A chat with Zambia's youngest commercial pilot then... Kalenga Kamwendo

Five years ago i sat to interview then Zambia's youngest commercial pilot and enjoyed a meal together. Below is the full article as sent to African Scholar Magazine and the full verbatim of the interview;

He says there is nothing extraordinary about him, but that he is an ordinary 20 year old who loves to watch TV, hang out with friends/family and he reveals that he loves silly things like pranks on friends. He also admits to being a social media freak, with sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. That is not all as he says that like most 20 year old males, he is a huge sports fan in particular football and he mentions Barcelona and Manchester United as the teams he is a huge fan of.

His name is Kalenga Kamwendo, and unlike his declarations, he is no ordinary 20 year old. Kalenga Kamwendo is a 20 year old commercial pilot employed by ProFlight Zambia. He has been a commercial pilot since he was 18 years old when he got his commercial pilot’s licence. He is also highly philosophical as he punctuates his conversations with quotes from philosophers, then he swings back into the world of religious correctness before deviating into strict academic motivational jargon. Here is the extraordinary story of 20 year old Kalenga Kamwendo a commercial pilot with plenty flying hours on his belt alredy.

1.    Who is Kalenga Kamwendo? Distinguishing that from Kalenga Kamwendo the pilot with a square suit case.

Kalenga is my first name and Kamwendo my last name. I like to describe myself from the time before I was a pilot. There was no pilot involved anywhere. Kalenga is a person like any other. First of all, I’ve only got two hands, I’ve only got two legs and one brain. Of course one heart that beats. There is nothing that distinguishes between me or any other person physically or mentally. First of all, I am a God loving son of his mother and father. I am also a fun loving person. People assume that just because I am a pilot, I just fly all of a sudden I am locked in a box and when it’s time to fly again I am unlocked from this box and go to fly. I am a person. I love to watch TV, I love to hang out with friends, family, I love silly things like pranks on friends, I love Facebook and twitter I love Instagram and generally social media. I love sports and am a huge Barcelona and Manchester United fan. I get happy when they win and sad when they lose just like anybody else. I love rugby and swimming too and just sports in general. I enjoy reading and I get excited driving too though it’s weird to many who ask me, why driving excites me when I fly. It does, excite me. Driving excites me. There is nothing that I do that other people don’t do. Kalenga Kamwendo is like any other person out there.

2.    When did you qualify to become a commercial pilot and how old were you?

I qualified as a commercial pilot on the 12th July 2013 and I was 18years old. This was 2 years ago. My story is only coming out now, but I’ve been a commercial pilot for two years. I started flying when I was 17 and I got my commercial pilot licence when I was 18.

3.    Describe your family background (Date of birth, place, siblings, and guardians/parents?

I am Bisa by tribe and was born on the 26^th August 1994 to Thomas Kamwendo and Mailess Kamwendo in Kitwe at Nkana Hospital which is now Wusakile Mine Hospital. I’ve lived in the same house my whole life, I’ve never shifted so I don’t know what it feels like to shift. 12 Mwila Musonda crescent Riverside Kitwe. I am a plain Kitwe boy. I have an older brother his name is Makula, I’ve got a young sister who just finished Grade 12, her name is Muchima. My father is an Engineer, my mother is a nurse, my brother is into all this medical stuff, my sister wants to become a civil engineer and yeah we have me the pilot.

4.    Describe your environment/neighbourhood (social status of your neighbourhood) and your parents/guardians source of livelihood.

We are just an ordinary family, there is nothing extra ordinary about us. I can just say that my parents gave us everything they could give. They gave me every opportunity to become who I wanted to become. So I can’t say we were out there, privileged or anything. But, what I like to describe us as; is a privileged family, that doesn’t mean we are rich but that, we put everybody’s needs above our own.  That includes my parents who put my interests on top of theirs.

5.    How old were you when you started your education? Describe your first days at school. What did you expect your school to do for you? What was your dream and how did you think/expect school to help you realise that dream. Who was your role model (if any)

I started school when I was 7 or there about and finished school when I was seventeen which is not an unusual age. The thing is, you know how people rest the one year after grade 12 and only get into school in January which means they have waited 1 year and two months. I only waited a couple of weeks before I was into school again. My birthday is in August so I was still freshly 17 when I went into Air School. It takes some people a very long time because Air School is so unpredictable. For me it took me only three months from the time I went into Air school and the time I became a private pilot. My first licence as a private pilot, that took me only three months and by that time I was very much 17 years old.

