Wheelchair users offer additional flying tips and ideas
For wheelchair users Peter Axelson and Lee Tempest, preparing for a flight is stressful enough. Having to arrive at the airport five or so hours early, trying to remember all the excess travel toiletries, accessories and equipment they’ll need and strategically planning bowel and bladder preparations, can be mentally and physically taxing, too.
So, they both highly recommend purchasing TSA PreCheck (www.tsa.gov/precheck). For only $75-$85 for a five-year plan, they gain some extra time, ease travel burdens and frustrations and, admittedly, preserve a little dignity. It’s just another idea that wheelchair users and paralyzed veterans can use to save some hassles at the airport.
*It saves so much time and humility,” says the 68-year-old Axelson, an Air Force veteran who was paralyzed during a training accident in 1975. “It’s a very humbling, embarrassing sometimes, procedure to go through the [security] process because they have to frisk every part of your body. And it’s taking off my vest, my coat, whatever I’m wearing. They’re going to frisk every part of your body if you don’t have that PreCheck option. With the PreCheck option, they’re just scanning your hands and parts of your wheelchair. And it makes it a whole lot faster to get through the whole security checkpoint process.”
Making Flying A Little Easier
Besides protecting their chairs at the airport (PN June 2024), wheelchair users and paralyzed veterans can also purchase or try other items to make their lives easier when flying.
A 51-year-old Pittsburgh resident, Tempest sustained a level T12 spinal-cord injury in a 1991 motor vehicle accident in Steubenville, Ohio, and has spent the past 33 years in a wheelchair.
A University of Pittsburgh study coordinator for model systems and wheelchair rugby player who travels to sports tournaments frequently, Tempest says going through the the TSA PreCheck process — filling out paperwork and then scheduling a meeting and screening where a TSA representative fingerprints you and does a background check over a couple hours — has made the the security line and screening waiting game much smoother. And it’s a good purchase for those who fly at least a couple of times per year.
Now, instead of going through a longer pat-down process since he can’t go through a metal detector, he says agents just scan his chair and do a quick bomb swipe.
“It’s made an absolute huge difference. Just less stress, less them asking you questions of, ‘Can you take your shoes off? Can you lean this way? Can you lean that way?’ Now, you have the right to say no to that stuff. But [once] you do the PreCheck, they don’t even ask you anymore. OK, that’s all taken out. That’s all eliminated. They’re really not checking you anymore. And that’s that,” Tempest says. “It has saved so much time.”
Tempest also recommends a Phoenix Instinct roller bag (phoenixinstinct.com/shop) that attaches to his wheelchair via a trolley bar (that can also be purchased there). His wife, Rachel Hibbs, DPT, NCS, ATP, and assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh who spoke during the same presentation, bought him the Phoenix bag for Christmas in 2023. Tempest says it’s made a major difference, especially when traveling by himself. He can connect his suitcase to his wheelchair and transport it hands-free. Now, he doesn’t have to put a suitcase on his lap or push it in front of him.
“It really connects to my chair and allows me to pull the bag through the airport, especially when traveling alone,” Tempest says. “If I want to go by myself and I’m going need to get through the airport, need to get to my gate and stuff like that, I can latch it onto the back, carry it to my gate. When I get to the plane, I can just pop it right off.”
A Nevada resident and pilot, Axelson also recommends bringing more than just a wheelchair seat cushion to avoid developing pressure sores. He brings two to three, including a smaller one that fits on an airplane seat that helps him distribute his weight more evenly. He says a regular wheelchair cushion puts a wheelchair user up too high. He also brings along a backpack for foot support and a neck cushion.
“It’s really important to have a travel cushion to reduce sitting pressures,” Axelson says.
