Permit iFr

16 LIGHT AVIATION | JULY 2015

P U r s U i n g t h e d r e a m

a h a n d - c o n t ro l l e d P i P e r c u b

Arthur with fiancée Rebecca and the other love of his life, his Cub! Despite the fact that he lives in Worcestershire and the aircraft is currently based at Turweston, Arthur has flown over 35 hours this year.

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Arthur Williams has found a passion for life in aviation after a road accident robbed him of his service career. Here he

recounts how, with the help of understanding individuals and organisations, he learned to fly, bought a Cub and converted it

to hand control.

JULY 2015 | LIGHT AVIATION 17

P U r s U i n g t h e d r e a m

a h a n d - c o n t ro l l e d P i P e r c u b

Pursuing the dream

For those of us who have the privilege to fly, we will fully understand the sense of freedom it gives us. It’s a common cliché but we really do slip the surly confines of this earth and there isn’t much that can equal that feeling.

However, for me and other disabled pilots, those earthly bonds are even stronger; I am confined to a wheelchair and have been since a car crash eight years ago. In those early post-crash days I would never have dared to dream that I’d become a qualified pilot who owns a vintage aeroplane but, with the help of a few good people and the cooperation of positive thinking organisations, it has become a reality. This is the story of how that has happened.

At 20 years of age I was a young Royal Marines commando and had the world at my feet. I’d achieved the Green Beret and all my hard work had paid off; I was looking forward to a life serving amongst Britain’s military elite. But 2007 taught me that life doesn’t always go as planned. On my way back to camp one Monday morning, the car I was traveling in rolled off the road and I broke my back in several places, severing my

spinal cord. I was in a pretty bad shape and it was definitely game over as far as a career in the Marines was concerned.

I spent about six months in hospital recovering physically; mentally took much longer though, it seemed an impossibly cruel hand to be dealt. But flying helped me enormously, as I will explain.

With my future plans in tatters I needed to get myself back on track and I had the urge to get back into work as soon as possible. For me this was crucial, I felt I needed to look after myself and hopefully, if I was fortunate, one day support a family. I also felt that in the situation I faced, work was by far the best medicine. What my new career would be, however,was a blank. I was given loads of suggestions by well-meaning people but nothing that really struck a chord. Finally I thought back to what I loved when growing up as boy – aeroplanes – and started researching disabled flying. I was surprised to discover the number of disabled aviators that have made names for themselves over the years, including of course WWII fighter pilot Douglas Bader, and Wiley Post who, although he had lost the sight in one eye, was the ›

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18 LIGHT AVIATION | JULY 2015

first person to fly solo around the world (in a Lockheed Vega in 1933).

Although enthused by such trailblazers, before I started taking my first tentative steps into the world of aviation I was very sceptical as to the response I might receive. Almost fearful that I would be shunned, I thought I’d be confronted with indifference and little interest in helping me earn my wings.

How wrong could I have been! Enter stage right the first organisation to help me, Aerobility. They are currently based at Blackbushe airport in Hampshire and I am today a proud ambassador for them, although when I went for my trial lesson in January 2009 they were based at Lasham. The team down there were so helpful they instantly quashed any doubt I had about becoming a pilot. From the moment I sat in an aeroplane cockpit and placed my hands on the controls, I simply couldn’t get enough of it. I was so thrilled I’d found something that fired my imagination, I desperately wanted to get stuck in and take it as far as I could. It was an instant sense of “I’ve cracked it!” I had something to focus my energy on, something that if I had the aptitude for, not only would it help me recover mentally and emotionally but flying is something even only a lucky few able-bodied people have the opportunity to do. “I might not be a able to walk, but who cares? I can fly!”

Armed with new knowledge that there was a career in aviation should I so wish, I started honing in on what exactly I wanted to

get out of this. I knew it would not be feasible for the major airlines to modify their fleets for the sake of one pilot, and twin engine operations are tricky due to the control inputs required should you have an engine failure on take-off. But I didn’t care. I’d spray crops and sleep under the wing for the rest of my life if it meant I could retire and sit in the corner of a pub and spin tales about a life in the cockpit. I just had to fly as much as possible.

