• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Contact

Golf Hotel Whiskey

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts

Hand control system helps disabled pilots learn to fly

General Aviation News has a wonderful story about how Flight Design, a German LSA maker, is helping disabled pilots learn to fly. Specifically, Flight Design and its Colorado dealer Peak Aviation supplied a CTLS equipped with a Flight Design hand control system to Able Flight, an organization dedicated to helping disabled people learn how to fly, and Purdue University’s Department of Aviation Technology’s special program to teach disabled students how to fly and earn a sport pilot certificate.

Modifying the aircraft in order for it to be used by someone who is disabled was not that difficult as the article pointed out:

The CTLS brake is normally positioned in the center console where its operation requires the same hand as used on the special rudder control. Peak Aviation’s mechanic installed the hand controls in the CTLS. The task involved installing a hand-control rudder lever and a shortened throttle lever as well as moving a new hand brake control to the joystick.

It was also noted that the hand control system, which is basically a set of parts along with instructions for retrofitting an aircraft, have finished testing and are already in production. The complete hand control system retails for around $4,000.

To learn more about the Able Flight / Purdue program, check out Able Flight’s website where you will also have the opportunity to donate to a very worth aviation cause.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. George Papadakis says

    March 13, 2017 at 19:45

    Dear Sir / Madam

    I am looking forward to found the EASA approved STC for installation Of A Portable Hand Control Bar For Operation Of The Rudder and Brakes On The Cessna 172S.Please provide me some informations as EASA STC number.

    Best Regards
    George Papadakis

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Matthew Stibbe
Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He has an FAA CPL/IR and an EASA PPL/IR and sometimes flies a Cirrus SR-22. He also writes about wine at Vincarta and being a better manager at Geek Boss.
Bureaucracy must die eBook
Subscribe via RSS

Recent Posts

  • IATA Airport Abbreviations
  • Upcoming Concorde and Apollo documentaries
  • Lie Back And Think Of England: London To Austin On BA’s New 787 Dreamliner
  • Video: Parachuting from the edge of space
  • Hilarious preflight safety video for GA aircraft
  • San Francisco Airport at night – beautiful time lapse video
  • A practical jetpack (finally) takes off
  • A man in a hot air balloon realises he is lost
  • Pegasus House: The former HQ of the Bristol Aeroplane Company is restored
  • Vintage British aviation posters from the 1920-1930s

Copyright © 2023 Golf Hotel Whiskey. All rights reserved.