Handivol - Lighter-than-air seminar

The airship hangar at Ecausseville in Calvados hosted a seminar devoted to lighter-than-air craft for the first time last weekend (12 and 13 November 2022). About 70 members and guests joined the association “Audace Handi Evasion” in this remarkable building constructed in 1917. This first introductory course on operating Ultralight Airships welcomed future trainee pilots and crew members, with or without a motor disability.

The dimensions of the structure (30 m high and 150 m long) make it possible to fly “indoors” in a hot-air balloon and mini hot-air balloon, in an “Aéroplume” and… in a class 5 microlight.

Audace Handi Evasion is indeed carrying out its Side Fly project, a highly innovative class 5 microlight accessible to two people with disabilities, for which it presented the gondola demonstrator and wished to validate various functions before moving on to the manufacturing phase of the Side Fly 01 prototype.

And it was a success! Several inflations were carried out with the gondola in flight position and a disabled person on board throughout the operation, demonstrating that the burner pivoting system works properly (remember that a conventional gondola, with a fixed burner, has to be lying down during inflation).

The Side Fly project © FFPLUM

The gondola even “took off” (by a few centimetres) to check the consistency and load distribution of the whole assembly. This system is therefore an essential step forward for the accessibility and independence of people with disabilities in class 5 microlight flying.

Various improvements were also validated thanks to feedback from the association members who took turns on board, which will allow the project to move on to the prototype phase, a fine example of inclusive practice. Workshops let future pilots become familiar with the operating techniques: regulations, flight management, inflation, use of the burner and fuel, flying mini hot-air balloons, flights in an “Aéroplume”, etc.

To promote HANDIVOL flying and help change attitudes towards disability.

On Saturday morning, the staff of the Audace Handi Evasion association and the FFPLUM president welcomed elected officials from the Communauté d’Agglo (owner of the building) and the Cotentin Département, as well as the local press, for a presentation of the activities and of the Side Fly project. The “show” began with a 100% disabled crew taking their places in the Side Fly cockpit, and several inflations started at the same time in a spectacle of sight and sound amplified by the acoustics of this concrete cathedral. Inclusive approaches featured strongly in the speeches of the various elected officials, all deeply committed to accessibility, equal opportunities and the social integration of people with disabilities.

And tomorrow?

Construction of prototype 01 (gondola and envelope) will begin shortly, for a first flight planned at the end of the second quarter of 2023. We can bet that in 2023 we will see the Side Fly (or Side Flys) in flight at the Grand Est Mondial Ballon at Chambley at the end of July and, of course, at the Microlight World Championships in Blois in September.

Alain Réveillon

Handivol Division

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© Photos FFPLUM