Fil-Am armless pilot soars to great heights

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino-American Jessica Cox, 30, arrived in the Philippines last week to raise funds for her documentary “Rightfooted” and to promote awareness for people with disabilities, to inspire them to live a normal life.

Jessica was born without arms because of a birth defect. But that did not stop her from doing things little girls do, like perform in a dance recital and cut her birthday cake. She learned to use her feet to do things that other people do with their hands, such as brushing her teeth, putting on make-up, doing cleaning chores around the house and driving a car.

As she grew up, she did a lot of other things that even able-bodied people did not do – play the piano, go scuba diving and surfing and doing tae kwon do (she won her first black belt at the age of 14, and  even uses the chaku).

And as if all that wasn’t enough, Cox learned to fly a plane, and got a license to do so, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2011 as the world’s first person without arms to earn a pilot’s license.

Cox arrived last Thursday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) with her Filipina mother Ines and husband Patrick Chamberlaine on Philippine Airlines flight PR 103 from Los Angeles. They will spend two weeks here, and will visit their home province of Samar, to “go swimming and shopping.”

This is Cox’s third visit to the country. She will speak at the 14th Asia Pacific Life Insurance Congress.

She has traveled all over the globe, spreading the gospel of “desire, persistence, and fearlessness” as the way to achieve one’s dream.

In April she will visit Ethiopia, in partnership with non-profit organization Handicap International to promote the inclusion of children with disabilities in Ethiopian schools and encourage people to “think outside the shoe.”

She was raised in Tuczon, Arizona. “I feel blessed,” she says of her handicap. “We all have our challenges and I really like this as a gift, we are all blessed in our own ways.”

Cox is a psychology graduate from the University of Arizona. After college, she said she decided to conquer her fear of flying.

“It was actually my greatest fear, so I decided to try it out. After the first flight I was hooked and decided I wanted to be a pilot.”

She flies a single-engine Ercoupe, a two-seater, low wing, bubble canopy private aircraft.

Cox said, “I fly with my feet – my right foot is on the yoke and my left on the throttle. I use both feet, with no special equipment,” she said.

“It’s a big challenge, but once I’m in the air, it’s empowering, it’s like a bird.”