In Grade 1, I was at Lechwee and it was such a friendly place to be at. Sometimes I preferred to be at School than being at home. That kind of freed my mind to be whoever I wanted to become, unfortunately I never wanted to be a pilot at the time. I wanted to become an engineer. I just wanted to be like my dad because to me he was my role model at the time. Little did I know that him being my role model and his motto is, “be what you want to be”, and him being my role model meant me following that, which meant not following him but following myself and be what I wanted to become.

6.    Who would you say helped you get where you are or was your biggest influence? Your teachers or your parents?

My father and my mother were my biggest influence far and beyond. I know a lot of people who had wished to be pilots but they were hindered by their parents more than anyone else. But my parents told me that, “you know what, you are a flower, we have planted your seed, we have watered and you germinate and grow into a flower of whatever colour you decide, is what you become yourself. We are not going to tell you to be a rose of a certain colour because that takes away from your natural beauty”.

So from a very young age, my parents encouraged me to be the best version of me that I could become regardless of what I became.  So they, for me have been the biggest influence of what I’ve become today.

7.    What motivated you to pursue a career in Aviation? What was the major influencing factor? How did your parents/friends/guardians react to your choice of study?

First of all like I have said, my parents encouraged me to be whatever I wanted to be and second, I love breaking taboos. I am one who believes in breaking taboos as much as I can. There is a taboo in Zambia that becoming a pilot is for a certain class of people. To become a pilot you have to be smart and this and that but I was determined to break that. You don’t have to be a certain type of a person to become a pilot. I am just a simple boy from the copper belt of Zambia who grew up in Kitwe. I am a ‘Kopala boy’ but look at what I have become today. That is something that motivated me to go into aviation. Also, when I decided that I didn’t want to be an engineer like my dad I had to find something that I loved. I loved planes and I love football. I had to choose between being a football player and being a pilot. The aviation side won. So I researched and researched and the more I did this the more I fell in love with aviation until I got to a point where I told myself that there is nothing I’d rather be than becoming a pilot.

My parents supported me 300%. I knew that I had their support even before I chose this career path.

8.    Did you at any point feel you should or may quit?

Nothing in life just flows, other than water. Even water encounters rocks at times. It wasn’t a smooth ride obviously. I had stumbles, setbacks and challenges and they were many of them. But I believe that in life there is always a way and life picks the toughest battles for the toughest battles. If I were in the Roman times and was told to go to battle with either 300 soldiers or 300 callboys, of course the soldiers would have the better chance of success.  Life picks the toughest battles for the toughest opponents. The tougher it became, for me I believe it’s the tougher I became. That pushed me and motivated me to become who I’ve become today.

9.    What was the most interesting experience during your studies that kept you motivated? Any difficulty moments or near-break points?

Everyone looking at me because I looked so young. This is me now at 20 and I still get stares because I look young. You can imagine me three years ago at 17. I looked ridiculously young. People would make fun of me by saying, “oh what are you doing here? So they are letting high school kids into flight school now! Did you come straight from grade nine?”, and or sorts of things. That made me realise that I was special in that context. In that field I was different by breaking into it earlier than most do. I told myself that I was there for a purpose and whatever everyone else’s expectations didn’t matter that much to me. I had entered at a different age which meant I was there to break this belief that you had to be a certain age to become a pilot. The more I believed that, the more I pushed and the more I pushed the more motivated I became until my age was eventually not a hindering factor but a motivating factor in making me a commercial pilot.

10.  Where did you do your pilot training and how would you describe Zambia Air Services and Flight Training schools?

I did my training at 43 Air school in a little town called Fort Alfred between Port Elizabeth and East London in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. As far as I know Zambia has Aero Space College and Zambia Air Services Training Institute (ZASTI) as the only flight schools. I have never been to any of them or dwelled into any of them to make any assessment or comment. But if I can take anything out of it is that it’s a positive that we have two flight schools, but I will obviously want to see more investors in the sector so that we have more flight schools.

The main reason I chose 43 Air school, believe it or not I did not know that ZASTI or Aero Space College existed when I left. 43 Air School though has the biggest air fleet in the southern hemisphere, which includes Australia and South America which is really fantastic. They have got something just shy of 50 planes and their staff is experienced, the ground staff is great, the technical staff is great, they have a great air maintenance, they have got fantastic aeronautical engineers on site and it is at an airport. Many air schools rent out premises, but they have got their airport with a full-fledged tower. There is so much in terms of what you can get out of there. I’ve never been to a lot of other schools in depth, but from what I’ve seen at a few schools, they can hardly match up to 43 air school.

