BDFA member & world record breaking aviator Polly Vacher has just completed another voyage to help raise awareness of aviation for the disabled. This time it was a record breaking flight around the UK landing at all of the airfields in the Jeppesen VFR Manual, between 21 May and 31 July 2007. 221 Airfields visited, 158. Flying hours, 19,000. Nautical miles, 163 passengers, 96 disabled passengers.

Picture shows Polly at the end of her Wings around Britain flight


Polly's last trip was around the world from 6th May 2003 to 27th April 2004 and she flew into the record books:- 

- First woman to fly solo over the North Pole in a single engine aircraft
- First woman to fly solo in Antarctica in a single engine aircraft
- First person to fly solo around the world landing on all seven continents
- 60,000 nautical miles, 357 days 



BDFA Vice-Chairman Ben Bennett was recentyl interviewed by the BBC to talk about the BDFA and there is a great piece on their website - check it out for yourselves by clicking here.

On Thursday 9th August the BDFA is holding a flying day at Elstree for people with learning disabilities. This is the second year running and last year it worked out beautifully with over 50 people taking to the skies. This event, in conjunction with the Guideposts Trust, is one of the ways money raised by the BDFA is used. The event seriously pushes the boundaries of what can be done in aviation, and gives these people a real taste of the freedom that flying offers. We are offering - as last year – a 20 minute flight experience in the co- pilots’ seat, an opportunity to briefly take the controls, with a barbecue lunch afterwards. We have found that this kind of experience can be life changing as it dramatically builds confidence and self esteem with a lot of these people wondering ‘if I can fly a plane….what else could I achieve?’ Contact Simon Rapkin for details

The New Addition to Our Fleet

First Impressions of a Student

The first hint of a possible addition to our fleet came at this years AGM, but knowing just how much time this sort of think can take, I didn’t hold my breath. So it came as somewhat of a surprise a few weeks later, when at our Lasham ‘bash’ I enquired of our Chairman as to progress. In his characteristically laid back way Mike replied ‘O yes, it’s over there” and directed me to PA28 Warrior G-BZLH. As I trundled off to have a look, he shouted after me “did I mention it’s a diesel”?

The first thing I noticed was the third side window that indicates extra hold space. I didn’t get to try it out, but this has to be good news for those of us who carry a wheelchair. Otherwise, on the outside, it looks pretty standard, complete with our BDFA logo. The Visionair hand control had yet to be fitted, but I am assured that will have been remedied by the time you read this.

Summer was playing its usual trick of alternating rain and sun, so I had to wait until early evening for a flight; finally climbing aboard with instructor Alan Meredith for the last sortie of the day. Once in the cockpit I noted that the Tachometer is replaced by a power meter (calibrated 0 to 100%). ‘Just treat it as you would a rev counter’ was Alan’s advise, and with the blind acceptance that only a student can offer this certainly worked.

Now, presumably because diesel engines have no spark plugs, there’s no dual magneto system to check on start-up. The engine has an electronic management system, and start checks included pressing the appropriate button and ensuring the correct lights are illuminated. Otherwise it’s pretty much standard.

So with my instructor working as a proxy Visionair control we taxied away noting that Lima Hotel is a very quiet machine. I understand that established thinking is that diesel powered aircraft are underpowered, but I am in no position to intelligently join the debate. What I do know, is that despite spending most of the lesson practising climbing and descending, this student noticed no tangible difference between this machine and its conventional cousin. And the bonus, its vastly reduced fuel consumption, this has to be the way ahead, and I for one heartily approve.

Brian Catchpoole

PA28 Diesel Warrior G-BZLH -- Lasham
We are very pleased to announce that we have an additional aircraft to use this summer. Thanks to the support from BDFA member and former BDFA Chairman, Phil Reeve, we are able to trial the latest diesel engine technology, and provide two handcontrol equipped aircraft for the membership and disabled community.
Diesel Aero engines are potentially very attractive given their low ongoing operational costs, with fuel burn costs of less than £10 per hour. It is early days for this technology, and there are certain aircraft performance drawbacks however the economics cannot be ignored. In terms of meeting our goals of making sure aviation is not only physically accessible, but also financially accessible, diesel power cannot be ignored. By leasing an aircraft we are able to try diesel without commitment at this stage, and we can find out if it is for us.



G-BZLH is a tidy well equipped airframe and is available for flight training or solo hire from Lasham now at £40 per hour for premium members and £80 an hour for standard members. The handcontrol is ready to be fitted, we are just waiting for the paperwork to come back from the CAA/EASA which should be in the next week or two.



Those of you who do not require a handcontrol can get cracking straight away, and we will announce the handcontrol as soon as it is fitted. Checklists and the flight manual are available for download on the procedures page of the website.

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

The BDFA has just joined Justgiving.

Since their launch in 2001, 3,000+ member charities have collected over £150m through Justgiving. That’s over 3 million people and 300,000 fundraising pages to date.

Justgiving make it very easy to donate to charity online or to use their service for sponsorship of fundraising events. Donations made through Justgiving are processed in real time by their banking partners Barclays. Funds are paid into a legal trust account and transferred to the recipient charity at the end of every week.

So if you have a few spare quid, or maybe would like to have sponsored swim or a sponsored slim in aid of the BDFA, it is now easy. (Or at least the money management side of it is!)

Click here to make a donation to the BDFA today or here for fundraising.