This is part of the Brejcha Personal and Disability Resource Site. Welcome to:
Below are the four additional photographs (actually, there was a fifth, but that was just a close-up of the tail of the plane with the Freedom's Wings logo) which accompanied the article and will give you a better view of the neat sailplane that liberated me from the confines of my wheelchair like never before!
The first picture is a full-body shot of the plane, showing me in my wheelchair next to the plane (for size reference), and beside me you can see the two positions in the cockpit. The front seat is for the student-pilot, and the back seat for the instructor. Both are fully hand control-equipped.
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This next picture shows the interior of the cockpit, specifically the student-pilot's position.
The student and passenger, sits in the front one of the two identically equipped seats. Just as in the pilot's position, a jammed instrument-pod faces the seat-back. It holds a bubble-level, called a slip and skid indicator, a compass, an altimeter, an airspeed indicator, and twin variometers to measure the amount of lift under the wings. One of the latter is manual, and the other -- turned off while on the ground and during tow -- is electric. Below all this, a yellow knob dangles from a string. When pulled, it will disconnects the sailplane from the tow line of the small power plane that draws the sailplane up to anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 feet or more.
Behind the tow line release, right in front of the seat, is a joystick which controls the ailerons and the elevator, while next to it, a push-pull handle is connected to the rudder -- rear for right and front for left, and to the left of the rudder is another lever which does double duty. In the air, it raises a spoiler on the trailing edge of the wing which acts as an air-brake, and while on the ground, it controls the brake for the main body wheel.
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This unflattering shot shows me debating the best way to get my overly padded posterior down into the plane's seat. Not an easy task, and one accomplished with a cushion on the edge of the cockpit, a transfer onto that, a graceless drop down into the seat, and then I had to get the pilot to lift my legs over and stuff them down, one on each side of the instrument cluster. And after the flight, it took two strong men to pry me back out of there!
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And this final shot shows my expression just after my return from the experience of a lifetime -- dazed and delighted!!
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