woah, armless stunt pilot, and she's cute ta boot!

[RACER X]

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/280301

Armless pilot's goal is to inspire others
Motivational speaker says lack of faith in self is only true disability
By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.15.2009
advertisementThe first time she piloted a plane, Jessica Cox had a memory flash from first grade, when she couldn't swing on the monkey bars or climb the ladders to the tall slides on the playground.
She spent most of her time in the sandbox, imagining she was Superwoman flying over the schoolyard and taking her friends one at a time for a flight.
"It shows you the power of the imagination," she says. "The imagination with intention."
Throughout her life, Cox has impressed people with her ability to negotiate without arms. But she has attracted some international fame with her latest achievement: earning a Federal Aviation Administration sport pilot's license. The 2005 University of Arizona graduate also has started her own company, and the product she sells is herself.
Standing on a bright-blue 1946 Ercoupe 415C airplane at Ray Blair Airport in San Manuel, northeast of Tucson, Cox uses her left foot to place a clipboard on the wing. Attached is a list of 30 things she must do before flying, including checking the oil, making sure there's no wing damage and checking the gas level. She ticks off each item with a pencil she holds with her right foot.
"I like it when it's less windy, but this plane can handle 20 knots," she says. "The manufacturers of this plane wanted to make it simple, use the concept of driving and apply it to a plane. But it's still the most difficult thing I've ever done."
She already has spent about 25 hours doing solo flights without instructor Parrish Traweek. Her goal is to reach 150 hours and become a sport pilot instructor.
In the cockpit and ready to take off, Cox puts her left foot on the throttle and her right foot on the yoke, then checks her headphones and the radio. The propeller now makes a loud "thrum." She fixes her eyes forward, and the tiny plane motors up into the blue, cloud-dotted sky.
"I want to teach other people how to fly, people with disabilities," says Cox, 26, who travels around the state giving talks to businesses, school groups and clubs. Her company is called Jessica Cox Motivational Services; the Web site is at www. rightfooted.com
"I always knew I was here to help people," she adds.
Her family says no one has been able to explain why Cox, the middle of three children, was born without arms. When she was born, her mother, who is a nurse, was inconsolable. Her father, a now-retired music teacher, says he never shed a tear. He didn't believe she was a victim.
And Cox maintains she's never seen herself as one.
"If you've never had something, there's no way to miss it," she says.
Cox wore prosthetic arms from age 3 to 14, but she never liked them and considered them a burden. She always preferred using her feet.
She washes her feet a lot — usually at least six times a day — and says if she could have any wish in the world it would be a lifetime supply of pedicures. She's always chipping the polish off her nails.
For practicality's sake, Cox usually wears clogs that are easy to slip in and out of. Her shoe often acts as a wallet.
She is a master of adaptability. Among the tasks she completes on her own: putting in contact lenses, text messaging, driving, talking on her cell phone (and she can do this while driving), putting on mascara, eyeliner and lipstick, and eating, including sipping a mocha with whipped cream while munching on Chicken McNuggets.
She also fills her car tank with gas, which requires gymnastic skills. Because Cox stands only 5-foot-1, the credit card machine is a little high for her usual reach. So she's practically doing the splits when she slides her credit card.
Cox says she was subjected to a bit of teasing when, at 14, she went to a new junior high school. And just last month she overheard a teenager in a McDonald's make a snide remark upon seeing her sitting in a booth, eating with her feet.
" 'I'm weirded out by that,' " Cox recalls him saying.
She's taught herself not to obsess about such comments and stares — often she reacts with humor, asking gawking strangers whether they've never seen someone eat with her feet before.
"Never let your fears get in the way of your opportunities," Cox said in her typically cheery voice during a recent talk to about 30 girls at a local Girl Scout Leadership Day. "The word 'disability' is misleading. Probably the only true adversity I face is acceptance from others. Many other people suffer a true disability: a lack of faith in themselves."
The girls seem to instantly connect with Cox. They crowd around for a demonstration when she asks a few of them to try opening a soda can with their feet — something she can do with only one foot. No one completes the task.
Seventeen-year-olds Krista Caponigro and Joy Bragdon nod their heads when Cox tells them they shouldn't be afraid of being different. The high school seniors say it's a good reminder.
"It's like, you shouldn't be afraid of doing what you want to do," Caponigro says. "Like going to school and trying not to be shy, thinking people are judging you. She shows that it doesn't matter."
The girls say they are amazed at her attitude. "Can't" is a word that Cox avoids.
"I prefer to say, 'That's something I haven't figured out yet,' " Cox tells them.
There are two things that Cox says she still hasn't figured out: how to put her hair into a ponytail and how to rock-climb.
Nothing else?
"Nope."
A pause.
"Flying, that was one for a while. But I can do that now."
Cox finds kids to be a generally bolder audience for her presentations. They ask questions like how she picks her nose and goes to the bathroom. Going to the bathroom is actually one of the trickier things she does — she uses a suction cup hook on a wall to help pull up her pants.
Adults are more reserved. They want to know about how she drives a car, about her parents, and why on earth she would want to fly a plane.
Cox never actually did consider flying a plane until a member of Wright Flight, a Tucson-based non-profit group, approached her after a Rotary Club talk she gave in 2005. The group uses aviation as motivation. Cox had always had a fear of flying and had never even been in a single-engine plane, but she decided to give it a try anyway.
It would take three more years before she found the right plane to fly, however. Her instructors agreed that her "feet flying" method required an Ercoupe, but not just any Ercoupe. She needed one with ample cockpit space, no rudder pedals and, ideally, a throttle on the control panel. After several failed attempts, she finally found a leased plane at the San Manuel airport that fit the bill. She did her first solo flight on Mother's Day 2008.
Since the sport pilot license does not require a medical exam — only a valid U.S. driver's license — Cox had to prove only that she could fly and pass an oral exam.
"It's still unnerving to me," her father, Bill Cox, says as he watches the blue plane lift off from the runway.
"When you get Jessica in an airplane, you have a hard time getting her out. She's very mechanically inclined," instructor Parrish's father, Jack Traweek, says as he watches the plane move north.
When Cox earned her license on Oct. 11, she gained a lot of notice. She traveled to Los Angeles and made an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." DeGeneres also gave the family a trip to Hawaii. "Inside Edition" picked up Cox's story, and so did In Touch Weekly magazine. Her Web site had 10,000 hits in one day.
Cox recently moved back home with her parents, who live on the Northwest Side. She had been living on her own for three years, but her speaking engagements were decreasing as the economy slumped. She is eager to have her own place again soon.
She sees herself one day traveling the globe as a motivational speaker, making a great living and flying herself to some of her events.
There are those who have told her that she's too young to be a motivational speaker, that she needs more life experience, and maybe a master's of business administration. Cox hasn't ruled out those options, but she says she trusts herself and not others to make the right choices. She wants to inspire others to do the same.
She points to the "Captain Hook" prosthetic arms that everyone thought she should be wearing.
"People other than myself were telling me how to live, and finally I just said, 'This is not who I am,' " she says.
"As soon as I took them off, I felt lighter, freer and more empowered than I ever had before.
"It's the same way I feel when I fly. I am empowered, and it's incredible."
On StarNet: See a video about Jessica Cox at www.azstarnet.com
Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com.