Chapel Hill, N.C. — New Able Flight pilots, Chris Spaur of California and Heather Schultz of New Jersey, will get their wings in a ceremony at EAA AirVenture at 10:30 am on Wednesday, July 28 in AeroShell Square. During June and July, Chris and Heather “lived aviation full time” at the Purdue University Airport where they were taught by university instructors while living in university housing.
Heather sustained a C5 spinal cord injury in a diving accident in 2006. Since then, she has faced more than three years of intensive physical therapy and has defied the predictions of doctors who had told her she would never walk again. Heather’s training was made possible through her selection as the 2010 recipient of the “Jet Aviation Scholarship”.
Chris is a 20 year-old with muscular dystrophy. He’s one of triplets, and shares the condition with a sister. He comes from a family with a tradition of flying as both his mother and his uncle are pilots. Chris was selected by Able Flight as the recipient of Able Flight’s “Bombardier Scholarship” for 2010.
Special guests at the ceremony will include representatives of Purdue’s Department of Aviation Technology, Bombardier and Jet Aviation, and Able Flight pilots Jessica Cox and Sean O’Donnell. Jessica’s remarkable and inspiring story of learning to fly using only her feet is well known in the aviation community, and Sean was the second Able Flight pilot to earn a license, and is the founder of Philly Sport Pilot, a flight school that provides training to students with and without disabilities.
