ROGER Dickson chats affably as we cross the airfield. "When I lost my arm, do you know what the nurse in hospital said to me? Teeth. And she was right - I use them all the time." He takes a mouthful of his sleeve to illustrate, his eyes twinkling with a sense of fun. His black prosthesis is exposed, its end sheathed with white muslin. I'm about to find out how this simple piece of plastic, along with a metal rod, enables Roger to fly.

As vice chairman of The British Disabled Flying Association (BDFA), he's one of many who have come to Teesside for a special day. Cleveland Flying School, based at Durham Tees Valley Airport, is hosting an event promoting disabled flight. It came about when Peter Troy, of Southside Broadcasting, the radio station at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, heard what could be done to modify planes.

"I've been involved with flying for more years than I care to think about," he says. "In a conversation I had with Lee Scott, the operations manager of Northern Aviation, a few months ago, he explained about a conversion he did on an aircraft so that disabled people could learn to fly. As a result of that discussion, this event is taking place."

Through his link with the hospital, Peter hopes spinal injury unit patients will take up flying, as well as others with disabilities. Back at the airfield, Roger shows me how it's done.

Climbing into his light aircraft, proudly emblazoned with his initials, he produces his vital tool - the metal rod he calls Clarence. "The whole system's called Clarence," he explains. "My stump's called Clarence because one of my small grandsons came to the hospital and said, 'What do you call it?' and I said, 'What do you think?' and he said, 'Clarence'. Then we taught Clarence to fly."

FROM the seat beside him, I watch as Roger fits the rod to his prosthesis, and then to the plane's throttle. He says he either uses it like this, or attached to the control column, leaving his single hand free for the dials. It all looks pretty simple, and Roger certainly makes it seem so. At 79, he's still as flying mad as ever. "I've been flying all my life. I was brought up to fly," he says.

Accompanied by his father, Roger spent much of his youth at airfields, joining the RAF as a teenager. "I went in straight from school during the war. I was really too young to do any fighting but they taught me to fly," he says. "Then the war ended, and I came out and went into advertising."

But he never lost his love of flying, indulging his passion at a gliding club. "I've been gliding in Switzerland and South Africa - all sorts of places," says Roger.

Then ten years ago, he lost his arm in a traffic accident. Remarkably, he never thought this would leave him grounded. "When you have an amputation it's a devil of a shock," Roger says, with bluff good humour. "People react in different ways but I was very lucky - I never had any doubt that I was going to fly again."

It took perseverance - and help from the limb centre in his hometown of Sheffield - to make this a reality. "We tried several different kinds of prosthesis. Eventually they designed this one and I designed the attachments, and the health service got the various bits made," says Roger. "It took about 100 hours of flying practice to learn to get it right."

Now that he's proficient, he's using his energies elsewhere - as head of a plane conversion project. "We were given four Bulldogs by the Jordanian royal family for the disabled people of Britain," he says. "One has been converted and we're probably going to start on the second one next month."

Fittingly, the widow of disabled war hero Douglas Bader - "I used to know him quite well," Roger drops in - unveiled the first finished aircraft. It's intended base is Lasham, near Basingstoke, where it will be available to fly. To maximise its use, it will also visit airfields up and down the country.

Roger says the next plane could be based on Teesside. "What I hope is that the second one will come to somewhere like Teesside and be permanently up here in the North," he says.

This hope is shared by Steve Derwin, chairman of the BDFA, who's looking for a local firm to sponsor it. As a wheelchair-bound pilot, he knows as well as any the benefits it could bring.

FROM the cockpit of his microlight, which he assembled from a kit, he demonstrates how his lack of leg power doesn't hinder him. His only aid is a simple stick, which replaces the pedals. Like Roger, he makes being disabled seem irrelevant.

As we taxi to the shed, Steve is clearly in his element. "We should just go flying now, shouldn't we?," he grins. "Every time I get in here I'm tempted."

Steve came to flying late, discovering it only after he had an accident. He says he's always been adventurous. "In 1989, I had a road traffic accident that left me in a wheelchair, but prior to that, I'd been active in outdoor pursuits. I was the outdoor education officer for youth and community services in Cleveland. That meant I had to provide mountain leadership and canoeing courses and things like that. I was kind of professionally and personally involved in outdoor activities."

These included mountaineering - to the level of climbing with record-breaking mountaineer Alan Hinkes. He admits the crash left him shattered. "It came as a big blow to lose the opportunity to do that sort of thing," says Steve, who lives in Yarm. "There was a huge gap in my life and I did wonder for quite a few months what I was going to do."

It was during a trip to the Lake District that he first thought of flying. "I was sitting outside feeling very sad that I wasn't going to be able to go up the mountains again and it just occurred to me that hang-gliders do that all the time," he says. "I went from hang gliding to microlighting then in 1999, I got a flying scholarship and went to California and got my airmen's certificate there."

Since then, Steve hasn't looked back, joining the BDFA and rising through the ranks to chairman. He says he's rediscovered life through flying. "You're always learning with flying because the sky is never the same twice," says Steve. "In any sport, you've got to be committed and there are hurdles to overcome, but I can honestly say that I enjoy my life as much as a disabled person as I did before, and I owe that to flying."

* Free pilot training is available through Flying Scholarships for the Disabled. For information, call 0870 8001942 or visit www.toreachforthesky.org

l The British Disabled Flying Association can be accessed at www.bdfa.net or through Steve on (01642) 898989.