It was a great surprise to see Laurent Martin waiting for us at the flying club last Friday. He’s now finished his engineering course at Cranfield and to celebrate he came flying with me and Anthony. In the video, we are flying the C172 using the Union Aviation hand controller.

During his year at the University, he’s been working on developing hand controls for disabled pilots. This is his individual project for his Aerospace Vehicle Design Masters Degree. He took the project over from last years students. The controller he’s designed is for use in the PA28 and the C172. The design has evolved from 2 earlier prototypes.

I am reading with great interest his thesis – I am learning so much. A very big thank you to the professors at Cranfield University, the team of instructors and of course the 3 students for sharing their knowledge and skills to help disabled aviators.

Some interesting points were raised from looking at existing devices and from research carried out. Here is a brief list of guidelines that were adopted and followed for the current design.

· Design with the maximum common parts between both Cessna and Piper aircraft

· Design an easy to fit device by getting rid of bolts

· Use only pins and clips to assemble the device

· Make the hand portable rudder control in two parts for transportation and fitting ease

· Avoid complex machining tasks to maintain low manufacturing cost

· Keep the number of parts as low as possible (for complexity and its consequences)

· Try to have the hand control in a fix position in the aircraft, not down on the knees of the pilot

· Design an ergonomic handle

· Keep the price as low as possible in production and selling

· Keep the weight as low as possible for comfort issues during transportation of the device

· Make the device impossible to fit in an incorrect way for logical safety reasons

· Be reliable and maintainable without any engineering competences and any specific tools

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

Antony and I met during Sept 2007 at Cranfield. We both got our PPL at around the same time and this was our second flight together. The first time we flew was in a Cessna 150, and this trip is in the PA28. We flew to Enstone, a quirky little airfield to the NW of Oxford. We were shown around the aerodrome by Paul Fowler ( AKA Skipper ) who runs Enstone Flying Club. He is a big supporter and fan of people with disabilities getting airborn. They have several PA28 Warriors, and he has agreed to install my set of the Vision Air hand controller to one of their aeroplanes.

We shall be testing the control on a simulator which has been built for this purpose with the Head of the Flight Operations Department at Cranfield University who used to be a former RAF test pilot. Our wish and passion is to help make flying easier for pilots with lower limb disabilities in the UK and Europe.

Once parked and back at Terry’s club house, I met with Symeon. He is an Aeronautical engineer with the Greek Airforce and has been at Cranfield University studying MSc Aeronautical Engineering. He is one of the student who has dedicated their final project to designing and making a hand control for pilots with lower limb disabilities. Trem is the other student who is working on a system for the PS28, whilst Symeon is working on a system for the C172. Both students are now in the manufacturing stage and both designed are scheduled for testing at the end of August. Here is a short slide show of the design for C172. In this show you can see us with the Union which i use for the C172. Symeon’s idea is an evolution from that design. Later in the week, we will upload a sneak view of what Trem has been developing.

It was a year ago that i started to research all things hand control related for pilots who have lower limb disability. It was also the same time that i started to form a friendship with Suzi Duncan who is a great inspiration for me and we have many things in common. Suzi worked on the development of the vision air hand control with Gippsland Aviation, down under in Melbourne.My research into hand controls took me round in circles. I found Professor Jon Fielding of Cranfield College of Aeronautical Design was involved with helping a disabled pilot many years ago develop a system for that persons particular disability. One thing led to another and after writing to him and making a personal visit to the University, i met with Dr. Howard Smith (Senior Lecturer / and Conceptual Designer) and Phil Stocking (Senior Lecturer / MSc AVD course Director) who sat with me for over an hour and very patiently listened to me and my passion for finding a solution for hand controls. Now i am sure that there are people out there who are working to find the same things as i was but i just had not come across them.My mother has been to Cranfield for various reasons and all i remember thinking was, here is a university on the doorstep of where i was learning to fly, whose remit was aeronautical design….So after my initial meeting with Howard and Phil, i was buzzing because they were excited about making my hand control problem into a project for their students. A few months had passed and i returned to Cranfield to present to a small group of students to brief them more about the project..2 students chose to pick designing rudder control for pilots with disabilities. Symeon who is with the Greek Airforce is working on the C172 and Trem, who has just been picked by cityjet to train as a pilot will be working on the PA28 – two of the most frequently used aeroplanes to train student pilots.So where are we now with the project. Well, today i was invited to attend a final group project presentation for the entire year – all 52 students. The final year group project was to design the MRT7 Harbinger Military Air-to-Air refuelling tanker with the Meridian civil transport variant. It was awesome to understand that 52 students worked together and spent 52,000 man hours to finish their project. Today members of the group presented their aeroplane to about 200 delegates from the aviation world.My humble knowledge of aviation was enhanced by attending today’s presentation. I learnt so much about so many things to do with aircraft design and build. I got to meet some really interesting people, including David Paisley from Boeing Commercial Airplanes. he works in their Advanced Concept Product Development. Having a coffee with him, i naturally started telling him about Trem and Symeon project to help disabled pilots and of Freedom in the Air. He gave me his card and asked me to get in touch with him and give him more updates. Maybe they can help.I was really blown away today by the sheer knowledge some people have. The people i met today will go onto to be tomorrow’s aeroplane designers. Everyone from the lecturers to the student clearly love what they do, likewise, i love flying aeroplanes, and i know more about what goes into actually designing and making them.Now the group project is finished, myself, Trem and Symeon can work more closely on making a set of hand controls. I met the man who is in charge of the massive 747 simulator Cranfield has and it is agreed that i should have a go at flying a jumbo – One thing that i can’t get out of my head is just how passionate Howard and Phil are about teaching and sharing their knowledge of Aeronautical engineering.