Hot air balloon pilot flying high despite disability
GARDEN CITY, Kansas – Friday kicks off a busy weekend of events for Garden City. Part of the excitement is the 7th Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival. And one of the pilots who will be taking people into the sky has battled quite a bit of adversity to get where he is today.
“There's no more peaceful way than to fly the balloon, it's very quiet, you get to see the country from above,” said pilot Michael Glen.The freedom of flying is what draws many pilots to aviation, but when hot air balloon Pilot Michael Glen sails through the sky, that freedom means even more."I was involved in a single-car rollover at 21 years old back in 1996,” he said. “It left me paralyzed from the waist down."His dream of becoming a pilot could have been dashed with that accident, but instead it only resolved his goal to fly.“I was denied the first time I applied for my license by the FAA because of my disability and I don't take no for an answer, so I had to prove to them I could do it,” he said.He became the first and only paraplegic hot air balloon pilot in the world.“Because I did become the first, I decided to do some good with it and just show people you can achieve your dream,” he said.
He's here to tell kids they too can overcome adversity.“That's my biggest thing I try to do is go around to school kids and tell them you can achieve anything even if you have a disability or not a disability, if you run into problems you can still achieve your dreams,” he said.And, of course, do some flying at the festival.“I get to go out and fly my balloon and put smiles on people's faces,” he said. “I turn into a little kid every time I fly my balloon.”Michael Glen is also an ambassador for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. Uou can find out more about him at his website www.rollingpilot.com If you'd like to meet him, he'll be at the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Garden City all weekend.
