I have learnt so much this week that my head hurts. I have had a master of a tutor.
I took my ground exam and passed with 92%. I have flown through heavy rain, strong winds, heavy cross winds and feel so much better for the learnership. I know the training has helped to make me a much safer and better pilot. Here are some video i found on utube that help to explain some of the things i have had to master. Then put them all together to fly a standard instrument departure (SID), an enroute section in IMC conditions, through controlled airspace, do all the radio work, then descent from altitude, then go into a hold procedure, and then fly a Instrument arrival procedure (IAF) and land off it to minimums..wow….
IMC flying
Shri Kanti Ganguly, Minister in Charge Department of Sundarban Affairs, Sports and Youth Services Government of West Bengal has set up Prantibhandi Village. It is a small village of education facilities, nursing training, a garment factory – all to support and help young people and their families who have a wide range of disabilities. I was very proud to have been invited to speak at a rally to 15,000 people on 3rd December, the UN day to promote rights for people with disabilities. The event was organised by Shri Kanti Ganguly. It was one of the very few NGO’s in Kolkata that is run mostly by people who have disabilities.
A 30 mins current affairs discussion show with Moupia interviewing Gautam Lewis in West Bengal called Spotlight. The show is broadcast on 24 Ghanta – a 24 hour news channel. The areas of discussion include Full Circle exhibition to raise awareness for polio eradication and flying.
The team at Cranfield University have prototyped their designs of hand controllers for the PA28 and the C172 for pilots with lower limb disabilities. I took one of the designers flying in the C172 so that he could experience, how the Union Aviation hand controller works. Along with the Union, the Vision air and the Blackwood are approved for the PA28 in the UK. This video shows installation, taxi, and a few touch and go’s with a crosswind from the right before going for a local flight around Bedfordshire.
click below image for a larger view of the Union controller. To see how the Vision air controller works for the PA28, follow this link….Vision Air hand control – PA28
PASSPORT FROM POLIO has been scheduled to TX on Al Jazeera English on February 3rd 2009
With the global repeat pattern, actual times in GMT are:
TUE 03 Feb 10:00, 19:00; WED 04 Feb 06:00, 14:00; THU 05 Feb 03:00
23 years ago British Music manager, photographer, pilot and polio survivor Gautam Lewis was adopted by a young dual national ( British / Irish ) volunteer worker from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Kolkata and brought back to an affluent life in London.
‘Passport From Polio’ tells his extraordinary story and follows his emotional journey back to Kolkata to take part in India’s epic polio immunisation campaign and find out what his life would’ve been like had he stayed.
“Part of me thinks it’s brilliant that I had polio because the rest of my life wouldn’t have happened.”
Still dependent on crutches from his own battle with polio, Gautam Lewis is now an ambassador on behalf of Rotary International for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The battle to wipe polio from the face of the earth is the largest public health initiative the world has ever seen. If it fails, more than 10 million children will be paralyzed in the next 40 years.
Polio is a devastating disease that still exists in some parts of the world, despite an unprecedented global health campaign to get rid of it.
Children are particularly at risk and Indian-born Gautam Lewis was just one among many millions to contract the virus. Raised by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Kolkata, his life might have remained one of grinding poverty – had he not been adopted at the age of seven and taken to live in privilege and comfort in Britain.
Twenty three years on, Gautam leaves his London home and returns to the country of his birth.
( if the more button below is not working, please click on the post title left of the video )
The Award was presented to Rotary International’s Polio Ambassador Gautam Lewis at Asian Who’s Who International’s 21st annual book launch and awards ceremony which took place at a glittering gala dinner in London’s Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, on Friday, 24th October, 2008, attended by more than 300 guests, including Asian business tycoons, politicians, peers and celebrities.
Gautam Lewis said: ‘I started of life abandoned on the mean streets of Kolkata because of polio and as an adult have gone back to help eradicate polio. To receive this Award is a great honour and I would like to acknowledge everyone at Rotary for the work that is being done to end polio. I am accepting this award on behalf of all of the Rotarians and people involved in this global goal to eradicate polio.’
