The controls allow disabled people with lower limb disabilities to control the plane with just their hands. Article from from November 2011 issue of LOOP available online! http://bit.ly/voQQhJ:

You can watch videos from the epic 5 day tour on the following page or just day 1 and 4 from the videos below: http://www.freedomintheair.org/category/film/

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Route: Lands End – Plymouth – Exeter – BIA NDB – CPT DME – Cranfield.

day 1 Cranfield to Edinburgh | day 2 – sector 1 Edinburgh to Islay
day 2 – sector 2 Islay to Blackpool | Day 3 – Blackpool to Lands End

FITA is committed to opening horizons for people with disabilities so that they can fly higher socially, physically and professionally.

Freedom in the Air and Cranfield Flying School , in association with Variety Club the children’s charity first flying scholarship for a young person with a disability. The scholarship will allow a young person to achieve a National private pilots licence (NPPL) over the summer holidays during 2011 from Cranfield Airport, EGTC.

]]> http://www.freedomintheair.org/disabled-pilot-flying-scholarship-2011-fita-press/feed/ 0 http://www.freedomintheair.org/freedom-flight-uk-tour-11-day-2-of-4-sector-1/ http://www.freedomintheair.org/freedom-flight-uk-tour-11-day-2-of-4-sector-1/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:56:06 +0000 admin http://www.freedomintheair.org/?p=4170 Londoner Gautam Lewis challenged himself to complete a 2,000 mile flight around Britain to raise awareness about Feeedom in the Air that teaches people with disabilities to fly.

Freedom tour of Britian is to raise awareness about the new “Freedom control” that will enable those with lower linb disabilites to fly aeroplanes without the need for their feet. The hand controls have been developed in partnership with Cranfield University.

This video is from day two of four, Sector one – Edinburgh to Islay in Scotland. To watch the film from day one, please follow this link:

FITA is committed to opening horizons for people with disabilities so that they can fly higher socially, physically and professionally.  Flying aeroplanes makes you feel alive and gives you a sense of freedom, of being liberated from disability with nothing to hold you back.

The World report on disability, mandated by the World Health Assembly and jointly published by WHO and the World Bank, summarizes the best available scientific evidence on disability and makes recommendations for action in support of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). About 80% of people with disabilities worldwide live in low-income countries. People with disabilities are often among the most socially and economically disadvantaged and their rights are denied in many countries. Despite the enormity of the problem, scientific information on disability is lacking. There is no agreement on definitions and little internationally comparable information on the incidence, distribution and trends of disability.

The World report on disability addresses the need for better research and data on disability. It will include the first update of WHO’s disability prevalence estimates for more than thirty years. The World report on disability also explores current evidence about disability, including on discrimination and barriers, identifies needs and provides an analysis of what works to improve the lives of people with disabilities in the areas of health, rehabilitation, support services, information, infrastructure, transportation, education and employment.

The WHO Director-General and a Vice President of the World Bank launched the World report on disability on 9 June 2011 at the United Nations headquarters, New York, in the presence of high-level representatives from Member States, celebrities with disabilities, together with representatives of disabled people’s organizations, professional groups and non-governmental organizations. This will be followed by a half day technical session on how to implement the recommendations of the World report on disability.

To promote the World report on disability and its messages, four short films are being launched between December 2010 and June 2011 on the theme “What’s disability to me?”, featuring women with disabilities from the United Republic of Tanzania, Lebanon, United Kingdom and the Plurinational State of Bolivia talking about their lives and the barriers they have overcome.  The films will be available on the WHO YouTube channel, and via links on the WHO Facebook page and the WHO main website. Leading up to the launch, the goal is to build an online community to mobilize international interest and support for efforts to remove barriers to the participation of people with disabilities in their societies.
“Disability is part of the human condition,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan at a ceremony in UN headquarters to launch the report. “Almost every one of us will be permanently or temporarily disabled at some point in life.”

“We must do more to break the barriers which segregate people with disabilities, in many cases forcing them to the margins of society,” Dr. Chan said.

Etienne Krug, a WHO disability specialist, suggested that the barriers themselves are a cause of disability.

“Disability results a lot from the barriers that society erects for people with disabilities,” he said, “barriers such as stigma and discrimination; such as lack of access to health services and rehabilitation services or problems of access to transportation and buildings and information services.”

Speaking to UN Radio, Dr. Krug called for the “mainstreaming of all services. That means to make everything accessible. Children with disabilities shouldn’t go to school to a segregated school, but rather be integrated in a normal school as much as possible.

“Employment should be accessible to people with disability so that they don’t have to live in poverty or from charity. Health services should be designed so that they also respond to the needs of people with disabilities. So basically all services should be accessible to people with disabilities.”

The famed British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), told the launch via video: “We have a moral duty to remove the barriers to participation for people with disabilities, and to invest sufficient funding and expertise to unlock their vast potential. It is my hope this century will mark a turning point for inclusion of people with disabilities in the lives of their societies.”

The barriers mentioned in the report include: stigma and discrimination; a lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services; and inaccessible transport, buildings and information and communication technologies.

“As a result, people with disabilities experience poorer health, lower educational achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities,” WHO said.

The report recommended that governments and their development partners provide people with disabilities access to all mainstream services, invest in specific programmes and services for those people with disabilities who are in need, and adopt a national disability strategy and plan of action.

In addition, governments “should work to increase public awareness and understanding of disability, and support further research and training in the area. Importantly, people with disabilities should be consulted and involved in the design and implementation of these efforts.”

Nearly 150 countries and regional organizations have signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and 100 have ratified it, committing them to removing barriers so that people with disabilities may participate fully in their societies, WHO said.

He calls it “a bad day in the office”. Definitely was a bad day, since he broke two vertebrae and a femur. The femur’s fracture was annoying, but the vertebrae definitely changed his mood. At least for a while. Paolo suffered a spinal cord injury that made him paraplegic. He came to Cranfield recently to fly with FITA and renew his JAR PPL FCL. Just before he drove back to Italy we had a quick chat to him about disabled aviation focusing on the issue of hand controls.

He is setting up Ali Pertutti (Wings for all) in Italy so hopfully many Italians with disabilities can follow and emulate what Paolo has achieved. We are very proud to know Paolo and look forward to crossing the airways with him.

The Douglas Bader Foundation is a charity organisation, formed in honour of Sir Douglas Bader in 1982 by family and friends, many of whom had flown side by side with Douglas during World War 2. Douglas was honoured in 1976 with a Knighthood for his contribution and work on behalf of the disabled. The mission of the foundation is to continue Douglas’ work in conjunction with and on behalf of individuals with a disability.

FITA spoke to David Bickers, the Chairman of the organisation about Douglas and the work of the foundation.

A very interesting interview with Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger