Steve soars to new heights and proves an inspiration to us all - from Belfast Today
02/07/07 19:19
Interested in learning more about gliding in Ulster -
click to listen to the radio interview Podcast
By Geoff Hill.
Steve Derwin is an inspiration to us all.
One of the UK's only disabled gliding instructors, he was at Bellarena on the north coast yesterday to unveil a new high-performance training glider fitted with special hand controls so that it can be flown by anyone who's lost the use of their lower limbs.
Mind you, if you'd suggested to Steve back in 1989 that this was where he was going to end up, he would have laughed at you.
Back then, he was a mountaineering and canoeing instructor, as fit as a whole orchestra full of fiddles and a keen biker in his spare time; until one day that year, his life changed forever in an instant.
Gunning his powerful Yamaha FJ1200 down an unfamiliar road, he roared over the brow of a hill and found himself facing an unmarked roundabout.
He braked, but it was too late, and seconds later he lay in the road with a broken spine at exactly the same spot that a lorry had crashed the week before and a biker had died three weeks earlier.
The accident was to leave him in a wheelchair to this day.
"It was one of those moments where everything changes," said the 57-year-old Yorkshireman - "that's a Scotsman with the generosity wrung out of him" - at Bellarena, the glorious meadow by the sea which is the home of the Ulster Gliding Club.
"You spend months in hospital thinking that your life is over, but then you discover something else. I'd always loved mountaineering, and once when I was climbing in the Alps, I saw these guys paragliding off a mountain it took me hours to climb down.
"Well, the accident was my chance to try that, so I took up hang-gliding and had learnt to fly a microlight when someone suggested gliding. I thought it would be a bit sedate, until I discovered they were fully aerobatic.
"It changed my life. I got my licence, then my instructor's rating last year. Since then, teaching someone with, say, spinal injuries, to fly is so rewarding I can't describe it.
"Not only that, but I've got my bike licence back. I read last year about a paraplegic who'd adapted a Fireblade with safety wheels at the back which keep the bike upright when you stop. Mind you, I don't think my missus would approve," he said as Professor Eric Saunders, the chairman of Sport Northern Ireland, stepped over to officially hand over the £85,000 glider, which was bought with help from the Lottery and the Enkalon Foundation.
"I'm delighted with this. It's going to enable a whole range of people who've never had a chance to enjoy the experience of taking to the skies; although I say enjoy provisionally, since I'm about to go up for a flight myself," he said
before cutting a ribbon attached to the nose of the glider, setting free a large helium-filled teddy bear which then drifted up to the roof of the hangar, where it will probably remain for the expected 30-year lifespan of the glider.
Duly strapped in and taken for a spin with Steve, the Prof returned to earth an hour later with the smile of most people who've been up in a glider for the first time.
"Magical. Especially when you're in the hands of an expert," he said.
The last word, however, must go to 10-year-old Daniel Traylor from Coleraine, who's been in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy since he was two and who was Steve's next passenger.
"Brilliant," he said the moment they landed. "I want to be a pilot."
In that regard, he was much like any small boy. The only difference is that thanks to men like Steve Derwin, now he can.
The Ulster Gliding Club welcomes visits from disabled people interested in learning to glide - more information is at ulsterglidingclub.org.
Former BDFA Chairman Steve Derwin talks to Aubrey Bingham of Disability Sports NI in the cockpit of the Ulster Gliding Club's new hand controlled K21 reg G-CKOT.
After his flight, Aubrey said "an exciting new sporting experience has been opened up to disabled people"
Podcast
By Geoff Hill.
Steve Derwin is an inspiration to us all.
One of the UK's only disabled gliding instructors, he was at Bellarena on the north coast yesterday to unveil a new high-performance training glider fitted with special hand controls so that it can be flown by anyone who's lost the use of their lower limbs.
Mind you, if you'd suggested to Steve back in 1989 that this was where he was going to end up, he would have laughed at you.
Back then, he was a mountaineering and canoeing instructor, as fit as a whole orchestra full of fiddles and a keen biker in his spare time; until one day that year, his life changed forever in an instant.
Gunning his powerful Yamaha FJ1200 down an unfamiliar road, he roared over the brow of a hill and found himself facing an unmarked roundabout.
He braked, but it was too late, and seconds later he lay in the road with a broken spine at exactly the same spot that a lorry had crashed the week before and a biker had died three weeks earlier.
The accident was to leave him in a wheelchair to this day.
"It was one of those moments where everything changes," said the 57-year-old Yorkshireman - "that's a Scotsman with the generosity wrung out of him" - at Bellarena, the glorious meadow by the sea which is the home of the Ulster Gliding Club.
"You spend months in hospital thinking that your life is over, but then you discover something else. I'd always loved mountaineering, and once when I was climbing in the Alps, I saw these guys paragliding off a mountain it took me hours to climb down.
"Well, the accident was my chance to try that, so I took up hang-gliding and had learnt to fly a microlight when someone suggested gliding. I thought it would be a bit sedate, until I discovered they were fully aerobatic.
"It changed my life. I got my licence, then my instructor's rating last year. Since then, teaching someone with, say, spinal injuries, to fly is so rewarding I can't describe it.
"Not only that, but I've got my bike licence back. I read last year about a paraplegic who'd adapted a Fireblade with safety wheels at the back which keep the bike upright when you stop. Mind you, I don't think my missus would approve," he said as Professor Eric Saunders, the chairman of Sport Northern Ireland, stepped over to officially hand over the £85,000 glider, which was bought with help from the Lottery and the Enkalon Foundation.
"I'm delighted with this. It's going to enable a whole range of people who've never had a chance to enjoy the experience of taking to the skies; although I say enjoy provisionally, since I'm about to go up for a flight myself," he said
before cutting a ribbon attached to the nose of the glider, setting free a large helium-filled teddy bear which then drifted up to the roof of the hangar, where it will probably remain for the expected 30-year lifespan of the glider.
Duly strapped in and taken for a spin with Steve, the Prof returned to earth an hour later with the smile of most people who've been up in a glider for the first time.
"Magical. Especially when you're in the hands of an expert," he said.
The last word, however, must go to 10-year-old Daniel Traylor from Coleraine, who's been in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy since he was two and who was Steve's next passenger.
"Brilliant," he said the moment they landed. "I want to be a pilot."
In that regard, he was much like any small boy. The only difference is that thanks to men like Steve Derwin, now he can.
The Ulster Gliding Club welcomes visits from disabled people interested in learning to glide - more information is at ulsterglidingclub.org.
Former BDFA Chairman Steve Derwin talks to Aubrey Bingham of Disability Sports NI in the cockpit of the Ulster Gliding Club's new hand controlled K21 reg G-CKOT.
After his flight, Aubrey said "an exciting new sporting experience has been opened up to disabled people"
Podcast