Overcoming disabilities, pilot impresses his peers

The first time Randy Green interviewed about becoming the company’s pilot, it was over the phone. He knew he had to tell his prospective boss that he was born without hands or feet. He didn’t want to waste the man’s time.

“How do you fly?” he was asked.

“The same as everybody else does, only better,” Green replied.

He got the job. Green was hired as a corporate pilot a month ago by Stuart B. Millner and Associates of Union, Mo., which markets, appraises and sells assets from industrial facilities, power plants and mines.

Green has been in Wichita this week training in the company’s Cessna 421, an eight-seat, complex airplane that puts a heavy workload on pilots. Pilots normally multi-task.

Green flies using a few thick rubber bands around his wrist and the yoke. He uses his prosthetic legs and feet on the rudder pedals and brakes. Over the years he’s learned to acquire a feel for braking systems while wearing his prosthetic legs.

He must perform tasks in the Cessna 421 sequentially instead of multi-tasking. His ability to do that has impressed his instructors in Wichita.

One of them, Dave Dewhirst, said Green “has an amazing ability to prioritize what needs to be done first, then immediately turn around and do something else. He does sequentially perfectly what the rest of us do at the same time.”

Dewhirst said the question one asks oneself about whether someone is qualified to be a pilot is, “Would you ride in the back seat with him flying?”

Of Green, he said, “I’d not only ride in the back seat, I’d go to sleep. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind whatever that he can handle all of the skills necessary to fly the airplane, including emergency procedures.”

Green, 42, has earned ratings for private, instrument, commercial single and commercial multi-engine, flight instructor, instrument flight instructor and multi-engine flight instructor.

He’s also passed the written test for the airline transport pilot rating, the pinnacle of pilot ratings. He will take the check ride for the rating in the next 60 days.

He has earned medical approvals after proving to FAA inspectors that he can operate planes.

Dewhirst said he is amazed at what Green has accomplished through raw perseverance.

“There are people who have fewer disabilities than he has who would’ve thrown in the towel. The fact he’s gotten to where he is with what he has is extremely important,” Dewhirst said.

Green said it was always his dream to fly. His father was a pilot in Pueblo, Colo. He offered Green lessons to see where it led when Green was about 19, and Green was instantly hooked.

Green started out in a simple Ercoupe. His first FAA inspector was impressed with the way he handled the plane, encouraged him, and gave him guidance.

He transitioned quickly to more complicated planes. He had only 58 hours in his log book when he got both his private single-engine and private multi-engine ratings.

FAA inspectors encouraged him about flying all along the way. Convincing business owners he could fly has been more of a challenge, Green said.

Some turned him down, and although he has no proof he was rejected because of his disabilities, it was always in the back of his mind.

“It would be in the back of anybody’s mind,” Green said.

Green worked for several months for another company before landing the job with Stuart B. Millner. He has about 2,600 hours in his log book today.

He’s come up with innovations to help him in the cockpit. He came up with a device to pick up items off the floor if they drop. He uses a special set of pliers to pull and reset circuit breakers.

Green is thinking of becoming a motivational speaker. Success through determination is something he knows. Green hunts, fishes, shoots trap and skeet, and used to be a top-rated competitive pool player.

“I don’t let anything stop me,” he said. “If my mind can conceive it, it’s going to get achieved.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 6:51 AM with the headline "Overcoming disabilities, pilot impresses his peers."