Blind Lady Flies Throughout the U.S. to Encourage Children within the Identical Situation

A blind girl from New Mexico landed safely in School Park Airport in Maryland this week after flying a Cessna half means throughout the nation.

Kaiya Armstrong can solely see just a few inches in front of her face, however that didn’t sluggish her down on a flight that took her from New Mexico throughout the U.S. to D.C. with a then a ultimate stopover in Kentucky. Her co-pilot and flight teacher gave her audio cues alongside her route, however she was absolutely on the controls. Resulting from inclement climate, she arrived a day early in D.C. to commemorate World Sight Day, in addition to lend some encouragement to blind teenagers.

The 22-year-old Armstrong misplaced her sight when she was simply 14 years outdated. She struggled within the early years of her blindness till she grew to become concerned with Basis for Blind Kids. The inspiration helped her study to navigate her life with out sight. When it supplied her the prospect to discover ways to fly, she jumped on it, although she’d by no means even been on an airplane earlier than, in accordance with the Washington Submit:

In March, the group supplied her the prospect to study to fly. She was chosen from a aggressive group of scholars and jumped on the alternative, although she had by no means taken a flight and had traveled solely to neighboring California and Nevada. She had beforehand believed there have been a number of issues she’d by no means be capable to do, chief amongst them: drive and fly.

The inspiration enrolled her in months-long intensive flight instruction. She skilled with Leopard Aviation, which paired her with teacher Tyler Sinclair, who helped her study all of the intricacies of the cockpit and co-piloted her epic journey.

The skies above are “peaceable,” Armstrong stated. Her restricted sight is finest described as “tunnel imaginative and prescient,” she defined.

That imaginative and prescient did present Armstrong with some hanging vistas of the panorama under her, as she witnessed a palette of inexperienced forests and blue lakes vastly totally different from the beige, sandy floor she usually noticed in Arizona.

Even the start of her journey produced a view that mimicked chocolate chip cookies, a sea of brown dotted with darkish rooftops and rocks under, she recalled.

“It’s simply so fascinating what you possibly can see, when you possibly can’t see,” she stated.

Her message to the blind youngsters like herself who wrestle to discover a means on the earth: Don’t settle for limits place on you by different individuals, or your self.