Kris Van Nuffel
Hey Sean,
For months already, I know I HAVE to contact
you, and to thank you for being an example to me.
Here's my story.
From when I was 5 I was willing to learn flying.
(Now I'm a 35 years young)
At an age of 22 (when I started working & had
the money) I jumped into a Shadow ULM and had 12h with it.
A collegue at work was flying Pipers (PPL) and
convinced me to do the medical for it.
A few weeks later I was starting my lessons to get
my PPL on Piper PA28 in Ursel (EBUL, Belgium)
29 AUG 2000 I obtained my PPL. Since then I flew
about 100h in Robin DR400 & C1723.
03 AUG 2001 I had a severe car accident on the
road to my work, leaving me paraplegic D12-L1.
15 MAY 2002 I left the hospital and by now (few
months & a divorce later) I'm working partime again as a project engineer.
The other half of time is a nice advantage of
paraplegism, giving me possibilities of doing what I REALLY like! :-)
In my revalidation period I remember seeing
"Fly Away Home". I just had learned how to do a "toucher"
(or to "shit manualy" :-o
if you want me to state it more clearly) and was
rather down @ the moment. Seeing the film really got me going @ that time.
While I was in tears @ the end of the film, I also
was deperately longing to FLY. To be myself again... to be free...
to be a master inthe sky again.
Next day I jumped on the internet, searching with
2 words: "paraplegic" & "flying".
The first site I visited that day was something
about a "certain" Scott, flying a trike. @ That moment I somehow
felt it
was to early & unnecessarely to give up
flying. So I started calling our Aviation Authorities (technical service &
license department to see what was possible here
in Belgium. As we are implementating JAR-regulations in Belgium
since 2002 ther are indead some possibilities.
Cosmos trikes for example are homologated over here & I filed the
tech. dept. the technical drawings & foto's I
had brought with me from my visit to the Cosmos factory.
Technicaly, the adaptation can be homologated here
in Belgium without a problem. I just had to do about 20
telephone calls to found it out. ;-)
In JUNE 2002 I visited the Cosmos factory (having
my adapted car only for 2 weeks) in Dijon (France)
Next week (08 FEB 2003) I'm going to see the
doctor for my DPM-medical. With the insurancy fee
I easily can buy a trike and I hope to do so this
summer. (IF I can obtain my student permit over here)
So far, so good. We'll see what we'll get ... I'll
keep you in touch. Anyway, I want my name in the
paraplegic pilot listing also. For me it will be a
major victory over my paraplegism and a big starting
oportunity to give other para's also the poss. to
learn to fly.
THANKS, "OLD BOY". :-)
I own you one. (& even more)
EOF
Kris Van Nuffel
This is Kris's NEW WEBSITE http://www.paraflight.be/
