Teen aims to become pilot

Youth & Careers
Source:
The National,Wednesday June 29th, 2016

 By CHRISTINE PAKAKOTA
THIS is my dream, I want to become a pilot and I am confident I will achieve it, 16-year-old Amelia Sapuri says.
Sapuri is a Grade 9 student at the PNG Paradise High School in Port Moresby and this has always been her dream.
“I want to become a pilot; when I was small, I would always tell mum, I want to become a pilot – Captain Sapuri.”
She and eight other students had the opportunity to actually sit in the cockpit of Air Niugini’s F70 on Saturday during an excursion to engineering hangar.
The F70 can take up to 80 passengers, eight in business and 72 in economy class.
“I feel that I fit in there (cockpit) and I should be in there. It is really exciting. This really motivates me to study hard.”
The West New Britain lass knows it’s going to be a tough road to achieving her dreams and is determined to excel in her studies especially in physics, mathematics and English.
The students were taken into the cockpit under the command of Henry Kore, hangar foreman, who gave a rundown of basically what an aircraft engineer does and what is inside the aeroplane’s cockpit.
He explained to the kids that maintenance was carried periodically on planes.
“If there are problems that a pilot finds, they let the engineers know through a report and the engineers fix it.”
He encouraged the students to pursue their dream, saying it was fun being an engineer.
“I love fixing aeroplanes. It is the fun part of being an engineer. And I feel happy when I fix an aeroplane and it flies off.”
Citing Air Niugini’s safety record and being with the company for 32 years, he he learnt a lot through job training and his mistakes over the years.
“I made mistakes and over the years I feel comfortable that next time, this will not happen and I feel encouraged,” he said.
“Every time I sign the aeroplane off, I know the plane is going to come back when the problem returns for engineering repair.”