ATI really flying blind

[Nancy Lynn]

written June 2010
Really Flying Blind
By


Alan Paganelli

Yes, I really did learn to fly. I can also prove every dime I spent 
on flying lessons. I kept every receipt for each hour I paid for and 
every entry in my log book is signed by John Dunn and his CFI 
certification license number making it perfectly legal. I had close 
to 40 hours or about enough for a private pilot's license. We even 
discussed going to court but decided that it would be a waste of good 
money. I'd be crazy to fly with any body other than a pilot. So 
technically, I'm flying under his license so in the end we would be 
going to court to argue over a piece of paper. Somebody else wanted 
me to give the information to the Guinness world book of records as 
the first totally blind man to learn to fly but I don't care about 
that. I did it because it was what I wanted to do and not for 
anything else and was willing to put my money where my mouth is. 
Anyway, here's my story.

Back in the mid 70's I was playing at a local restaurant. They 
swapped out musicians from time to time and we all came to know each 
other pretty well. At one time or another, we all played at all of 
the local establishments. One night I had a night off and went to 
listen to a new musician at one of the places I regularly worked at. 
They had a woman playing and she was pretty good. When she took a 
break we sat and visited talking about the job. She asked me what 
kind of music the people liked here and I told her. During our 
conversation she mentioned that she was tired that night because she 
had just flown into the local airport shortly before she came to 
work. I knew that the airport only had small aircraft housed there 
and asked her about it. She said that she was a pilot. I began asking 
her questions about flying. She said that her husband knew more about 
the subject than she did and then invited me to their home to meet 
him and talk about it. I took her up on her offer and her husband was 
a really great fellow. Come to think of it, some 28 years later give 
or take he still is but I digress here.

As we discussed flying he put it to me, if I can talk one of the 
certified flying instructors into it would you be willing to put your 
money down on the table to find out what it was all about? We 
discussed how much it cost back then. It was 20 bucks an hour for a 
small two place airplane and another 10 an hour for the services of 
the C-F-I. I said that I thought any flying instructor he might talk 
to would surely think he was a mad man and that they might pull his 
ticket too! Much to my surprise the next afternoon he called me up 
and told me to be down at the airport in the morning at 10 A.M. My 
flying lesson was then but if I wanted to get a few pointers ahead of 
time be there two hours earlier and meet him in the flight center and 
he would show me around in his plane.

I told my dad all about it and he too thought we all were out of our 
trees but he would drive me over. Dad flew in in the Second World War 
and knew about flying.

We met my friend the next day and he explained all the flight 
controls and their functions to me. Not only do you have to worry 
about left and right, you have to worry about up and down too. An 
aircraft doesn't only operate in two axes, it moves in 3 because an 
aircraft can also roll. So there is pitch and roll in addition to 
left and right. Many concepts were explained to me by using my hand 
representing an airplane or a toy aircraft. He explained the 
instruments and what they were used fore and it was as clear as mud 
at midnight on a dark night! He said "don't worry about it now. It'll 
all come to you as you learn." I began to think he may be in error. 
We had the left hand side cabin door open for fresh air and a man 
came up to me and said you must be Alan Paganelli. My name is John 
and I'm going to be your flying instructor. I remember thinking to 
myself; funny, he doesn't sound like a mad man.

John took my brand new empty log book and said I'll make your entries 
for you and sign off on them with my certified flying instructor's 
number. That makes it all legal and all. That means I will be making 
a record of it myself for my records. I thought yeah for the hearing 
to see which of us is nuttier! Is there such a word? I took his arm 
and called over my shoulder that I would see my dad and friend when 
we got back; hopefully.

John lead me over to a Cessna 1 50 with the identification number of 
November 6 6 2 1 4. I thought I would be riding in the right hand 
seat and this would more or less be an introductory lesson. This is 
this, that's that, we do this to go up and that to go down etc etc 
etc. No such luck. John led me over to the left hand side of the 
aircraft and to the pilot's door and helped me strap in. The aircraft 
had a shoulder and lap strap much like what one would find in an 
automobile except that the shoulder strap and lap strap are not 
joined together at the buckle but are independent of each other but 
are pretty much the same kind of set up. I sat there as he ran around 
to the right side of the plane and climbed in fastening his own seat 
belt and shoulder harness. I thought he better make it real good and 
tight. After he was settled he produced a clip-board and pen and 
began filling out the paper work as to aircraft identification 
number, date, time, persons onboard and the like. Wow, we aren't 
fooling around here. This must be in case we die or crash and burn or 
something. I later found out it was for the billing of his and the 
aircraft's time but you couldn't have convinced me of it at the time.