11.  Describe your first experience with Flying? And your first time flying commercial airlines!? How have you found life working for ProFlight?

At flight school they literary put you in a plane and you start of right in a plane to move it initially on the ground, of course in the presence of an instructor. Later the simulators come in when you learn instrument flying. The instructor of course does most of the staff in the first flights and slowly but surely introduces you to more things, but the thrill of flying from not doing anything at all is so amazing.

I’d rather describe my first time flying without an instructor, because my first time flying wasn’t really…it was a flight but I mean my instructor took off, she took us in the air and once we were set up she asked us to move the controls a bit move back and forth. The first time I flew without an instructor was me in a plane alone, no one else. I was so used having someone seated next to me. They gave me an aircraft and asked me what I could do with it. I took off, did a circuit and landed again within the airport at 43 air school. I cannot explain how it was exciting and scary at the same time. It was like a roller coaster experience the first time. Unlike in a roller coaster I had to concentrate otherwise I’d kill myself. The thrill of having a whole aircraft under your control is immense, it’s unbelievable. But then I love flying so it was more exciting for me.

In that moment I was feeling like there is really nothing I’d rather do than fly and luckily I had the opportunity at a very young age. When I actually took off, I couldn’t really believe that my dreams had got me to where they had at such an early age. I finally landed and taxied and we had this tradition of a ceremony where they carry you and throw you in a pool. The accumulation of all that happened on that day was just immense and unexplainable and that is something that pushed me to where I am today it was so immense.

Confucius, a Chinese philosopher actually said that ‘if you find a job doing something that you love, then you will never work a day in your life’. At that point I realised that is something that I wanted to do.

First time I flew commercial was 1^st September last year [2014], 5 days after my birthday. ProFlight actually phoned me on my birthday to tell me that I was hired. First time I flew commercially I was really nevers, I never had people’s lives in my hands before. I was nevers, a bit jumpy and excited obviously but I was nevers because there were so many thoughts in my head. I was flying with Captain Vivian Sikazwe and he sat me down, talked me through everything that was going to happen and calmed me down. The flights happened and when it was done I was like; “Oh, am now a commercial pilot! My dream is finally realised.” It was such an exciting moment. Everything, a combination of all my work and culmination of everything that had happened in my life up to that moment, it was a highlight. That day I actually became a commercial pilot. I cannot even explain it in words. I didn’t even realise it, after we landed we did all the paper work and went home and it was only after three hours that it dawned on me that I actually flew people, their lives in my hands and I did it the same way as before I had people’s lives in my hands. There was really no difference; it was really the same thing only the added pressure of people.

I have been a commercial pilot since I got my commercial pilot’s licence but I have only been flying commercially after I got hired by ProFlight which was my first job. Life working for ProFlight has been amazing. They have taken me straight from air school. A lot of companies will ask you to have some sort of experience, but these guys took me under their wing. They have brought me to being an experienced pilot, from nothing. All under their wing without treating me like ‘oh you are young’, they have all treated me like a family from day one they treated me like I had been there for years. I settled in naturally they have taken care of me so much and they make sure I am fine. I have never had one single complaint. All I have for ProFlight is praise, I am sure am going to be there for a very long time to come. 

12.  How have you reacted to your story coming out now making you the man and thrusting you into an overnight celebrity?

I am not the man. Maybe if I was at the top of the chain at my company. I am still at the bottom and still got a long way to go and the point when one gets comfortable is the point one begins to lose it in life. You should never ever find a comfort zone because the more you feel that your goals haven’t been met, the harder you keep pushing yourself until you get to where you want to be and I believe I am nowhere near where I want to be. This is just a combination of all the work I have put in. I am appreciative of it but it’s still nowhere near where I want to be.

13.  You are young in an industry where age, experience and the number of flying hours accumulated is extremely important. How do you move shoulders high to face your daily tasks? Are there any situations you face as a result of this?

Oh yeah every once in a while you get a passenger that looks at you funnily because you look young. But now a lot of people have flown with me and know who I am. We have a lot of frequent fliers who have flown so much with me that when they see me they go like, “ah, it’s this guy”, they know they are in for a smooth flight and they greet me because they know the previous flights with me have gone well. It’s no longer a challenge for me. I look at it as a motivation to go out every single day and prove wrong the people who still doubt and continue adding faith to the people who believe in me up to this point.

