| Description |
The Phoenix flight chair was developed as an adaptive sport chair primarily as a paragliding system to facilitate tandem and independent flight for people with lower extremity disabilities such as spinal cord injuries, amputations, and neuromuscular disease. The Phoenix allows individuals with a wide range of disabilities and mobility to learn to paraglide. The main purpose of the Phoenix is to safely introduce individuals to the sport of paragliding and let them experience the freedom that flight brings. The development of the Phoenix was initiated by the not for profit organization, ABLE Pilot. A program developed to help individuals with lower extremity disabilities paraglide. An early ABLE Pilot publication stated that the effort "is a research and instructional program designed to establish and support the overall goal of developing and testing a formal paragliding and hang gliding instructional protocol for student pilots with various disabilities (e.g., spinal cord injuries, neurological and neuromuscular disabilities, amputations, etc.)." Since the start of the project in early 2010 many milestones have been reached including two functional prototypes (Phoenix 1.0 and the Phoenix 1.5). Over 275 combined flights have been completed, including solo and tandem flights, with both ablebodied and disabled individuals. A training program and protocol is currently being developed by world class paragliding instructors. Five individuals have reached P-1 certifications, two of whom will have P-2 certifications in September 2012, and worldwide interest in the Phoenix has been a positive side effect. One of the most important lessons learned through the Phoenix program is the difficult task of designing safety into the Phoenix. Even with the many safety features and precautions added to the chairs, unexpected events can happen. Although paragliding is a high risk sport, at no time should users be exposed to any avoidable risks. Existing chairs along with future chairs will continue to progress and safety modifications will be added to help reduce expected and unexpected dangers. For continued growth and regulation, the Phoenix is being adopted by the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA). The training program being developed by Mr. Rob Sporrer and Mr. Nick Greece will become the first official training protocol using the Phoenix system. This will provide individuals and instructors with the knowledge and experience they need to train and fly with the Phoenix. The Phoenix program represents an enormous collection of thoughts and ideas. It would not have been successful without the volunteer students and pilots, ABLE Pilot, and University of Utah students and faculty. Continued improvements, more flights and additional design improvements are planned in the future. |
