Southwest Miammi-Dade: Two brothers are hoping to fly into the history books after they pulled off a completely blind flight out of Miami Executive Airport.
Parth Panchal said the idea for Sunday’s blindfolded flight that they hope will land him and his sibling a mention on the Guinness Book of World Records came from stories he heard as a boy.
“I got this inspiration from the story of India, of the king named Prithviraj Chauhan,” he said. “He was able to aim and shoot an arrow blindfolded, and I was amazed how can a person being blindfolded can achieve such a task.”
The idea swirled around in his head for a long time. Then the pandemic hit.
With time to wonder, Parth decided now was the time.
“In a COVID time, I was sitting home free, [my brother] was sitting home free, and we were discussing, ‘Hey, why don’t we do that?'” he said.
After months of research and training on simulators, it was clear to Parth and his brother, flight instructor Vyom Panchal, that this feat was indeed possible.
“Once we started on the simulators, day by day we were improving,” said Vyom. “We never had that thought in our minds that we should give up.”
The learning curve brought challenges for them.
“One is physical, and one is psychological. The more challenging is the psychological,” said Parth. “The first is fear that your eyes are closed and now you’re going to fly an airplane. [My brother] is giving me verbal commands, but I don’t know where I am. The physical challenge is, of course, the disorientation. When your eyes are covered, you keep them closed for some time, and all the different motions happen in the aircraft.”
After many practice hours, the brothers developed a code they use to pull off the amazing feat.
Parth said Vyom gave the verbal commands while making sure not to touch any of the controls.
“He has to keep his hands in a way so, of course, get a clear view for the camera,” said Parth, “but most important, he’s in a position that if he needs to take over the control, if anything goes not as for the plan, he can just get the control right away.”
In the end, the brothers safely touched down on the tarmac.
07/02/22 Jeff Lennox. Craig Stevens/7 News Miami
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