I want to fly airplanes – Uwamahoro

When you mention girls fearing to embrace ICT, Grace Uwamahoro a student at Gashora Girls Academy cannot be one of them. Grace’s dream is to become a pilot one day and she draws her inspiration from the fact that her grandfather was a pilot. On top of working hard to achieve her dream, Grace also got the chance to briefly experience what it would feel like. Last year, her guardian, Prof. Michel Bézy, an Associate Director at the Carnegie Mellon University – Rwanda, wrote to Rwanda Civil Aviation and the management of Brussels Airlines to allow her a few minutes onboard an aircraft to chat with the pilots who fly one of the company’s jets. Once the request was accepted, I accompanied her to the cockpit of the Airbus 330-330 where she asked the pilots all sorts of questions about flying planes and how to study for a flying licence. Once inside the plane’s cockpit the pilots although busy preparing for take-off, were happy to respond to the inquisitive girl’s questions. “The view from the cockpit is great and there are lots of buttons controlling so many things. I guess I have to study hard before I can fly one of these airplanes,” said Grace after her experience with the pilots.