Monday, March 12, 2007
Welcome aboard: Malaysia's women pilots are flying high
actually nothing to post much here,early evening after i woke up from sleep im reading new from "Sunday People" and i saw something intresting about pilot,And to continue the stroy here some of them is my friends i was and like w0w,girls in a pilot uniform pilot,Airasia really really gave some chance to show girl power! PowerPuff Girls babeh? and i still remember about the miss thailand ;) ...respect all of you girls.
Five high-flying young women tell RACHAEL PHILIP that their wish to be a pilot is grounded with a profound passion for flying.
THE next time you board a plane, you may hear a woman's voice over the PA system telling you to sit back and enjoy the flight.
Yes, that will be the pilot. Surprised? Don't be as there are a good handful of female first officers with AirAsia, currently the only local carrier to have women as pilots.
It's good timing too. Malaysia is 50 years into her nationhood. Although women pilots have served in the cargo industry and a good number have made headlines in the air force, there have been none in the commercial sector.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force welcomed its first batch of three women pilots some 20 years ago. Of the trio, only one went on to become a fighter pilot.
By opening its doors to women, AirAsia has helped women here to realise their lofty dreams.
ILI FARINI MOHD IZAM
Her first solo was unforgettable. It was just after Hari Raya two years ago, recalls Ili Farini Mohd Izam, 21. The sun was beating down hard as she walked to the aircraft.
She describes that first landing as OK. "The feeling was one of exhilaration and excitement. They say it's all about having an aptitude for it. You feel the land rushing up to you and you react accordingly."
As junior first officer, Ili flies one way to a destination under a captain. On the return journey, she takes over support work such as communicating with the air traffic controller, radio communications and paper work.
"Paper work is very important. We write down the flight plan, voyage report and keep time. In case if the automation fails, you can always fall back on raw data," she says.
Ili, whose father was a former aircraft engineer and mother a flight steward turned flight safety instructor, thinks the move to recruit women pilots in Malaysia is long overdue.
"There should be more women commercial pilots. We have women already in the airforce. That, I think, is tougher and more admirable."
ILYANA NAZLI SHAH
Ilyana Nazli Shah thought nothing about joining the boys in flying school in Malacca. Determined to be a pilot, like her father, she enrolled in the Malaysian Flying Academy in 2004 straight after school. She was one of the two girls in a class on 15 students.
"The boys think we get it easier with the examiners. I think they are just jealous we passed," she says jokingly.
Ilyana has flown to most destinations that AirAsia flies to including Macau, East Malaysia, Phuket and Hanoi.
NOORHAFIZAH MOHD IDRUS
This former Tunku Kursiah College student was two years into her multimedia degree course in University Kebangsaan Malaysia when a letter arrived telling her to register herself at the Malaysian Flying Academy in Malacca. Noorhafizah Mohd Idrus was overjoyed.It was not an easy two years for her. First Hafizah, 23, had to convince her engineer mother and headmaster father that she really was not interested in medicine.
She had dreamt of flying since she was a child but despite sending in applications, she was beginning to think that no airline would be interested in training woman pilots. Then came THE LETTER from AirAsia.
Hafizah completed her training in January last year and has clocked in 700 hours of flying. It will be another three years before she becomes senior first pilot.
"You have to be at least 26 to be a senior first pilot and you must have completed more than 1,500 hours of flying." Pilot can only do 100 hours in 28 days and cannot exceed 1,000 hours in a year.
Ironically, though Hafizah loves flying, she does not enjoy travelling, preferring instead to stay home with a book.
CHANANPORN ROSJAN
Two years ago, she won a tiara that came with the title Miss Thailand Universe. Today Chananporn Rosjan, 24, has exchanged it for a pilot's hat and "the coolest job on earth"."It's great that your feet are not stuck to the ground. The cockpit makes a unique office. My view is the sky," says the lanky beauty.
"As a passenger you are stuck with a little window. I love looking at the sky... it brings on serenity and calmness," she says with a New Yorker's accent. Besides Thai and English, Rosjan also speaks German and Italian.
She studied at the Francis Lewis High School in the United States, where her guardian was general consulate. Profoundly inspired by the handful of women astronauts in the state, she and her friends harboured similar ambitions.
Then she returned home to study electrical engineering at Sirinhorn International Institute of Technology at Thammasat University and she won the beauty title.
But nothing could detract her from her dream of flying. "My mother was a stewardess. I grew up knowing many pilots. It's a profession I respect a lot. Plus the pay is very handsome," she says.
Rosjan flies for AirAsia Thailand. When talking about her uniform which includes a pair of bulky, dull black shoes, the former beauty queen is not fazed. "I don't see how a pair of heels will come in handy in the cockpit," she says cheekily.
ONG SOOK MIN
At six years of age, Ong Sook Min flew in a Fokker 50. Only a thin curtain separated the cockpit from the passengers and she caught glimpses of the pilot at the controls. Ong, 31, recalls: "I told my mother that one day I would be in there."She used to mount her walkman and radio on the wall and pretend they were cockpit instruments.
However, her father thought flying was too dangerous and wanted her to run the family business making Japanese casserole dishes. So upon graduating in electrical and computer systems engineering, she returned home from Melbourne and worked as a production and QC manager in her father's company. After seven years she quit. "I didn't really like business anyway."
Then her mother saw an AirAsia advertisement for cabin crew and urged her to apply.
Ong did and was accepted. It wasn't quite the same thing as being a pilot though it was some compensation.
Then she heard about a cadet pilot training programme offered by the airline and on her first day as a stewardess, she handed in her application.
Meanwhile, her father had a change of heart too. "He said I was flying as a cabin crew anyway," she says.
Ong has clocked in 600 hours already. "I love the feeling up there. The whole sky is yours," she enthuses.
p/s : respect all of you.
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