Able Flight Welcomes New Pilots At AirVenture

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 were honored at Able Flight’s annual Wings Pinning Ceremony at EAA AirVenture 2019.

Among them is Leslie Irby, who lives in Georgia and was paralyzed in an auto accident in 2013. She told Aero-News that was inspired to learn to fly after learning the story of Bessie Coleman, who was the first woman of African-American descent, and the first of Native American descent, to hold a pilot license. Coleman achieved her international pilot license in 1921.

Leslie began flying at the age of 16 through a program in Atlanta called Aviation Career Enrichment. After the accident, she thought her dream of becoming a pilot was dashed, but Able Flight helped her realize that dream. This is her story.

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