Traveling to and from the airport can be a stressful ordeal for anyone. It can often feel like the luck of the draw from the time you arrive, to the time you are actually sitting in your seat on the airplane whether or not you encounter a hiccup or delay. Now incorporate the catalyst of a wheelchair into the mix and your experience can get a lot more complicated.
Flying commercial with a wheelchair can triple the amount of preparations you need to make ahead of your travel departure and arrival. Whether you fly with your own personal mobility device or you choose to use an airport wheelchair and porter at either end of your journey, the whole process can be laborious, time consuming, unpredictable and tricky.
We chatted with our founder, Ken Simons, about his experiences flying commercial before he had access to a VeloChair. He detailed for us how challenging it could be to depend on the airport staff or “porter” to help him once he arrived at the airport where he would sometimes wait up to 30 minutes curbside before someone came to help him. Eventually, after someone did arrive and helped him through security, he would sometimes be left unattended at his gate well before his flight was set to depart.
After developing the VeloChair, Ken found he was much more self-reliant. He could navigate the twists and turns of the airport with relative ease and at his own pace.
“With the VeloChair, I was able to unload the chair from the car and get right into it. I pedaled myself through the airport, found the elevator and made my way to security. I didn’t have to wait for a porter and I was on my own. I pedaled through security to the gate and I had time to wander around to shops and restaurants until my flight was ready to board.”
The beauty of the Velochair is the flexibility and independence it allows you to have. Ken was able to pedal straight down the jetway once his flight was called. Since the VeloChair is collapsible, Ken was able to leave the VeloChair with baggage collection before boarding the plane. To fold the Velochair for airplane travel you simply pop out both of the steering tillers and leave them on the seat of the chair. You then fold the seat back on top of the steering tillers to keep them in place making the VeloChair easy for airplane staff to move to the baggage hold. Adding a strap to make sure the seat back stays folded during the ground crew handling of the Velochair.
Similarly, in reverse, as soon as the plane landed at Ken’s destination, the VeloChair would be waiting on the jetway at the door of the plane. No need for additional assistance from any airport staff.
“The nicest thing about the VeloChair experience was that I didn’t need to depend on another person.”
The airport isn’t the only place that VeloChair has helped people with all kinds of mobility challenges to find a more enjoyable experience. It can be taken to any store, mall, movie theater, school, office that is ADA compliant for wheelchair access. The possibilities are endless.
A constant comment that our users hear most when they are out and about is how the VeloChair could help someone’s friend, family member, coworker or someone struggling with a mobility challenge. People are always curious to learn more.
If you yourself are curious about learning more, you can reach out to us directly at info@velochair.com.