So I went for it; after nine hours I’d soloed, and after nine months I’d gained my PPL. Looking back to the first few hours in my logbook I must say that I particularly enjoyed approaching an aeroplane on my own, knowing that I relied upon no one else to prepare it for flight, fuel it, carry out the preflight checks and conduct a safe flight. For most pilots this is, I’m sure, a liberating feeling and one that I particularly appreciate. The hours that followed saw me chasing every possible opportunity that arose with flying, the result being that to date I have enjoyed a very wide range of flying,

and I must emphasise to all GA pilots out there just how much fun there is to be had by pursuing opportunities.

It’s also worth mentioning at this point that as well as pursuing my pilots licence I was heavily involved in sport, and in the build up to the London 2012 Paralympic Games I

landed myself a job with Channel 4 as a presenter, which I still do for a living today. Fortunately I’ve also had the good fortune to integrate my passion for flight and military history into my line of work. Some of you may have watched my documentary on the Mosquito, for which I travelled to the States and was fortunate to get a ride in KA114, the only flying example in the world! I have also made a mini-series called Flying To The Ends Of The Earth which had me flying in Nepal,

Papua New Guinea, Australia and Canada with a wide range of pilots and aircraft, exploring the work they do and how remote and isolated communities rely on aviation for their everyday life and survival. The series is planned to air

(Right) Ready to roll. Note water ballast on rear seat to compensate for flying

the J3 solo from the front, and Arthur’s collapsible wheelchair carried in the back.

He needs no assistance to get in and out of the Cub so is able to be totally independent

when he goes flying.

(Above) The Cub in all its glory. With the help of understanding individuals and organisations, Arthur has been able to fulfil his dream to enjoy the sky.

Arthur works for Channel 4 TV and you may recall his Mosquito documentary. He has recently completed a mini-series Flying To The Ends Of The Earth which will be screened later this year.

Pursuing the dream

Apart from the hand controls, the old hand-swung 65hp engine was replaced with an electric start O-200.

“From the moment I sat in an aeroplane cockpit and placed my hands on the controls, I simply

couldn’t get enough of it”

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Pursuing the dream

later this year and will be available on my website www.arthur-williams.co.uk, as is my previous work.

My new job meant that, for the time being at least, I could ease off the pressure I’d put on myself to build a career and really enjoy the hours I spent aloft, and this in turn has changed the direction my flying will go in the foreseeable future. So rather than aiming to progress to complex types, I started looking at flying vintage aeroplanes and taildraggers as my next challenge.

time for a taildraggerThat brings us nicely onto the latest chapter with my flying, and I met the next great doer in my life, brilliant engineer and BA pilot, Matt Pettit. I was, correctly as it turned out, led to understood that he was one of the best men to help me in my quest of taming the taildragger. The problem I had come up against with flying taildraggers was that I didn’t have access to any with modified controls. I did my research and discovered that there are some out there, a Cap 232 for example, but unfortunately all the aircraft I could find were privately owned and I didn’t think it would be appropriate for me to make unsolicited approaches towards individuals.

I think as pilots we want to constantly expand our horizons and make our aviating as colourful and diverse as possible. With that in mind I thought I’d explore the possibilities of having an aeroplane modified with hand

rudder controls. If I could do this it would mean another type in my logbook as P1 while also giving other disabled pilots the opportunity to fly something other than the usual aero club tricycle-geared bug-smashers.

Matt and I agreed that the best type to have a go at was the Piper J3 Cub, the key drivers being that it’s a very simple aeroplane, there are lots of them out there and they are, relatively speaking, cheap to operate. I also love the charisma, vintage charm and beauty of the thing.

Coming to the conclusion that the work we needed to do would be substantial, we knew that it would be a longshot at best to find a Cub syndicate that would be prepared to let us do the modifications. So after a while weighing up all the responsibilities owning and operating your own aeroplane entailed, I decided to take the plunge and buy my own!

