Meet Asnath Mahapa - the Founder of African College of Aviation (Pty) Limited. She is the first black female pilot trainee in South Africa. She was SAA’s first black female pilot trainee after she successfully completed her multi-engine and instrument rating training in 2003. Asnath already held two pilot’s licences obtained through Progress Flight Academy in Port Elizabeth, when she entered SAA’s cadet pilot training programme. She is originally from Rosenkrans, near Polokwane (Pietersburg) in Limpopo. She used to visit an aunt in Midrand, whose neighbour was an airline pilot. Asnath was fascinated by his job and after he lent her his aviation books and magazines, she was hooked. After matriculating in 1996 from Motse Maria Secondary School, a Catholic school near Polokwane, she went to the University of the Western Cape to study engineering while working part-time to earn money for flying lessons. She obtained her private pilot’s licence in 1998. In 1999, she was the first black woman to obtain her commercial pilot’s licence through Progress Flight Academy, after she inherited some money. A year later, with 200 flying hours, she joined the SAAF where she spent two years in ground school. Finally she was accepted as a student by SAA. Asnath obtained her Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence in 2003. She was nominated for the 2003 Shoprite Checkers/SABC2 Woman of the Year Award. She suffered a setback when Ross Air, which was giving her training, ran into financial difficulties in 2005. Another airline had to be found to continue her training. In March 1997, four female cadet pilots received their wings as part of the second group of SAA cadets to be trained in Adelaide, Australia. After graduation they joined SA Express for further training. I am a Pilot by profession and currently flying Airbus 319 and 320 for South African Airways (SAA as we know it). I was born in a small village about 70kms to the Northwest of Polokwane in Limpopo. I attended my primary school and high school in that province. I visited one of my aunts here in Johannesburg when I was 13 years old (this was a couple of months after my mother passed away). While I was visiting I heard her mentioning something about her neighbour being a pilot. I got interested in the whole idea of one becoming a pilot, I was very curious but unfortunately I had no one to ask questions about how to go about becoming a pilot. The only access I had into knowing more about this career was through reading magazines about flying and that is where I basically got my information. I took my first flying lesson on the 17th on March 1998 and I have never looked back. I am saying I never looked back but that does not mean the road that lead me to be where I am today was easy. First of all I had no idea what was lying ahead of me, that studying to become a pilot meant that I had to understand complex things like the operation of an engine. I had a father who was clueless when it came to machinery, so I had to picture parts of the engine as we were being taught, imagine having to picture something you have never seen in your life. Asking questions was difficult and embarrassing because I was the only woman in the class and all the men seem to have a good understanding of what the instructor was talking about. I had to study things more than twice just to get a basic understanding. I went through a nightmare to get to where I am today, I went through periods where I didn’t have a job, in actual fact after I finished my Commercial license I stayed without a job for over a year, no matter how many companies I approached, I just could not get anything. I was even fired at some stage for questioning my employers at the time about my growth within the company. Now one would think as the first in the country things should have gone a little bit easier but that’s not the reality. It has been almost 14years since the country had their first African Female Commercial pilot, How come then young women are still going through the same things Asnath went through all those years ago? How come our young people in the rural areas are still disadvantaged when it comes to careers in aviation as a whole? Who is to blame?
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 09:21:48 +0000
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