A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

This is an amazing story. Jessica Cox was born without arms, but that doesn’t stop her from living her day to day life – as well as have some fun. She recently earned her sport pilot certificate flying a 1946 Ercoupe that apparently was designed well enough that you can fly it with your feet! Very, very cool.

“I like it when it’s less windy, but this plane can handle 20 knots,” she says. “The manufacturers of this plane wanted to make it simple, use the concept of driving and apply it to a plane. But it’s still the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”
She already has spent about 25 hours doing solo flights without instructor Parrish Traweek. Her goal is to reach 150 hours and become a sport pilot instructor.
In the cockpit and ready to take off, Cox puts her left foot on the throttle and her right foot on the yoke, then checks her headphones and the radio. The propeller now makes a loud “thrum.” She fixes her eyes forward, and the tiny plane motors up into the blue, cloud-dotted sky.

Best of luck to Jessica in her future flying endeavors. I’m sure she’ll make an excellent instructor.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Aviation News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.