Charles Stites

@bluepilot.bsky.social

172 Followers 122 Following

Longtime pilot, founder of Able Flight, an aviation nonprofit that makes it possible for people with physical disabilities to become licensed pilots in the U.S. Before then, an aviation photographer and writer for aviation magazines. ableflight.org

The long closed runway at the once-active Horace Williams Airport. Owned by the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the airport was home to a fleet of planes that delivered doctors throughout the state every week.
Multiple wind turbines below a small plane on a clear morning.
A small school outside of Casper, Wyoming with a most unusual name displayed on a large sign just above the front door. Poison Spider School.
The instrument panel of a small plane in flight.
A flight information display in a small plane shows the flight is level at 5500 feet, and is flying at an impressive speed of 160 mph over the ground for a plane of its size.
A video of the left wing of a Piper with a layer of clouds hiding a large swamp below. The camera pans right for the same view of the right wing, but hidden below the clouds are highways and farm fields.
A red and white Piper Cherokee on the ramp at Baxley, GA. Behind it is the airport building beneath a blue sky with streaks of thin white clouds.
The four cooling towers at the Savannah River nuclear power plant southeast of Augusta, GA venting steam as seen from a small plane on a very clear day.
A man in a wheelchair in front of a plane that he owns is being congratulated by another man who has just certified that the man in the chair is now qualified to fly as an Instrument Rated pilot. They are shaking hands as the pilot in the chair receives the FAA document recording that he passed the checkride exam.
Five people, one woman and four men, are in front of an adapted training airplane at Southern Illinois University in May 2024. They are all recipients of an Able Flight Scholarship for people with physical disabilities to train to become pilots. They face the challenges of paralysis, amputation or a life long illness, and all five are now licensed pilots.
The St. John’s River southwest of Jacksonville, Fl off in the distance with a Piper wing in the foreground.
Airborne traffic is displayed on a device in a small plane cockpit, showing congestion on both sides of the course, but a clear path ahead.
Two Garmin G5 instruments show heading, grounspeed and numerous other indications during a cross country flight.
Looking into the distance, an Australian Shepherd sits in the left seat of a small plane. Her friend sits in the right seat.
The wing of a small plane, mostly white, but with a red leading edge backed by narrow gold stripes. There are solid clouds below with thin clouds and some blue sky above.
A red and white small plane on the ground with a perfectly cloudless blue sky above.
The white wing of a small plane with red trim, and scattered clouds below as the plane travels westbound above Kentucky.
A small plane in flight over a lake and shorelines. Two smiling people are on board and are easily seen through the large clear canopy. The plane is mostly white, but with a rainbow design of colored trim lines from the nose to the tail.
Student pilot Tim Riney, Jr. alongside his flight instructor Billy O’Connor during Able Flight’s 2024 training program at Purdue University. A red and while two seat training plane is behind them. During that program Tim earned his pilot’s license. Tim uses a wheelchair since becoming paralyzed during a training accident while serving in the Army.
Natallia Mirashnichenka is seen beside the white training aircraft in which she earned her pilot’s license. She uses a wheelchair due to paralysis, and received a scholarship from Able Flight to train at its program at Southern Illinois University in 2024.
The red and white wing of a Piper aircraft with a foggy Ohio River below.
A yellow modern remake of the classic Piper J-3 Cub in flight on an early morning flight in Florida. Clearly seen in the cockpit, the pilot is dressed in the style of pilots of the early years of aviation.
Andrew Daigneau, who lost a leg due to a motorcycle accident, stands in front of the plane in which he became a licensed pilot with training provided through a scholarship from Able Flight.
A yellow and purple Pitts Model 12 biplane in flight, seen from overhead, and flown by pilot Steve Wolf. As shown on the cover of Pilot Magazine in 1999.
A white, sleek kit built airplane in a blue sky.
P-51 Mustang photo taken near Le Ferte-Alais, France.
Looking at a blue morning sky through the windscreen of a small plane.
Video taken above clouds from window of small plane
Cover of Ernest K. Gann’s book “Fate Is The Hunter”from 1961.
The title illustration page of Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery. An image of night sky over the desert.