Wednesday 22 May
The visit by Sportability on a chilly and breezy May afternoon reminded me of why I love sharing my passion for our sport so much. Their singular aim is "to provide sport and challenging pursuits for people with paralysis". In reality they provide much more than that. Check out their website at http://www.sportability.org.uk/ for further details about what they do.
Dan Marshall, Sprotability's West Midlands Area Organiser, with John, Linda, Geoff, Lizzie, Ann and Ann, all require some level of mechanical assistance to move about. Of course here at Shenington we're used to seeing people hopping in and out of gliders who use sticks, walkers and wheelchairs to get to and from the cockpit and it doesn't surprise us that they make excellent pilots. That's why we've specially adapted our gliders for pilots who do not have full use of their legs. What I most enjoyed was the determination of each of our visitors to have a go at the controls. For the afternoon I was not flying passengers but flying with co-pilots, and that always makes my day. They were also all rather good at it, and for parts of the flight I could sit back with my arms folded and enjoy the scenery.
John Smith ready for the task at hand
Linda Bryant is determined to fly herself and does so with style
Geoff Allen has been in a cockpit before and uses the hand rudder during our flight
Lizzie Cross and I find a thermal and we both giggle like girls
Ann Smith has the longest flight of the day as conditions improve
Ann Norman, a rope maker expresses dismay about the knots in our ropes ... must do better
Rachel Cross, Lizzie's daughter had a go at the end of the day after helping out all day with logging of flights and retrieving gliders. I think she did open her eyes during the flight.
Gavin smiles throughout!
Gavin smiles throughout!