I am annoyed at all the negative comments on Facebook about this amid all the unoriginal 'armless' and 'arm and a leg' jokes. Rest of story here I, and my children, have been in a car driven by a man who was paralysed in his arms because of polio and who drove with his feet. I can see very little difference between that and a pilot with an artificial arm especially as the pilot has thousand of flying hours and would have had to fly a very stringent test before becoming a commercial pilot. So people, would you fly with him as your pilot?
Sure I would fly with him. I bet random malfunctions happen a lot more with biological arms than prosthetic ones.
Well any pilot can have a bad landing, but it's unlikely that anyone was in danger. It's not like you thing to yourself when boarding a plane does one or more of my pilots have artifical limbs.
Flights these days are largely run by autopilots anyway, aren't they? In any case, most of us never even see who our pilots are. So we fly with them, like it or not. What about the 'Should pilots be armed' jokes? Although I suppose some of the passengers would 'leg it' away from the plane if they knew about this.
Of course I would fly with him. My suggestion to you, Miss Chicken, is to stop reading Facebook comments.
I read them because some people need educating. One bloke didn't believe that people without arms could drive so I posted a video showing a woman who was doing just that.
Anyway, yes, I'd fly with him. He seems capable, it's just that he has an artificial limb; one that has served him well. This was a very minor incident, nothing more.
If anyone is interested here is a video of a young woman driving without arms [yt]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tl28nkae5DU[/yt] I am now going to watch the video of her changing a tyre.
Having flown with Flybe quite a few times the landing at Belfast City airport can be pretty jolting. The runway isn't all that bad but small aircraft have a harder time of it. Last time was about five weeks ago, it was bumpier than usual but it was fairly stormy that day. So having been on that particularly bumpy ride a few times, I doubt it's really his fault.
I'm not legally able to fly a plane because of diabetes. I can't even qualify for a private license. If I already had a license at the time of diagnosis, I'd still be able to fly private aircraft but I couldn't pilot for a commercial craft. I flew a Cessna when I was fourteen, though, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
I still would fly with that guy. It was a one-off incident, and everyone involved is all the wiser for it. Besides, anyone who makes lame puns about pilots has a serious attitude problem.
My future brother-in-law was a Pilot for British Airways and got pensioned off at the ripe old age of 29 because of being diagnosed with T1D. He and a few other pilots have fought a long and pretty costly battle with whomever it is that governs pilots licenses here to get it back. Because he has his under such good control, he has it back, I think with some limitations. Talking with him I was always under the impression that he could fly in North America although even though he is married to a Canadian, they've not moved across the pond just yet.
I would not have a problem with a disabled pilot who passed all the requirements... in a larger aircraft. Flying a smaller aircraft, often, requires more manual control than a larger aircraft does. For smaller planes, I want my pilot to be fully functional and able to respond accordingly.