Flight Unseen

Ralph Council may be unable to see, but he has a unique perspective on the aviation sounds that often go unnoticed by sighted people.

A kite’s fluttering in the breeze, a jumbo jet soaring across the sky or a news chopper’s whirring overhead are sounds that captivate the flying buff.

Born without eyes or optic nerves, Council, 44, doesn’t let his disability keep him from flying kites and model airplanes or even riding a bicycle.

For kicks, Council uses his superior hearing to identify the distinctive engine sounds of jets, propeller planes and helicopters.

At his Woodland Hills home, piles of audiocassette tapes are stacked on a bookshelf. The tapes are recordings of vintage military airplanes, arriving and departing aircraft at Van Nuys Airport and soundtracks from the “Star Trek” and “Buck Rogers” television series.

“For some reason I like aircraft sounds,” Council says, cranking up the volume on a cassette deck, adding rhetorically, “Why do some people watch car racing?”

But listening to tapes can’t compare with live sounds, he says. So Council grabs his cane and 12-foot kite, “Beast,” and heads out to a playing field at nearby Hughes Middle School.

Council navigates his course by rhythmically tapping his cane against the pavement and walking in an S-formation. “I couldn’t walk a straight line if my life depended on it,” he jokes. “I’d never pass a field sobriety test.”

At the school, Council unfurls the oversize kite and turns his face into the breeze. With fearless abandon he races across the field, holding the kite aloft until it takes flight. The blowing wind and fluttering kite cause him to shriek with delight.

“Since I can’t fly full-sized aircraft, this is the next best thing,” Council says. “I imagine myself flapping my wings and flying off the ground. It’s like the kite is an extension of my hand way up above everything and probing the atmosphere.”