I N T E RV I E W The skys the limit Actor and musician Charlotte Storey talks about her newfound love of flying and how she qualified as a pilot despite her disability By Matthew Martin, The Log board member C harlotte Storey grew up with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome a rare inherited condition that affects connective tissue. It can result in an increased range of joint movement, and stretchy and fragile skin that breaks or bruises easily. Her deterioration resulted in Storey receiving one of the first ever plastic shoulders in the UK. Unfortunately, her body did not adjust well, which has resulted in one of her arms no longer having any bone structure and being permanently in a sling. She was offered an amputation, but decided against it. When Storey was a child, she met a female Austrian pilot who told her stories about night landings on makeshift airstrips in Bavaria, collecting injured soldiers and dropping off supplies. This woman became Storeys role model. Her stories of missions under enemy fire lodged themselves in Storeys memory. The desire to fly kept nagging at her, but it was an itch that would take another 40 years to scratch. For her 50th birthday, Storey went to Venice with a friend who booked her a flying lesson with a disabled pilot. They flew around Venice (which must have been a fantastic experience) and she asked how her pilot had managed to get his licence. He replied that aviation is a very disabled-friendly industry. That was enough to get Storey taking the next steps. She applied to Flying Scholarships for Disabled People (FSDP) and was invited to RAF Cranwell for selection. Theres a huge difference between flying with a lower-body disability and flying without the use of an arm. With lower-body issues, there are standard hand-operated rudder adaptations with which to steer the aircraft. If the use of an arm is missing, reaching forward becomes problematic the delicate interplay between stick and throttle on take-off and landing makes flying with one hand very challenging. Every arm injury is unique: there are no standard adaptations for pilots with upper-body disabilities in addition to which, throttles are never in a standard position; they need to be tailored. This lack of uniformity at the point of manufacture is the principal barrier to flight for those with arm limitations. Storey was sponsored by Lockheed Martin and completed her flying scholarship at Old Sarum, under the guidance of Fiona Luckhurst, owner of Shadow Aviation. Luckhurst found a way for Storey to fly from the starboard seat, enabling her to control the throttle by attaching her left hand to the lever. This meant, 42 THE LOG Spring 25 pp42-45 Charlotte.indd 42 17/03/2025 14:25