Gulp. Now this was risky because although we were pretty confident the modifications were achievable, we couldn’t be 100% sure until we had the approvals. But there was only one way we were going to find out, and I was prepared to do whatever it took to make it happen. So, with an aircraft acquired, we could finally get stuck into figuring out how it might work. This is where Matt’s knowledge and experience came into its own. From this point, things get a bit techy, but stay with me… The best solution we came up with was to have me fly the aeroplane from the front seat (the J3 is normally flown from the rear), we could then remove the front

how it works

Most of the elements of the modification to the control systems are shown here. The control stick against the fuselage side moves forward to make a right rudder input and backwards for left rudder control input. The brake lever operates the left-hand wheel brake while on the top is a motorbike-style throttle control which twists anti-clockwise to increase power. The purple cord is a small bungee that is used to hold the brake on when at the hold carrying out power check with the normal throttle (it is too awkward to twist the hand throttle and hold the brake on at the same time).

The central control stick is the standard Cub fit other than it too has a brake lever (unfortunately only the clamp is visible)

which operates the right-hand main gear wheel brake.

On the floor just behind the firewall you can see that the usual rudder pedals have been removed and a single cable makes the rudder system a single loop. The cable does not attach to the rudder stick on the left-hand side, instead it passes between the stick and the fuselage side. The stick is welded to a cross-tube that crosses the fuselage just in front of the seat and then has a lever coming up that is connected to the cable on the right-hand side. This is so that the system meets the requirement for the rudder stick to push forward for right and back for left (it would be the wrong way round if the cable connected to the actual stick).

seat rudder pedals and replace them with a couple of pulleys. This effectively ‘looped’ the rudder control cables and provided me with both left and right deflection from one control, a hand control ‘stick’ mounted from a secure point on the left-hand side of the cockpit, rather than two controls. For right rudder the control is moved forward and for left rudder it is moved backwards.

This being a tailwheel aeroplane I had to be able to operate the rudder and throttle simultaneously, so on the top of the rudder control stick we have mounted a motorcycle style twist grip which is tied into the conventional throttle control circuit. Thus with my left hand I have full control of the rudder and throttle together. The final control modifications were to install brake levers to the control column (for the right wheel) and hand control (for the left wheel) for differential braking on the ground.

We also upgraded a lot of the aircraft’s systems whilst we were at it too, replacing the rather sluggish 65hp hand-start engine with a Continental O-200, which I can safely start from inside the cockpit. Matt also built a new instrument panel, fitted disk brakes and replaced a lot of the hardware. G-BDEY had been given a new lease of life and looked amazing!

All this work took around 18 months but at the end of it I had an aircraft I could get myself into and out of unaided – plus dismantle and install my wheelchair in the back, and I could fly dual or solo, adding ballast when solo to counteract the fact that I was flying from the front seat. All we had to do now was see if it all worked; air testing was looming on the horizon!

We put the little Cub through its paces, testing every edge of the envelope and ensuring beyond all doubt that the hand controls installed were safe and intuitive to use. Thankfully all the testing went really well and the modifications were signed off in full on the 29 December 2014. As far as we are aware, it’s the only Piper Cub modified for this purpose in the world.

The good news is that it all worked as expected. I had flown in the Cub for two or three hours before we did any of the modifications, just to make sure I liked it and could get in and out unaided. I completed my tailwheel conversion as weather permitted in the first four months of this year, going solo after five hours; as of the middle of June I have already recorded 35 hours and I am loving every minute of it.

Remember how I said at the beginning that throughout my flying I’ve dealt with people who couldn’t help enough. Well the LAA has been one of those groups; they’ve supported our proposals in the same way they go about supporting any other member of the Association, not with any preferential treatment and not with any less. For that I take my hat off to them and say thank you.

It must also be said that without the help and positive attitude of my good friend Matt Pettit this would not have been possible, so I extend a hearty thank you to him also.

If, back in 2007, you’d of said to me that this is where I’d be today, I would have said you were delusional. But we’ve cracked it and I’m happy to report that I have now started the next exciting chapter of my life – as a Cub pilot, a true stick and rudder aviator. I can’t wait to get out and about over the coming months.

Never give up! ■

JULY 2015 | LIGHT AVIATION 19

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