Again I’d like to thank ProFlight obviously for getting me in an industry where experience and hours and age matter a lot. ProFlight is actually breaking boundaries in what they are doing and results are there for all to see in their growth in southern Africa, and it is because of things like putting faith in people like me who everyone else would turn a blind eye on. You always reap the rewards of your work, and ProFlight’s growth is them reaping from the hard work they are putting in, into believing in us the Zambian pilots. It’s not only the pilots but flight engineers, air hostesses, ticket sales, the commercial department and just all of us being well looked after by ProFlight and we are growing. This is not coming from nowhere.

14.  In a world where career choice is increasingly made on the premise of expected financial benefits, a career as noble as flying people safely to different destinations, a career where safety and precision in every decision is of primal importance, what motivates you?

It’s love. You don’t love aviation, trust me you will not get your commercial pilots licence because it is a long road to getting the commercial pilot’s licence and if you do not love, it won’t happen. First of all, it is my passion for aviation that is about 70% of it. Everything else is an added bonus towards the passion I have for aviation. I don’t see myself doing a job that I don’t love for the rest of my life just because the money is good. ‘Oh I became a lawyer because I wanted to get money but every day in the court room I am not giving my all because I don’t like being a lawyer’. My choice started with my love and passion for wanting to become a pilot, and everything else obviously is an added bonus.

15.  It is said that the illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. What is you take on this?

I agree 100%. Reading and writing is education obviously and it is very important, but in this ever changing world a human has to be ever changing. Diversification, evolution and adaptation is what brought us to here where we are as the human race and it’s what is going to take us forward. So learn to read and write for the good of mankind and yourself, it is going to help you trust me. It’s not the end but only the beginning keep going, keep learning, keep striving, keep changing. The more you work, you are going to benefit no one but yourself, the less you work is the less benefits you are going to get as a human.

16.  What is your take on the education standards in Africa and the levels of competitiveness of Africa’s graduates to those from other continents?

I haven’t really interacted with a lot of Africans, and their education sectors so I can lie. However, I have met a lot of people like myself, people who have motivated me even. If you thought my story was special, there are a lot of Africans out there who have way better stories than I do. Based on that alone, I know that we Africans if we decided to, would be at par with any other continent. I believe that we do have it in Africa, we do have it within ourselves. We may not tap into it as we should, but from what I have seen, I know that we can do it if we decide to.

17.  Where do you see yourself both professionally and academically in the next 10years?

I am gonna have a house on a hill somewhere, a very big hill. I love heights…hehe am just playing. I’d love to be a captain for ProFlight. They keep expanding their fleet, they are going to have bigger planes and in 10years… oh my gosh! The growth I am witnessing, what planes are they going to have in ten years? And I love Zambia, If I had the choice to live anywhere else in the world, they say there is no place like home. So where I see myself in 10 years is a captain for ProFlight Zambia on their biggest aircraft at that time.

18.  If you were not a pilot what would you be?

Football player. Maybe an engineer like my dad, but I can bet my money on it I would have become a football player. The pull between me and football is second to the pull between aviation and I. So if I had not become a pilot, I’d have become a football player. I don’t know if I’d have made it, but I’d have been a football player. 

19.  What would your last words be to those still considering studying aviation (Especially young people)?

The question is not, Why? But, Why Not? Why should you not become a pilot if it’s what you want to do? If you know within your heart it is what you want to do, then push for it and towards it. At the end of the day it will be no one else going to that job you didn’t want to do, but yourself. You are going to be bored every single day. So if you want to become a pilot, please by any means do it. If you love it so much, trust me you are going to love it more once you get into the aviation industry. Follow not my story but make your own. I became a commercial pilot at 18, but you can do it at 17. You don’t have to follow my example, you can better me. I am not a superior being, but just a normal Kitwe boy, so you can do it also and better me.

Don’t waste time. You are wasting no one else’s time but your own. There is a saying that ‘when I was in school I couldn’t wait to finish so I could enter college, when I was at college I couldn’t wait to finish so I could get a job, when I got a job I couldn’t wait till I retired, I retired at 70 and realised I spent my whole life waiting.

So don’t wait. Go for it, the sooner the better. The younger you are with more qualifications the better also. Being spiritual minded is going to get you more matured quickly.  I can say I have developed as a person, realising that I have people’s lives in my hands. I have to live a certain way, I have to think a certain way. That is different from before. Don’t look at anyone else for inspiration. Look within yourself, think of that first step. The first step is always the most important. You keep telling yourself tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come. You will never wake up on a day called tomorrow. It’s always today. You do it today, you are helping no one else but yourself.