The Able Flight Class of 2017 will be honored in a special ceremony at EAA AirVenture on Tuesday, July 25th at 10am at Theater In The Woods. Eight new students trained at both Purdue University and Ohio State University beginning in mid-May, and after nearly two months of hard work in the airplanes and the classroom, they began taking checkrides just a few weeks ago.
This year’s pilots include a veteran wounded in combat, several pilots who were paralyzed due to accidents, a young woman who is a diabetic, and a young man who is deaf. 2017 pilots are Melissa Allensworth of California, Benedict Jones of Indiana, Kunho Kim of Massachusetts, Captain Ferris Butler U.S. Army (retired) of Maryland, Chris Corsi and Brice Lott of North Carolina, Kathryn Brenner of Illinois and Zackary Kukorlo of Washington.
Six of the pilots will also be honored individually as recipients of scholarships provided by Bombardier, ForeFlight, Lockheed Martin, Jet Aviation, Shell Aviation and Tempest.