Six pilots, the latest graduates of Able Flight’s training program, will receive their wings during a ceremony July 21 at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh. This year’s class includes a pilot who was born without hands or feet, two who are quadriplegics, one who is a paraplegic, a deaf pilot and a wounded veteran. From mid-May to early July, four of the six learned to fly through Able Flight’s joint program at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. They attended classes and together accumulated 181 hours of flight instruction in three specially adapted LSA aircraft — two Sky Arrow 600 LSAs and a Flight Design CTLS.
Among them isScot Abrams, who served in the Marines before joining the New York Police Department. Eight years ago, he was on duty riding a police motorcycle when he was hit by a motorist, leaving him partially paralyzed. He now has his sport pilot certificate and plans to pursue his private ticket in New York. “When I first soloed I just got chills. It’s freedom. I can do it. And I’m going to do it — over and over,” Abram said in Purdue University’s announcement of the graduating pilots. Able Flight, in its eighth year of providing full flight training scholarships and other support for people with physical disabilities, is in its sixth year partnering with Purdue.
