The Croppa Creek farmer will be the first quadriplegic to fly a helicopter.

Mr Bailey became a quadriplegic after a car accident when he was 19. 

However, he has since achieved his goals of running his family farm, and learning to fly an ultra-light aircraft.

Mr Bailey was inspired to learn to fly a helicopter when giving talks at schools. He thought to fly into a school and land would be a really tangible way of showing kids they could achieve anything they wanted.

Sam and his wife Jenny have dubbed the project “helifirst”.

There were people who said it would be impossible, but this only fired Mr Bailey up even more.

A chance meeting with Major Glen Todhunter in 2006 really got the ball rolling.

Major Todhunter was a blackhawk chopper pilot who had both his legs amputated below the knee.

After the amputation, he learnt to fly a chopper again.

“We formed a friendship and he’s helped me ever since. He’s just the sort of person who would build a rocket and fly to the moon with you,” Mr Bailey said.

Major Todhunter became the helifirst project co-ordinator.

Progress was a little slow to start.

“I was a bit naive, thinking it would happen overnight,” Mr Bailey said.

But Mr Bailey has now undergone a medical and been deemed fit to learn to fly, and he has received sponsorship for the modification to the helicopter and other expenses.

There have been a few different helicopters offered up for Mr Bailey to learn in but he is still deciding which one 

to modify.

The modification will mean there is a switch which will allow the helicopter to be operated by a special hand control, or operated normally depending on who is flying.

Other than that, Mr Bailey says he is required to do the same training with his training company Heliwest as any other person.

At the moment, the trainee-pilot is set to be in the air by mid-next year.

He and Jenny are also writing another book, to be released at the end of next year, detailing his experiences with the helifirst project.