March 30, 2021 Flying Blind

The Liberty Gazette

March 30, 2021

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

The phrase, “flying blind” may make you think of the titles of various forms of entertainment — a couple of novels, at least two films, a short-lived 90s sitcom, and an album by Irish vocalist Niamh Kavanagh. None, however come close to the reason the phrase exists, which is to describe flying in conditions so visually obscured that one must rely on the aircraft’s instruments in the panel to know where to go and how to handle the airplane. This begs the question, could a blind person fly an airplane? 

Blindness in one eye does not necessarily prevent the acquisition of a pilot certificate. There are airline pilots who have been able to demonstrate to the FAA that they can fly with the visual input from one eye. However, there really are fully blind pilots. While they cannot be given a pilot certificate to fly on their own, they can and do show the world how to overcome barriers. 

For example, British blind adventurer Miles Hilton-Barber flew a microlite aircraft halfway around the world from London to Australia using audio computer software.

A group of air cadets, the Flying Aces, led by the Air Training Corps of Scotland, are encouraged to consider that if they can fly an airplane, they can do anything. These teens with various disabilities are given a boost of confidence which leads them to think more broadly about their future. 

For those who prefer the experience on the ground, Canadian company Pacific Feelings Media created “It’s Your Plane,” which was light years beyond Microsoft Flight Simulator. In Blind Pilot Mode, this virtual co-pilot took voiced instructions and applied them to simulator flying, from pre-flight to shut down. 

And then there’s Jim Platzer, former president of a Fortune 500 company, forced into early retirement due to retinitis pigmentosa. Jim was a pilot before he went blind. His ambition to get back in the left seat (with dual controls and a flight instructor next to him) inspired Jason DeCamillis to take to the skies. Jason wanted to learn to fly a plane ever since he was a child, but he too has retinitis pigmentosa. As a special education teacher and advocate for students with disabilities, when he heard about Jim flying around, he quickly realized how many more people he could encourage in a new way. 

Jason’s flight instructor, Dr. Alex Arts, teaches people to fly when he’s not performing ear surgery. Ironically, Alex was rejected by the Navy for a pilot position because he did not have 20/20 uncorrected vision. Years later, he was helping Jason learn to fly an airplane. 

He says, “I can see people asking, why would you spend all this money when the endpoint is limited? But the endpoint is limited no matter what you do. So, we’ve gone from flying airplanes to the most fundamental part of being a human being.”

Jason agrees. “It’s not about overcoming disability; it’s about living my life. I want to share what is possible when we work together across ability.”

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