TOUR PILOTS ARRIVED MONDAY MORNING IN AEROSHELL SQUARE!!

After a week of flying from Atlanta to Knoxville, Dayton, Indianapolis, Champaign, Illinois and Waukesha, Wisconsin, pilots Brad Jones and Sean O’Donnell landed Monday morning July 28th, 2008 in Oshkosh, their final stop. They taxiied into AeroShell Square a few minutes ahead of their scheduled 9:30AM arrival on the opening day of EAA AirVenture. The two Able Flight scholarship winners use wheelchairs as the result of spinal cord injuries, and completed a 1000-mile, seven-city tour flying specially-adapted Sky Arrow 600 Light Sport Aircraft.

After a week of flying from Atlanta to Knoxville, Dayton, Indianapolis, Champaign, Illinois and Waukesha, Wisconsin, pilots Brad Jones and Sean O’Donnell landed Monday morning July 28th in Oshkosh, their final stop.They taxiied into AeroShell Square a few minutes ahead of their scheduled 9:30 AM arrival on the opening day of EAA AirVenture. The two Able Flight scholarship winners use wheelchairs as the result of spinal cord injuries, and completed a 1000-mile, seven-city tour flying specially-adapted Sky Arrow 600 Light Sport Aircraft.

Departing Monday July 21st from Able Flight sponsor location Hansen Air Group at Atlanta-area Cobb County-McCollum Field (RYY), the planes and an advance plane flown by Matt Hansen with Able Flight’s Charles Stites onboard, headed for the tour’s first stop at the Downtown Island Airport (DKX)in Knoxville, TN. Due to a suspected radio problem, Jones elected to temporarily remain at Cobb County while O’Donnell went on to Knoxville where he met with members of a group of group of touring aviation educators, a representative of a local rehabilitationcenter, and was interviewed for an excellent feature that appeared that evening on WBIR, a Knoxville television station.

The advance plane and O’Donnell’s Sky Arrow (with Stites as O’Donnell’s passenger) left Knoxville mid-day for an overnight stay in Georgetown, KY with a stop at the Georgetown Municipal Airport (27K). Departing Tuesday morning the 22nd for Dayton with beautiful clear skies after heavy rain ahead had dissipated, O’Donnell was delighted to hear a radio call from Brad Jones who had departed Cobb County at 6AM in order to join up at the Dayton stop. Flying over 4 hours with a quick turn fuel stop along the way, and with passenger Mike Hansen in the back seat, Jones arrived at host FBO Commander Aero at Dayton Wright Brothers Airport (MGY) shortly after O’Donnell. The tour pilots met with Dayton area pilots, other guests and members of the news media. Once again the tour stop resulted in a very positive television news story produced by well-known local anchor and pilot Carl Day.

After an overnight stay in Dayton, the tour aircraft departed Wednesday 23rd for Greenwood Municipal Airport (HFY) in Indianapolis where they were hosted by FBO Manager Rusty Nichols and were greeted by Indianapolis Aero Club President Bill Jamison. For the third straight stop, the tour pilots were interviewed by a crew from a local television station for a well-presented story that appeared on the evening news.

With clear blue skies and light winds the pilots departed Indianapolis Thursday morning the 24th for the University of Illinois Airport (CMI) in Champaign, Illinois. There they were greeted by Mike Frogley and Patricia Cisneros, the coaches of the University’s men’s and women’s championship wheelchair basketball teams, along with representatives of the school’s renowned program for students with disabilities. As at every stop, Jones and O’Donnell demonstrated the unique features of the Sky Arrow’s hand controls and how they enter and exit the aircraft.

Though Champaign had originally been planned as an overnight stop, approaching weather forced the decision to depart for Waukesha, Wisconsin. After a careful diversion to avoid a presidential TFR that “popped up” with short notice, the planes made an unplanned quick stop for lunch in DeKalb, Illinois, where, thanks to the friendly folks at J.A. Air Center, the pilots were treated to the use of a retired county police vehicle as their courtesy car.