It has been a long time coming and i hope to do it tomorrow. It is not easy for people who have a disability to learn to be a pilot. It is not a easy discipline full stop, but with all the problems which i have encountered i am persistent enough to overcome them. What else can you do but give up – well i am not one of those types of people and Freedom in air represents positive attitudes towards aviation in general.

Before a person who has a disability can fly solo, they have to have a medical flight test which can only be carried out by a small group of Flight Instructor examiners (FIE) here in the UK. The same situation may be in other ICAO member states when it come to pilot training. Part of me thinks this is unfair – firstly it costs money to do this test (it cost me £300 = examiner + Aeroplane) and secondly why should a disabled person need verification by a FIE to tell the authorities that they can safely operate the aeroplane on the ground and in the air using the hand controls? the head of training at my flying school has over 25000 hrs of flying and if he and his experiences team feel that i am ready then why is their approval not good enough? I shall investigate this further – I believe in fairness and equality for all.

I collected my class 2 medical from the CAA at Aviation House, Gatwick, “Safety is no Accident” and the restriction has been removed and thus i can finish my PPL training. Tomorrow i have booked 3 hrs circuit consolidation and by Friday i hope to start the cross country solo training.

The Aeromedical team at Gatwick are brilliant and in particular the head of the department is very supportive of disabled people having the freedom of flying. They deserve a medal for the work they have done to help disabled aviators.

I have charged the battery in my camera so expect a photo with my large grin – FINGERS crossed that the weather will hold.