As it enters its 20th year with 98 certificated pilots, Able Flight is counting the days until the second member of its “Class of 2025” passes their check ride to become Able Flight’s 100th pilot.
Training for the Class of 2025 at Southern Illinois University (SIU) will begin immediately after their arrival on campus on May 23, 2025, where they will spend up to eight weeks in an intensive program before taking their check rides in early July.
Receiving flight training scholarships this year are Ronny Ahmed of Florida, Ryan Berndt of Wisconsin, Brandi Fields of Missouri, Chris Karadjov of California, Domenico “Nick” Lazzaro of Pennsylvania, and Jonathan Leonard of Utah.
The new student pilots have already received their online ground school course courtesy of Sporty’s Pilot Shop, and over the next three months they’ll prepare for their written exams with the assistance of a live remote instructor from SIU.
When they arrive on campus, they will have one day of orientation to meet with their assigned instructor, and then have their first opportunity to fly the adapted Vashon Ranger training aircraft in which they will earn their pilot certificate.
Since 2006 the non-profit Able Flight has awarded nearly 130 flight training and aviation career training scholarships to people with a broad range of physical disabilities.
Able Flight scholarships are made possible with the support of sponsors and donors including Tempest Aero Group, ForeFlight, Cirrus Aircraft, Muncie Aviation, Des Moines Flying Service, TBMOPA Foundation, the Chris & Melody Malachowsky Family Foundation, the O’Donnell Family Foundation, Mike Bell, Jeff Goldberg, Jason Miller, and Dr. Jeff Cain.
For more information: AbleFlight.org
The Class of 2025
Ronny Ahmed of Florida was a student at Florida State University 10 years ago when he and several classmates were spending a late night studying at the school’s library. During a short break, Ronny and a friend stepped outside where a gunman opened fire, striking Ronny twice, leaving him paralyzed.
After a period of rehabilitation therapy at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, he became active in an adapted scuba diving program. Eventually he was able to return to school and earn his degree, and he recently became a volunteer instructor, teaching reading skills to disadvantaged youth in Tallahassee. This year, after training to earn his pilot certificate, he plans to enroll in a Masters program at FSU.
Ryan Berndt of Wisconsin not only lives in Oshkosh, the city famed as the home of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, he is an employee of the Experimental Aircraft Association.
He was born with a serious problem with his left leg and hip, leading to a decision to have it amputated at the hip when he was still a very young child.
Though he did well in school and achieved distinction in graduating summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, he tended to avoid moving outside his comfort zone with the challenge of riding a bike or driving a car with a manual shift. That is, until his twin brother Rodney became a pilot. They share a home and a passion for flying that led Ryan to apply for an Able Flight Scholarship. The brothers are already planning trips, including a flight to the International Twins Day Convention in Twinsburg, Ohio.
Brandi Fields of Kansas City, Missouri, has had a life characterized by an attitude of fierce determination, leading to her success as a student and an athlete. After graduating from high school, she was awarded a number of scholarships that helped pay her way through the bachelor of science nursing program at University of Missouri-Saint Louis.
She spent six years as an RN working in various specialties before finding that her passion was to work in emergency medicine and became certified as a trauma nurse.
Then, a visit home for a celebration resulted in an altercation with a family member, and Brandi was shot while attempting to protect her mother, resulting in an incomplete spinal injury. She progressed through treatment and rehabilitation, and returned to nursing, but this time on a remote basis. Now, she is exploring a career change that could combine aviation and medicine.
Chris Karadjov of California followed a career as an international journalist with one as a college professor passing along his experience and skills to new generations of reporters and journalists. After earning his first degree in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a Ph.D. at the University of Florida in Gainesville, for the past 20 years Chris has been a professor at California State University-Long Beach.
After a gift of a flight in a small plane for his birthday in late 2011, he immediately decided to begin lessons and earn his pilot certificate. But within a month, while skiing, an accident would leave him paralyzed from the upper chest down, and his life was changed dramatically.
Not only was flying put on hold, he would now have to concentrate on the challenges of a new daily existence.
Recently, a chance meeting with an Able Flight pilot rekindled his plan to become a pilot, and this year the roles will be reversed as Chris will once again become a student, leaving the teaching to his flight instructor at SIU.
Domenico “Nick” Lazzaro of Pennsylvania has already logged a few hours in a J-3 Cub since an accident eventually led to his retirement from the Army National Guard with the rank of Major.
Nick was serving in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard (PAANG) with plans to seek a training assignment as a warrant officer when he was diagnosed with cancer. Though that ended his hopes of becoming a pilot and ended his time with the PAANG, he fully recovered from cancer and later was accepted into the New Jersey Army National Guard where he rose to the rank of captain.
While on an obstacle course during routine annual training in 2017 he fell and he became a paraplegic. After years of therapy and work he now walks with a cane. This year, with his Able Flight Scholarship, Major Lazzaro plans to become a pilot.
Jonathan Leonard of Utah has flying in his family DNA with both his late father and his grandfather having been pilots, and his mother Cynthia having served over 20 years working for an airline.
Growing up in Indiana, Jonathan always had the option to follow the lead of his parents and grandad, and that was further encouraged when his mom took him to a local airport for a Young Eagles flight at an early age.
But a motor vehicle accident in 2014 paralyzed Jonathan, and he soon turned to adaptive sports, earning a reputation as a motivated wheelchair athlete specializing in adapted mountain bike racing and skiing. His goal is to make it to the Paralympics, but this summer, he is focused on the singular goal of following his father and granddad by becoming a pilot, and when he is successful, Jonathan plans to build his own plane.
