‘Magic’ moment: Cole Harbour woman with cerebral palsy to be in pilot seat of drone
By Stephanie Taylor
A big smile comes to Jennica Gagne’s face when she remembers the first time she was able to make a phone call.
“Magic,” the 21-year-old Cole Harbour woman recalled, blushing a rosy shade of pink matching her hot-pink hair. “It was so cool.”
Born with cerebral palsy, Jennica uses a power wheel chair to move around, and wasn’t able to make a phone call by herself until last year when she was fitted with new chair that allowed her use of an iPhone through a set of head controls.
“She was able to call me by herself and then I cried happy tears when she hung up on me by herself,” her mother Krysta said.
The pair are now hoping to re-create that magic on Saturday when Jennica has the chance to be in the pilot’s seat of a drone that will be flying over MacDonald Beach near Cole Harbour.
“We can’t put her in the drivers seat, but we can put her in the passenger’s,” Marc Cayoutte, who is the flight organizer, said Thursday. Cayoutte, a member of the Shearwater RC flyers club and neighbours with the Gagnes, said he wanted to give Jennica a way to see the world from an ariel perspective — a big change from sitting in a wheelchair.
He explained Jennica’s chair will be mounted with a tablet that streams live video from a camera attached to the drone. Once she feels comfortable she can wear a pair of goggles to allow her a more immersive experience of being mid-air.
“She’ll essentially feel like she’s flying,” John Liddard said, who who will be piloting the drone on Saturday. “It helps change everyone perspective on what people are capable of.”
Jennica’s mother said the pair are ecstatic, especially since there is new technology that could one day allow for Jennica to control a drone by herself from her iPhone.
“It’s the independence of doing the little things that we take for granted,” she said.
“I have no idea what I’m walking into,” Jennica said, laughing.
But luckily, any nerves are overcome by the excitement she feels at the opportunity of gaining more independence.
“It means that I do what a normal person can do.”
