Colonel Daniel Gade U.S. Army-retired

After seven weeks of intensive flight training and ground school, seven 2019 Able Flight scholarship recipients are now licensed pilots. Six trained at Purdue University and one at The Ohio State University, and they will be honored at Able Flight’s annual Wings Pinning Ceremony at EAA AirVenture 2019.

Our Class of 2019 includes Lt. Colonel Daniel Gade (U.S. Army-retired) who was wounded in combat in Iraq, Leslie Irby of Georgia who was paralyzed in an auto accident, Joey Moncalieri (U.S Coast Guard) who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident, Samuel Mahoney of Wisconsin who was paralyzed due to a fall, Anthony Radetic (U.S. Army-retired) who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident, Will Bucher of North Carolina who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident, and Steven Martinez (U.S. Marines-retired) who was injured in a motor vehicle accident.

Leslie Irby

Thanks to the instructors at Purdue and OSU, the students logged over 700 total hours of instruction, including 337 hours of flight instruction and more than 400 hours of individual ground training. And that doesn’t even include a daily ground school class for the first month.

Ten recipients were selected to train in 2019. In addition to the seven who completed training, one student’s training was delayed due to a medical condition, one withdrew, and one will require different adapted controls to complete training.

The 2019 instructors at OSU were Kate Meelhuysen and Joe Schwerdtfeger, and at Purdue they were Rachel Jackson, Aaron Ashby, Travis Gowan, Erik Levin, Zach Hill and Chief Flight Instructor, Lucero Duran. The ground school instructor at Purdue was Professor Bernie Wulle.

Able Flight would like to thank our sponsors who make this program possible, including ForeFlight, Tempest Plus, Perrone Aerospace, Shell Aviation, Embraer, Lockheed Martin, Signature Flight Support, Alerion, Muncie Aviation and Flexjet.

 

A Record Number Of Scholarships For 2019

With ten new flight training scholarships just awarded, Able Flight has now reached the milestone of awarding over 100 scholarships since it was founded. This year’s Able Flight class includes an Army Lt. Colonel wounded in combat, four other veterans disabled due to accidents, and two women. One of the veterans is a former Army helicopter pilot who is now paralyzed and will be returning to flying with his Able Flight Scholarship.

Receiving awards are Lt. Colonel Daniel Gade (US Army-retired) of Virginia, Leslie Irby and Ignacio Montoya of Georgia, Will Bucher of North Carolina, Steven Martinez and Samuel Mahoney of Wisconsin, T’angelo Magee of New Jersey, Anthony Radetic of Alabama, Joseph Moncalieri of Massachusetts, and Emily Hupe of California who is returning to train this year after illness forced a delay in 2018.

Able Flight’s Charles Stites said, “2019 is a year of milestones for our program with the largest number of scholarships in a single year, and we are excited to have awarded more than 100 total scholarships since the program was founded. This has only been possible due to the continuous support we have received from sponsors in the aviation community, and from donors both inside and outside of aviation.”

2019 also marks the tenth consecutive year of Able Flight’s partnership with Purdue University, and the third year of its partnership with The Ohio State University. With flight school beginning in mid-May, the students have already begun their studies with online courses donated by Sporty’s Pilot Shop.

Graduates of the “Class of 2019” will be guests of honor when they receive their Able Flight Wings on stage at EAA AirVenture in July, just weeks after becoming licensed pilots.

2018 Able Flight Pilots Get Their Wings!

Front row (L-R) Asher Kirschbaum, Julia Velasquez, Rob Shardy Kory Puderbaugh, Staff Sgt. Robert Bartlett. Back row (L-R) Andrew Geers, Josh Fisher, Andrea Hayek, Austin Decker, Christina Gorsky.

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.