Six New Pilots Get Certificates Through Able Flight

One of the best things to do in aviation is to share the wonderful experience of flight and piloting. Each pilot is fortunate and has to overcome obstacles to be successful. Tuesday at AirVenture, six new pilots were recognized for their achievements of successfully becoming pilots. These pilots had to overcome greater obstacles than most of us.

All of these pilots have disabilities that confine them to a wheelchair. This doesn’t prevent them from them from fulfilling their dreams. Thanks to Able Flight, they received scholarships to learn to fly and acquire their pilot certificates. They demonstrated once again, it isn’t what you can’t do that counts, only what you can do.

This group of six, Andrew Kinard, Deirdre Dacey, Young Choi, Warren Cleary, Dennis Akins and Stephany Glassing are members of the latest graduating class Able Flight has had. Able Flight is an organization that grants scholarships to persons with disabilities so they can join the ranks of pilots. It has partnered with Purdue University to provide flight instruction in two rented Sky Arrows over a five to six week period.

The curriculum requires a lot of work. It calls for double the FAA minimum training. Required standards are not reduced. They must meet the same standards as everyone else. The only difference is that special controls are placed in the aircraft to allow the student to control the airplane through all the required operations.

Able Flight has a 100% success rate. To date, thirty-three students have been given scholarships and thirty-three have succeeded. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Lt. Andrew Kinard chose the marines after graduating from The Naval Academy. He had the option to go into flight training but felt duty called for him to go into the infantry, postponing flight training. He lost both legs when an IED exploded near him. Not only has Andrew become a pilot, he will graduate from Harvard with a JD/MBA.

(Pictured: Top photo: Able Flight pilots l-r Warren Cleary, Dennis Akins, Deirdre Dacey, Andrew Kinard, and Young Choi. Lower photo Stephany Glassing)

FMI:  http://ableflight.org