"Okay Alan, I'm ready. What we're going to do is to get out the 
pre-flight and before starting engines check list and I'm going to 
read each item to you. I did it for you this time but from now on 
you'll be required to do it yourself. I'll assist you the next time 
so you can learn the correct way to do it for this aircraft. What we 
are concerned here with now and always is safety safety safety; both 
yours and mine as well as to those on the ground. As I've said I have 
already did the preflight and we can proceed to the engine start 
check list. I will again read every item and you will perform the 
necessary action to accomplish that task. Are you ready?" He 
described all the things I would have to do to insure the aircraft 
was ready to fly including making sure there was fuel in the tanks 
down to making sure there were no rivets missing from the aircraft's 
skin and that the landing wheels were correct and proper. I remember 
thinking there is a lot more to this than there would be in a car. I 
haven't even got the engine turned on yet! I wonder if there is a key 
to this thing.....

John read every item on his check-list and made sure I had performed 
each task. We finally came to the engine start and he says "before 
you turn the key, they actually did have one surprisingly enough; you 
have to yell clear before you turn the engine on. This is to make 
sure everybody around the area knows you are about to start that 
propeller to turning extremely fast and we don't want any accidents 
or anybody to be hurt. Safety, safety, safety remember that always." 
I waited a few seconds to let anybody near by look around them after 
I yelled at the top of my lungs, (cleeeeear!) and hit the key. The 
big giros spun up and began to wine as the radios came on line after 
the big engine roared into life. Now that was really neat and we 
aren't even out of the parking place yet. Now this is cool. John said 
next to me, yeah my face brakes out in a big grin too when I start up 
too because I know it won't be long before I'm flying.

"What I'm going to do is to tell you a little bit of left or a little 
bit of right. What I want you to do is when I say a little bit of 
right is to take your right foot and lightly press on the right 
rudder pedal. When I say a little bit of left I want you to lightly 
press on the left rudder pedal with your left foot. The left and 
right rudder pedals are located right in front of your feet on the 
floor. Make sure when you press one of the rudder pedals your 
pressing on the pedal and not on it's top because you would be 
stepping on the brake for that pedal. There will be times when your 
going to do that to assist in turning but for now don't worry about 
it. I'll help you at first till you get the hang of it and from then 
on you'll do it yourself. When you press on the right pedal the 
aircraft will taxi in that direction and by means of the rudder 
pedals we can control the direction in which we want the aircraft to 
go. Are you ready to taxi?" Yep! let's do it. "Okay as you have 
learned we use check-lists to do everything so we leave nothing out. 
We also do not move or anything else with out clearance when you're a 
student pilot. Is that understood?" It is said I. "Then, you're 
cleared to taxi."

John expertly guided me out of the parking ramp and on to the taxi 
way. I remember thinking if the sighted only knew this blind fool was 
taxiing this airplane they'd clear the area for miles around but 
nobody seemed to notice! We came to the run-up area and John and I 
went through the run-up checklist. This is to make sure the flight 
controls haven't picked up any debris or foreign objects and that the 
engine is developing full power for flight. "Everything looks good 
and you're cleared to runway 2_7." This does not mean that there are 
twenty seven runways at this airport but rather the runway is laid 
out east to west on a compass heading of 270 degrees. Of course the 
opposite direction would be zero niner zero on the exact same runway 
only going the other way. I found out that a pilot has to be able to 
keep the picture in his mind of what's going on at all times.

I taxied out of the run-up area and on to runway two seven and put my 
hands in my lap and made sure my feet were well away from the rudder 
pedals. John said "what are you doing? You can't fly with your hands 
in your lap. The pilot always sits in the left hand seat and as far 
as I can see that's you. The pilot does the flying so let's do it." 
You want me to fly the airplane? "That's what your here for isn't it; 
to learn how to fly?" I wasn't even sure it would even work at this 
point in time. "Put your left hand on the control column lightly. (I 
did as was instructed) but was perfectly sure it wouldn't even work. 
Now, place your right hand on the throttle. Your right foot will be 
on the right rudder pedal because when we are going down the runway 
the torque of the engine will want to rotate the aircraft in an 
opposite manner than the prop is turning. In other words, when the 
plane is in the air if the prop is turning clockwise, the airplane 
wants to rotate counter clockwise and this needs to be compensated 
for with a little right rudder. I was as ready as I could be but was 
sure it wouldn't work at all. We would surely go spinning off into 
space like some crazed egg beater.

John said I'll call out your speed for you and direct you down the 
runway. Remember, a little bit of right and a little bit of left. We 
will accelerate out to 50 knots and rotate the aircraft. About 55 
knots the aircraft will leave the ground." I remember thinking the 
hell you say. What was I doing? Blind people don't fly aircraft at 
over fifty miles an hour and they're not even off the ground yet. At 
that rate of speed if I hit those rudders to hard we'll wind up off 
to the side of the runway into the weeds if we don't take out a few 
of those runway lights and that's if we're lucky. It could go to hell 
in a hand cart real damn quick. It's not too late. I can still tell 
John I didn't have guts enough to try something so foolhardy. This 
was madness to think I could ever learn to fly and this guy sitting 
next to me is so calm and collected like he teaches totally blind 
guys how to fly every day. John interrupted my thoughts which had 
probably only lasted a second or two. "Okay, push the throttle to the 
firewall and let's go flying pilot. Well if this guy was a crazy fool 
what the hell maybe he did teach blind guys every day. Hit the power 
or call it quits! Are you a man or a mouse? Do you want to live 
forever? I shoved the throttle to the stops and thought may God favor 
the foolish.

