Birdman takes stock of his flying career.


He would sit on the veranda drinking his tea, while we played football in the garden. My friends and I would shout “ndege, ndege, ndege” as we watched an aircraft flying over our Hillside home.


It was during these choruses that my father noticed my passion for flying. In 1993, he opened the door for me to a world of aviation when the Concorde came to Harare. In my blue shorts, white shirt and oversized sunglasses we made our way to the airport. Father and son; hand in hand.


Standing in awe, he said “It’s a majestic and beautiful machine”, not knowing what the word majestic meant, all I could do was to agree, upon laying my eyes on this aircraft. That was the moment the aviation bug bit me. My first smell of jet fuel.


Years later, out of necessity, I obtained a degree in finance. While earning a living, I still felt a missing part whenever an aircraft would fly overhead and like my 10-year-old self I would shout ndege, ndege, ndege.


After watching me marvel at aircraft for years, my older sister Kudzai, enrolled me to a flying school in South Africa. “Believe in your dreams, all things are possible”, she said as tears ran down my cheeks. Go and do what you love. “I know you love flying and tourism” she continued.


Eventually, I completed my flying school obtained my license and got my first job in Victoria Falls. I was living a dream. Working in one of Africa’s leading tourist destinations and flying tourists to amazing places around Zimbabwe such as Hwange National Park, Mana Pools, Chikwenya and the Lowveld of Chiredzi.


Zimbabwe is a beautiful place and having the honour of seeing it from above is a different experience. Once on a safari flight in Victoria Falls, I had some members from one of the Nigerian Royal families. That day our flight path led us close to the Victoria Falls rainforest. Dressed in his neat and well-ironed outfit one of the gentlemen remarked, “Now I know why Victoria Falls is such a wonder of the world, this is beautiful my brother, God lives here”.


During my safari flying days, landing on bush gravel airstrips was always the highlight of my day. Rarely would you land on the first approach in the animal domain camps. We would perform a low fly past to get the animals off the airstrip and that served as a sightseeing low flight for the tourists seeing elephants, kudus and other animals vacating the runway for us to land.


As a pilot, you always need to upgrade. After working for years in Victoria Falls, I encountered an opportunity to join fastjet on their ERJ145 fleet. I have been flying for fastjet for over a year and I continue to serve and show tourists the beauty Zimbabwe has to offer with flights to Victoria Falls, Bulawayo and Harare.


Just like my 10-year-old self, I always murmur ndege, ndege, ndege whenever I am on duty.


Image: Tinashe Chisewe

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