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- Aug 23, 1999
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This is just a few bits and pieces of our current trip. This is our second trip this year; first was in June when we drove down with our wheelchair accessible van.
This was also our first air travel since Fall of 2019. She got a new manual wheelchair about a year ago. This is her wheelchair with everything attached to it.
We gate check the wheelchair. While we are waiting at the gate, I remove anything that might fall off or be pulled off or bent. With this wheelchair, the armrests, side guards and anti tip bars are all flat, so I was able to fit them into my overhead carry on bag.
After she is on the plane, I remove the seat, backrest and headrest and carry them onto the plane.
After removing everything, I fold down the back of the chair and fasten the seatbelt over the folded back. This picture shows how the chair looks when I turn it over to the baggage people at the gate.
It‘s usually the last or almost last of the gate checked items to be brought to the gate and sometimes the baggage people panic when they see a ‘bare bones’ wheelchair because they think pieces were lost.
Our flight included a lot of passengers from an Iowa Wish granting organization. Many of them were traveling with wheelchairs and had never been on an airplane before. It was pouring rain when we arrived at Orlando; many of them had seat cushions similar to my daughter’s that were soaking wet and at least one person lost pieces of their wheelchair.
We drove our own wheelchair ramp van for our trip in June. That was SOOOO nice because we could drive everywhere without transferring DD out of her wheelchair. In her case, transfer means us lifting her because she can’t stand or walk.
This trip we rented a regular van. It still worked out well because the van had ‘Stow and Go’ seats, which fold down flat into the floor. Her wheelchair fit in the back without removing anything or taking anything apart. One thing we noticed lifting the new wheelchair into the back of the van is just how much lighter it is than her older manual wheelchair. This is a picture of the wheelchair in the back of the van.
We rode the bus a couple times. The driver who did the tie down this time knew exactly what he was doing and did a 100% correct tie down. Her wheelchair does have tie down loops front and back. The outside front one is not used for the bus tie down system. Since they are black, I marked all of them with silver/white reflective tape. Despite that, the drivers often couldn’t find the front one - they were expecting it to be higher.
One night coming back, I had a feeling the driver did not use the back tie down loops, even though I told her they were there (I was standing in front of the chair).
Luckily, I looked and made her change it - She had attached the hooks to the thin, hinged bar that is pulled to fold the seatback down. I explained what it was and made her change it to the correct place. Moral of the story - always check.
This picture is the Safari tram, not the the bus, but it shows the tie down loop (marked with a green arrow) and the back release bar (marked with red rectangles)
This was also our first air travel since Fall of 2019. She got a new manual wheelchair about a year ago. This is her wheelchair with everything attached to it.
We gate check the wheelchair. While we are waiting at the gate, I remove anything that might fall off or be pulled off or bent. With this wheelchair, the armrests, side guards and anti tip bars are all flat, so I was able to fit them into my overhead carry on bag.
After she is on the plane, I remove the seat, backrest and headrest and carry them onto the plane.
After removing everything, I fold down the back of the chair and fasten the seatbelt over the folded back. This picture shows how the chair looks when I turn it over to the baggage people at the gate.
It‘s usually the last or almost last of the gate checked items to be brought to the gate and sometimes the baggage people panic when they see a ‘bare bones’ wheelchair because they think pieces were lost.
Our flight included a lot of passengers from an Iowa Wish granting organization. Many of them were traveling with wheelchairs and had never been on an airplane before. It was pouring rain when we arrived at Orlando; many of them had seat cushions similar to my daughter’s that were soaking wet and at least one person lost pieces of their wheelchair.
We drove our own wheelchair ramp van for our trip in June. That was SOOOO nice because we could drive everywhere without transferring DD out of her wheelchair. In her case, transfer means us lifting her because she can’t stand or walk.
This trip we rented a regular van. It still worked out well because the van had ‘Stow and Go’ seats, which fold down flat into the floor. Her wheelchair fit in the back without removing anything or taking anything apart. One thing we noticed lifting the new wheelchair into the back of the van is just how much lighter it is than her older manual wheelchair. This is a picture of the wheelchair in the back of the van.
We rode the bus a couple times. The driver who did the tie down this time knew exactly what he was doing and did a 100% correct tie down. Her wheelchair does have tie down loops front and back. The outside front one is not used for the bus tie down system. Since they are black, I marked all of them with silver/white reflective tape. Despite that, the drivers often couldn’t find the front one - they were expecting it to be higher.
One night coming back, I had a feeling the driver did not use the back tie down loops, even though I told her they were there (I was standing in front of the chair).
Luckily, I looked and made her change it - She had attached the hooks to the thin, hinged bar that is pulled to fold the seatback down. I explained what it was and made her change it to the correct place. Moral of the story - always check.
This picture is the Safari tram, not the the bus, but it shows the tie down loop (marked with a green arrow) and the back release bar (marked with red rectangles)
