Slipping The Bonds Of Earth -- Pilot Doesn't Let Disability Keep Him Grounded

ARLINGTON - Soaring above lush fields in a rumbling twin-engine plane, Steve Soper is awash with a sense of freedom. The clear sky is an endless canvas of blue for Soper's dives, rolls, loops and plunges.

Soper's body is paralyzed below the waist and he uses a wheelchair; on the ground, his route is dictated by ramps and wide aisles.

"I've always felt liberated in the air," said the 38-year-old paraplegic pilot from Idaho. "But I feel more free - less disabled - flying.

"In a wheelchair, it's a nuisance maneuvering down aisles. In a plane, people can't tell you're disabled, and I can control pretty much everything."

Soper will be performing his aerobatics routine at the Northwest Experimental Aircraft Fly-in and Air Show at the Arlington Municipal Airport this weekend.

Believed to be the only paraplegic aerobatics pilot in the nation, Soper lost use of his legs in a non-airshow plane accident in 1986. At that time, he had been touring the airshow circuit for eight years as half of the Idaho stunt duo, Northern Knights.

After the accident, few believed Soper would return to flying, much less aerobatic flying.

Two months later, Soper bounced back and modified his blue Cessna Skymaster with hand controls for the rudder and brakes. He returned to aerobatics, performing as a solo.

"If I can do anything inspirational for people who are disabled, or maybe make people take a second look at disabilities, that's great. But flying comes first, being a paraplegic is second," Soper said.

The fly-in includes other performers and displays of biplanes, amphibians and jets. The event is sponsored by the Northwest chapters of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which has 3,000 members in Washington.

Aerobatics are performed from 5 to 7:30 p.m. today and 3 to 5:30 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday. Admission is $8 a day; gates open at 9 a.m.

For more information, call 435-5857