At last year’s NBAA meeting, North Carolina Part 142 training center FlyRight (Booth 4626) announced it was donating a King Air 350 type rating course to Able Flight participant Randy Green. Able Flight is an organization that assists pilots with disabilities. Green, 44, has since completed the course and received his rating. He was born without hands or feet, but that hasn’t stopped him from earning his airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate, along with single- and multi-engine instructor certificates. He’s received rave reviews from instructors and employers, past and present, for his professionalism, positive attitude and ingenuity on the job.
“Randy was outside the norm for Able Flight,” said FlyRight president Matt Hapgood. “I think the more typical pilot is a private pilot. Our hope is that with the training we were able to provide for Randy, he will be able to further his aviation career and take the next step toward his long-term goals.” Hapgood said that he and everyone at FlyRight, located at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, feel good about “giving back” to the aviation community.
Green grew up in an aviation family, and learned to fly in his father’s V-tail Bonanza. Over the years, he developed a system, using rubber bands to secure the throttle (he has partial fingers) and created his own tools for pilot chores such as swapping fuses–even creating a “scooper” for picking up dropped charts and other objects from the floor.
Perhaps more important, by necessity he developed a style and technique of sequencing his tasks, constantly reevaluating priorities and cross-checking what function would come next. His instructors not only recognized Green’s proficiency, but even adopted some of his techniques for themselves and other students. Asked if he’d be nervous riding in the cabin of an airplane Green was flying, one of his former Cessna 421 instructors said, “I’d not only ride in the back seat; I’d go to sleep.”
FlyRight specializes in King Air training, though its newly completed building is a sign of some branching out to come. Also announced at last year’s NBAA show and opened in September, the all-new facility will have expanded study space and a student lounge. Hapgood said, “We are staying in the same great neighborhood, just across the street [from the previous facility] on Aviation Boulevard. We’ll have a lot more space for additional procedures trainers and simulators.” The new building will also house a level-D Cessna 208B Caravan simulator, acquired last month. Caravan training is set to begin later this month.
“The training and the people at FlyRight are top notch,” Green told AIN. “The staff is amazing. I wouldn’t go anywhere else for training. If I had the choice, I’d strongly push to return to FlyRight.”
The admiration goes both ways. Hapgood told AIN, “Randy is a fantastic person, a diligent and hardworking student, and an excellent pilot; everyone at FlyRight really enjoyed meeting and working with him.”
Green’s current job is flying a piston-powered Cessna 210 single 40 to 50 hours a month for a small company in Idaho, but with his fresh type rating, he’s looking for a position flying King Airs. He said he’d relocate “in a heartbeat.” “I have the rating, but people want pilots with more turbine time,” he said, repeating one of aviation’s classic “chicken and egg” questions.
“Our hope is that with the training we were able to provide for Randy, he will be able to further his aviation career and take the next steps towards his long-term goals,” said Hapgood.
[Personal note: The author can also speak for Green’s capabilities as a pilot. He bought my 1954 Bonanza two years ago, and when we met for him to take delivery, I watched him perform the preflight examination with professional skill and dexterity. I watched with some concern as he reached to climb up on the wing. Randy confessed, “This used to be easier…when I was slimmer.” I remember wondering how he would manage the stubborn door handle with his partial fingers, but he got it easily on the first try. And his expertise with the radio knobs, Eisenhower-era piano key switches and Walter Beech’s bizarre placement of the throttle, prop and mixture controls was confidence-inspiring.]