totally blind pilots: continued thank you to pilots and controllers from

[Declan Webster 1418456]

To any controllers who have helped blind pilots when we arrive on the scene causing total chaos, joking, or to pilots on Unicom helping us with position information, thank you from our community. Many of us have over a thousand hours on the network and for pilots who can’t even taxi that’s some going and just shows how helpful the majority have been.

To clarify, we are totally blind pilots using screen reading software. We used to use freeware aircraft with basic autopilot software’s, but thanks to the amazing work of the blind pilot’s community and the cooperation of PMDG our addon program Talking Flight Monitor has given us access to the pmdg line up of aircraft. Hence I do hope we are following instructions with more accuracy. The most frustrating thing for us is not being able to taxi the aircraft. The software allows us to fly once airborne perfectly, and the Autoland allows us to ensure we are on the centreline and touchdown zone, but as you may have seen if you are a controller we will always ask for permission to reposition to the runway threshold for take-off. We are exploring options to rig up some kind of taxi system, but with our small community it is difficult. Not all sceneries in p3d expose the full taxiway data. We are exploring other solutions like pulling data from openstreet maps. On a side note if anyone has any ideas feel free to drop me a line as to be able to taxi properly Is the last thing holding us back and we are desperate to make some headway.

Nevertheless we make do with what we have, and from the controller making room for us on the busy one runway airport at a packed event, to the pilot informing us of their position relative to our aircraft on Unicom for a coordinated approach, thank you. For controllers, if there’s anything we can do to make things easier then do let us know. I will say that for those who have experienced us, you will know the reposition takes only a few seconds, and so hopefully getting us out isn’t too difficult.

Here’s to a future method of taxi for us, but until then vatsim and the pmdg aircraft are the closest a totally blind individual can get to flying for real. I remember well the first time explaining to a controller I was totally blind and hearing the absolute confusion. Now it’s commonplace for controllers at airports I commonly fly to to know immediately what we need. Our virtual airline, vision or BVI, is also widely known, and if you hear the vision callsign it will be a blind pilot transiting your airspace.

Best, Declan.