I N T E RV I E W In her capacity as a self-mastery coach, Storey helped the Royal Marines prepare for their performance at the late Queen Elizabeths funeral Youre forced to approach problems from a different angle when youre disabled enabled me to shift my weight forwards and backwards to control the height of the aircraft. If youre forced to approach problems from a different angle, as you always are when youre disabled, you inevitably achieve creative outcomes. The unexpected happens in almost all of my daily encounters with doors, and clothes, and people, so Im accustomed to quick thinking. I had a recent mid-air crisis when the radio switch on the stick broke, so I couldnt make calls on re-entering the circuit. I managed to lean my right knee onto the manual switch on the cockpit dashboard in order to announce my final approach. If you have the use of both arms, youll use a knee pad and write down ATC instructions to repeat back while steering with the other hand. I lack the use of that additional hand, so the memorisation skills I learned as an actor come into play on these occasions. This requires huge amounts of concentration when Im coming back into a circuit, or crossing through airspace. These moments can become quite tense when Im flying alone. I fly an aircraft with manual flaps. To engage them, I place the weight of my flail arm temporarily on the stick to keep the nose down while deploying the flap lever with my left hand. This took hours of trial and error to achieve consistently effective outcomes. What advice do you have for someone applying for a scholarship? If you have a driving licence and are registered disabled, you can apply for a flying scholarship through FSDP. At the time of my scholarship, I worked full-time and was accustomed to early starts and long days, but even for me flying 44 THE LOG Spring 25 pp42-45 Charlotte.indd 44 17/03/2025 14:25