Charity pilots offer seats to needy
Published: April 23, 2006
When Brittany Swedelius took her first ride in a private plane, it wasn’t so much a sight-seeing trip as a sight-saving trip.
The 24-year-old Kalamazoo, Mich., woman, who has had several operations to correct a congenital defect in both eyes, recently flew to Cincinnati with Bill Kroncke, a Sylvania attorney and private pilot who is chairman of the Ohio chapter of Angel Flight America.
The national nonprofit charity, formed in 1999 from several independent groups, connects volunteer pilots with people who need to get to distant medical facilities for treatment. The service accepts only patients who can demonstrate financial need, and whose physicians have cleared them to fly. It also transports organs, blood, tissue, and medical supplies.
Ohio has 206 pilots, including a handful in northwest Ohio, who fly for the group. As of June, the most recent figures available, they had flown 202 adult patients and 251 child patients, along with 913 companions to those patients.
Nationally, the group made a splash last summer, flying people and supplies after Hurricane Katrina devastated part of the Gulf Coast.
For Ms. Swedelius, the flight was a treat, on many levels.
“It’s not like traditional commercial flights,” she said while seated in the back seat of Mr. Kroncke’s four-seat Archer, which he has owned for 19 years.
“It’s so much easier, in terms of time and money. I don’t have to go through security; I don’t have to get help. When I flew to Cincinnati [commercially], I needed assistance, and they had to put me in a wheelchair instead of guiding me. It was horrible.”
Before moving to Kalamazoo last year to attend graduate school at Western Michigan University, Ms. Swedelius lived in Montana. She flew commercially, or was driven to the Cincinnati Eye Clinic every six weeks or so. “It was intense,” she said.
Born without irises in either eye, Ms. Swedelius is legally blind and has cataracts. She had several surgeries last year to have stem-cell transplants placed in both eyes.
Her vision improved markedly, but she must make frequent follow-up visits to the clinic, more than 300 miles from home. Between the distance and her financial situation, the trip poses a hardship.
That’s where Angel Flight steps in.
A one-way trip to Cincinnati from Kalamazoo, which would have taken nearly six hours by car, takes less than half that by plane.
“The way I look at it, it’s like a miracle,” Ms. Swedelius said of Angel Flight.
For the pilots, Angel Flight offers an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in someone’s life.
“When I go with Angel Flight … I get to do something to help other people,” said Barry Leff, a Toledo rabbi and longtime private pilot who has flown one Angel Flight mission and looks forward to doing more.
“It’s really doing a great public service.”
“It’s aimed at people with great financial need and serious medical conditions. It’s people with serious problems, and we’re helping them get better treatment than they would be able to get if they stayed at home. It’s a five to six-hour drive versus an hour-and-a-half flight, and if you’re fighting a serious illness, anything that can make it easier is a blessing.”
Flights tend to stay in the 200-250 mile range. Patients going farther will have more than one pilot - Angel Flight will arrange for transfers.
All pilots must have an instrument rating, which enables them to fly in clouds and overcast conditions. Without one, Mr. Kroncke would not have been able to take Ms. Swedelius that day, as it was heavily overcast and raining in some places along the way. Mr. Leff’s flight would not have taken place either - they ran into bad weather on a trip between Dayton and Detroit.
As for Ms. Swedelius, she hopes to fly with the volunteer service again and again. The student is in a double master’s degree program in vision rehabilitation therapy and orientation and mobility. With that degree, she hopes to help other visually impaired people improve their lives. But without services such as Angel Flight, she could not afford it.
“I don’t want to be on welfare,” she said. “I want to make something of myself. I want to teach others.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: