This is a slideshow from the recent Freedom Wings day held 24th August 2010.BBC Radio Northampton came to cover the story and it is being played to the slideshow. It was broadcast on the the John Griff Show.

On TUESDAY 24^th August 2010, Freedom in the Air (FITA) will be hosting a ‘Introduction to Aviation’ day beginning at 09:30 from Cranfield Airport in Bedfordshire. The day is named, for obvious reasons, Freedom Wings and, with the support of Cranfield Airport, will be Freedom in the Air’s fourth at the Airport for the 2010 summer flying season. A movie from the our first flying day with Variety Club can be seen here -

A group of young people with disabilities will find the sky is the limit this week when they have a free flying lesson at a Bedfordshire airfield.

Disabled flying school Freedom in the Air is holding a Freedom Wings taster day at Cranfield Airport on Tuesday, and has invited 23 people aged between nine and 19 to learn how to pilot a plane.

The young people all have some form of disability and attend the Young Inclusive People (YIP) club at the Pemberton Centre in Rushden.

Freedom in the Air founder Gautam Lewis, who uses crutches after contracting polio as a child in India, organised the Freedom Wing day to show people disability is not a barrier to achievement.

He said: “I thought maybe I should do something positive about supporting disabled people, help them learn new skills and push them to a new level of confidence so that they can have opportunities.

“It’s trying to show what we can do regardless of disability.”

The young people will look around a light aircraft and airport hangars, learn how aeroplanes work and then take to the skies for 30 minutes with an instructor, who will let them take control if they feel confident enough.

Three previous Freedom Wings days at the airport were very successful, and Gautam plans to hold two more in September.

Wheelchair user Janette Marsland, who attended the last Freedom Wings day in July with the activity club PHAB, said: “You leave the wheelchair on the ground, no restrictions and you carry on – it’s confidence, it’s freedom, it’s fantastic. I did not want to land the plane and just fly off into the sunset.”

The YIP club is funded by Northamptonshire County Council and managed by Cultural Community Partnerships (CCP), a sports, leisure and cultural trust.

Mike Willoughby, chief flying instructor at FITA, said: “Both myself and our organisation are keen to support the promotion of aviation to disabled people.

“We are happy to do as much as we can to help disabled people become pilots. As an instructor, I am naturally keen to encourage anyone to learn to fly.”

Together we intend to show that anyone with a disability can reach for the skies, and achieve virtually anything, sometimes with only the very smallest amount of support. The pilots ‘one off’ flight could be as life changing for them as someone who flies every week and ends up with their Private Pilots Licence. To have piloted an aircraft even once is clearly a massive experience for a person with a disability and a huge achievement.

FITA is a not-for-profit organisation based in London, which is committed to opening horizons for people with disabilities so that they can fly higher socially, physically and professionally. For more information about go to www.freedomintheair.org.

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The winner of the raffle is ticket number:

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The runner up prize winner is ticket number:

(Unique Transaction ID #9GA86422A7399214K)

Both winners have been contacted by email and telephone to let them know they have won!!

Have a great time at the festival winners!!!!

]]> http://www.freedomintheair.org/freedom-festival-raffle-2010-winner-announcement/feed/ 0 http://www.freedomintheair.org/freedom-press-phab-club/ http://www.freedomintheair.org/freedom-press-phab-club/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:01:07 +0000 admin http://www.freedomintheair.org/?p=3000

Two more articles from Chester Ad-PHAB in newspaper,  Chester Standard and Chester Chronicle from their Freedom Wings day. Click on both articles to enlarge the text.

Our next guests will be a group of 25 youngsters from Cultural Community Partnerships.

CCP is a sports, leisure and cultural trust that manages the Pemberton Leisure and Conference Centre and the Splash Pool, both in Rushden and the Nene Centre in Thrapston.

CCP delivers sports, leisure, arts and heritage activities for all, throughout the communities of East Northamptonshire. Playschemes for children, a wide variety of fitness classes, help with healthy lifestyles, swimming clubs, squash, spinning classes, evenings of entertainment and music and arts events all come within the range of what they do.

if you would like to learn more about the work of our quests, please visit PHAB

10 youngsters with a mixture of disabilities from PHAB had the chance of a lifetime to experience the freedom of flight, in the hope that it may expand their horizons after they attended the “Freedom Wings” day.

Phab’s aim is to promote and encourage people of all abilities to come together on equal terms, to achieve complete inclusion within the wider community. Phab has been working with Authorities around the country to help them fulfil their duty to provide Short Breaks for Disabled Children and their families. Phab runs over 200 clubs around the country, offering all sorts of activities, according to what the members want – it could be flying aeroplanes, drama, art, circus skills, to swimming or just chilling out together.

“Having had the opportunity to fulfil one of my life long ambitions is absolutely amazing and at the same time unbelievable. From a very young age I have wanted to experience sitting in the cabin of an aircraft and help the pilot fly the plane and thanks to PHAB my dream has come true! The experience was far better than I had ever imagined it to be; I was able to take control of the aeroplane whilst both on the ground and when flying 2000 feet in the air above Bedfordshire.” Janette, PHAB Chester.

View some photos from the day:

Phab Freedom Wings

47 Photos

Our aim is to show that anyone with a disability can reach for the skies, and achieve virtually anything, sometimes with only the very smallest amount of support. The pilots ‘one off’ flight could be as life changing for them as someone who flies every week and ends up with their Private Pilots Licence. To have piloted an aircraft even once is clearly a massive experience for a person with a disability and a huge achievement.

“Thanks for organising the Freedom Wings event for PHAB last Saturday at Cranfield. I thoroughly enjoyed my turn at piloting. My wife was somewhat overwhelmed though! I enjoyed it so much that I am hoping to have some more lessons with Freedom in the Air and Cranfield Flying School, which will be fun, thanks” said Charles.

Freedom in the Air promotional code is ‘freedomintheair’ to get your 5% discount

Simply enter this code in upper or lower case when checking out of your purchase and you will receive the 5% discount on your order.

Thank you for your support!