I would like to introduce my son Jake. In 2000 he was in a diving accident resulting in a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Jake pushes a manual wheelchair; however, he is considered a quadriplegic because he has limited hand function. He was 17 years old, had soloed, and was on his way to getting his private pilot's license just before his accident.
After a six month stay at the Shepherd Spinal Center Jake returned home and we started formulating a plan to get him back into the air. We picked out an ultralight kit we thought would be a good fit. After a one year build and some initial flying we encountered a problem installing hand controls. Because it was a tail dragger we were never able to overcome the rudder force on the controls while the aircraft was on the ground. It became obvious that Jake was not going to be able to solo the aircraft we had chosen. We chalked it up to a learning experience and sold the ultralight.
A short time later Jake was awarded an Ableflight scholarship to get his sport pilot's license. If you have not heard of Ableflight they are an outstanding organization whose mission is to help people with disabilities learn to fly. I truly cannot express how Ableflight was able to give Jacob back that feeling of accomplishment and pride in being able to fly by himself.
Ableflight uses the Sky Arrow 600 Sport as their training aircraft because it comes with factory installed hand controls. It is a great trainer; however, we took our time to find an aircraft that was a better fit.
About this time Van's introduced the RV-12. Jake wanted an aircraft that his wheelchair would fit in and still carry bags and another passenger.
Jake also wanted an aircraft he could get into on his own. It took him about two months to figure out how he could climb into the RV-12 by himself. Now he is able to transfer from his wheelchair into the cockpit in no time at all.
Jake biggest goal was to be able to fly by himself. Now it was my turn to figure out how to fabricate hand controls for the RV-12. I started with the brakes which turned out to be easier than I had thought. The brakes are in series so I came off the left pedals and ran brake lines to two additional cylinders mounted on the left floorboard. From there I ran lines from the back of the cylinders to the brakes. The big challenge turned out to be the position and design of the handles. Jake sits with his legs crossed in the aircraft and his knee was up against the break handles. After four sets of handle designs I finally got it right.
After the brakes were finished I focused my attention on the rudders. The challenge was to be able to leave the rudders as is for me and provide hand controls for Jake. I knew Jake would easily fly with hand controls but this "old dog" didn't want to learn the new trick of using my hands instead of my feet. I came off the connection where the cables attach to the rudder pedals with 2 rods that attached to a bell crank.
Then I attached a handle to the bottom of the floor board and reinforced it with a plate on the bottom side of the aircraft. I attached the handle using a push pull rod that attached to the bell crank from the opposite side.
The design provides full throw of the rudders and just enough friction to help provide a little rudder trim while in level flight.
It took me three days of multiple touch-and-goes before I would learn to use the hand controls without my feet firmly on the rudder pedals. Jake mastered the hand controls in a couple of hours. All of the practice in the SkyArrow and 16 years of driving a car with hand controls helped make his transition easy. This is Jake taxiing out for his first solo with the new hand controls. He has since logged over 35 hours of flight time.
Jake's next goal is to go on what he calls "Walkabout". He is planning on trips around the country by himself. If you see him at your local airport please say hello.
I really want to thank Van for this wonderful aircraft. Its' combination of light touch and stability have made it the perfect platform to meet our needs. Easy to build, maintain and fly while providing fun beyond belief. I would also like to thank Charlie Stites the founder of Ableflight for making Jakes dreams a reality. If you know of anyone with a disability who has an interest in flying please tell them about Ableflight. There is a lot of information at ableflight.org.
DISCLAIMER: This is what I did with an idea, some graph paper, and a band saw. I understand there are many different ways to develop these hand controls. After a lot of discussions and design modifications this was the best we felt we could come up with. I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve my design. Please feel free to share any suggestions.
The double RV grin.
After a six month stay at the Shepherd Spinal Center Jake returned home and we started formulating a plan to get him back into the air. We picked out an ultralight kit we thought would be a good fit. After a one year build and some initial flying we encountered a problem installing hand controls. Because it was a tail dragger we were never able to overcome the rudder force on the controls while the aircraft was on the ground. It became obvious that Jake was not going to be able to solo the aircraft we had chosen. We chalked it up to a learning experience and sold the ultralight.
A short time later Jake was awarded an Ableflight scholarship to get his sport pilot's license. If you have not heard of Ableflight they are an outstanding organization whose mission is to help people with disabilities learn to fly. I truly cannot express how Ableflight was able to give Jacob back that feeling of accomplishment and pride in being able to fly by himself.
Ableflight uses the Sky Arrow 600 Sport as their training aircraft because it comes with factory installed hand controls. It is a great trainer; however, we took our time to find an aircraft that was a better fit.
About this time Van's introduced the RV-12. Jake wanted an aircraft that his wheelchair would fit in and still carry bags and another passenger.
Jake also wanted an aircraft he could get into on his own. It took him about two months to figure out how he could climb into the RV-12 by himself. Now he is able to transfer from his wheelchair into the cockpit in no time at all.
Jake biggest goal was to be able to fly by himself. Now it was my turn to figure out how to fabricate hand controls for the RV-12. I started with the brakes which turned out to be easier than I had thought. The brakes are in series so I came off the left pedals and ran brake lines to two additional cylinders mounted on the left floorboard. From there I ran lines from the back of the cylinders to the brakes. The big challenge turned out to be the position and design of the handles. Jake sits with his legs crossed in the aircraft and his knee was up against the break handles. After four sets of handle designs I finally got it right.
After the brakes were finished I focused my attention on the rudders. The challenge was to be able to leave the rudders as is for me and provide hand controls for Jake. I knew Jake would easily fly with hand controls but this "old dog" didn't want to learn the new trick of using my hands instead of my feet. I came off the connection where the cables attach to the rudder pedals with 2 rods that attached to a bell crank.
Then I attached a handle to the bottom of the floor board and reinforced it with a plate on the bottom side of the aircraft. I attached the handle using a push pull rod that attached to the bell crank from the opposite side.
The design provides full throw of the rudders and just enough friction to help provide a little rudder trim while in level flight.
It took me three days of multiple touch-and-goes before I would learn to use the hand controls without my feet firmly on the rudder pedals. Jake mastered the hand controls in a couple of hours. All of the practice in the SkyArrow and 16 years of driving a car with hand controls helped make his transition easy. This is Jake taxiing out for his first solo with the new hand controls. He has since logged over 35 hours of flight time.
Jake's next goal is to go on what he calls "Walkabout". He is planning on trips around the country by himself. If you see him at your local airport please say hello.
I really want to thank Van for this wonderful aircraft. Its' combination of light touch and stability have made it the perfect platform to meet our needs. Easy to build, maintain and fly while providing fun beyond belief. I would also like to thank Charlie Stites the founder of Ableflight for making Jakes dreams a reality. If you know of anyone with a disability who has an interest in flying please tell them about Ableflight. There is a lot of information at ableflight.org.
DISCLAIMER: This is what I did with an idea, some graph paper, and a band saw. I understand there are many different ways to develop these hand controls. After a lot of discussions and design modifications this was the best we felt we could come up with. I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve my design. Please feel free to share any suggestions.
The double RV grin.
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