The Cessna 1-50 began accelerating down the runway at what seemed to 
be breakneck speed. John calmly said a little bit of left now. Now a 
bit of right. You're looking good. Your speed is 30. 40. 50. Okay now 
rotate! I gently eased back on the controls..... The aircraft 
actually rotates on its main gear from forward to aft. As it goes 
along the ground in this way poised for flight, as lift exceeds 
weight the aircraft lifted off the runway into the air. I couldn't 
believe it. I'll be a dirty name; it actually works. I must have said 
this out loud because John began to laugh. "I love to see the look on 
students faces as they take off for the first time. Yours was no 
different and maybe even more thunder struck than most. Yes, you took 
off all by yourself. My hands were in my lap and my feet on the deck. 
Your flying man; your flying. I gave a little whoop of joy. So this 
was what it was all about. It doesn't matter how small or how large 
the aircraft is the experience is still the same. You can sit next to 
the pilot a thousand hours through hundreds of take-offs and never 
even have a clue of what that feels like because there is no way to 
describe it.

After many more such takeoffs the feeling never lessened. I've heard 
it said that it's about as close to being a bird as you'll ever get 
but it's more than that. I have asked men and women alike their 
thoughts on this subject. I've asked jet jockeys and small aircraft 
pilots and one astronaut, Sally Ride and they all to a person agree 
they experienced the same thing. It's like touching the face of God. 
I know you won't understand that and I don't expect anybody to do so 
either but it's the best description I have ever heard. I had a guy 
one time try to tell me you experience the same thing in a race car 
and offered to show me. We hit 130 miles in a short time but it 
wasn't anywhere near the same thing because a car is limited to only 
two axis and not three.

I have flown many different kinds of aircraft at one time or another. 
The coolest was an aircraft where there were no sides or nothing 
overhead. The main wing and engine were behind and above you in a 
pusher arrangement. The propeller faces backwards and actually pushes 
the aircraft through the air but it's about as close to riding on a 
broomstick as one can get and fun as hell. Don't drop your sunglasses 
because the next step is three thousand feet below and for God's sake 
don't smile unless you want your teeth full of bugs..... The aircraft 
is named quite appropriately enough, A "Breezy." I flew a L-10-11 Try 
star up from Florida on a return to Chicago one time and the 
passengers in the back never knew that some blind guy flew them the 
last fifteen minutes along the way.

I went on with John for another 40 or so hours and have them all in 
my log book to this day. He went on to bigger and better things and 
the last time I saw him he was flying for a major airline. One day I 
asked him why he was willing to try to teach me how to fly. It surely 
had to be a monumental task. The regular methods of teaching wouldn't 
work here on a totally blind person. ""Well, I thought of that it's 
true enough. On the other hand, if I could find ways to make it clear 
to a blind man it might make it easier to a sighted one as well. 
Everybody would be better off for it and I would be a better pilot 
and instructor for it."

I had a second instructor after John and learned much from him too. 
That was back in the 70's. I flew many times since then and even did 
some flying in sail planes and tossed those around the sky doing 
aerobatics for the fun of it. Imagine roller coaster hills a thousand 
feet high and a sudden drop of thousands of feet. Picture your head 
in the center of a circle. Now imagine your butt making a sideways 
circle from right to left up over your head and back down again wile 
your head appears to stay in the center of that circle. That my 
friends is called a roll and is about as much fun as you can have 
with your clothes on. Picture yourself being raced up and have your 
head back in that center circle again. Now imagine your butt going up 
over your head and stopping there with your butt up and your head 
down and now it feels like you're falling straight down before it all 
reverses to the way it was when it started. This is called a wing 
over and is just as much fun.

I met a guy in Boulder City, Nevada who was a sail plane pilot who 
took me up for a ride in a plane with no engine. That's called a sail 
plane my friends because you seek out thermals that rise. Thermals 
are warm rising columns of air. These can actually lift an aircraft. 
Sail plane pilots can stay aloft for quite some time just riding the 
rising air columns like the eagles do. After a prop plane towed us to 
an altitude of 10,000 feet and turned us lose, he says I usually take 
the tourists over the Las Vegas strip and let them see the lights. If 
you want, I can do that for you and try my best to describe what I 
see to you if that's okay. I told him about my flying and damn that. 
Show me what this baby can really do! "Well okay then!" and away we 
went. It should have been a 30 minute ride. An hour later we landed 
laughing and having a ball. My dad and wife were on the ground 
wondering where we were. The half hour had gone by and we weren't 
back yet. They both looked up in the sky about the same time as we 
were doing a spin. It looks like the aircraft is doing a spiral down 
at about a 45 degree angle. Looks scary as hell. They thought we were 
surely going to buy the farm. Were we in trouble? No way! We were 
having way too much fun!