Edward Stroud stood outside his microlight
AFTER being medically discharged from the forces due to injury, life in civvy street is often hard to adjust to - but at Cotswold Airport, a flying school is giving ex servicemen and women a new lease of life; I joined some of the pilots i and found out all about it.
Flying for Freedom first came to
fruition in 2009 after Malmesbury man, John Laity, and head of marketing firm
Onecall Entertainment sponsored a round-the-world sailing trip by the British
Army which was led by James Harris, the other FFF founder.
John got the idea after deciding to race the
team of soldiers in his microlight.
That idea has grown hugely as today
FFF project is recognised by the Ministry of Defence as post rehabilitation
facility for wounded servicemen.
It is based at Kemble Flying Club
at the airport, where its pilots are trained at and the microlights are stored
and is funded entirely by donations.
Some of the team are currently
training hard to prepare themselves for a daring world-record attempt in 2016,
where they will attempt be the first ever pilots to fly across the Antarctic in
a microlight.
FFF team is made up of many military personal who
have been injured on the battlefield, including amputee Luke Sinnott, a former
captain in the Royal Engineers, whose
legs had to be amputated after a explosive device he was trying to
disarm in Afghanistan, discharged.
But not all members of the team
have been injured in conflict, other members include Matt Raasch-Sotinwa, who
currently serves as an engineer in
the Royal Engineers.
In 2008 Matt
was rushed into hospital for surgery after he discovered he had a brain tumour that doctors told him needed to be
removed immediately or he would die.
Matt, who
lives in north Devon recovered well ,but the damage caused by the surgery left
him partly deaf, and he also has vision
and co-ordination problems.
As we chatted
inside the flying school office, one
thing was very clear, Matt was a remarkable man, whose life had been changed for
the better by the flying school.
“Majority of people have been quite active to
suddenly lose that is difficult. This
gives us that concentration again," Matt said.
Matt also showed me the microlights that the team
uses in the flying club’s hanger and
explained that steering them using the aircrafts control bar by pushing out
back and forth is very physically demanding.
But that is
exactly the sort of test that that Matt
welcomes as it helps him forget about his medical problems.
“You can’t
suddenly be not bothered at 70 mile per hour [when landing the plane], said
Matt who will be the logistics manager for the world record attempt.
“It makes you
almost forget you are disabled. You do not think about your disability, you
just get on with it.
“It gives you
that determination, to think, appreciate and overcome.”
Although the
UK does not have a similar climate to the Antarctic, Matt believes the county is
good place to train for the team's record
attempt.
“The thing about flying in the UK is that the
weather is so unpredictable,” he said.
During my
visit I also had the chance to speak to Edward Stroud, a medic for the army, who was discharge earlier this year after suffering a hip injury.
Edward was the
former head of physiotherapy department at Army’s base in Catterick and he has also lined up for the force’s bobsleigh team.
A hip injury meant that he was medically discharged
and his active lifestyle suddenly stopped - but ever since recently joining FFS his life
has been totally transformed.
Edward, who is from Calne, said: “In the army
you are doing dramatic things, what an injury does is take that away. You need
that drama in your life. My dramatic thing was going down the ice at 90 miles
per hour three inches off the floor.”
“It [FFS) give
you that feeling you crave for. That is
the hardest bit after leaving the military -
finding something you can focus on.”
“You have to sign up and say you are interested
and they just grab you and take you on this journey. They are not interested in
what sort of injuries you have got, as
long as you are safe to fly there is no stigma attached to you.”
FFS is one of only three projects
in the UK that is in partnership with the Help for Heroes (HFH), an
organisation that supports injured servicemen and women.
Many of the sponsors of the team
come from the local area, including Cotswold Airport and Snowsled in Tetbury.
Text wings to 7900 to donate £3
to the team - the cash will go to Help for Heroes.
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