Sarthak Singhal

“Did you just?.. Did I really..? No way I didn’t fly? But, I did. Didn’t I? I think I really did!”

This here is the inside of my head as the realisation of having successfully landed an aircraft crept into my conscious mind. ‘Unreal’ is the only word that comes close to expressing it. Breathtaking is the word that would sum up the experience while still airborne!

A lot went into making this moment possible and I have the utmost gratitude to the school, my family and my fellow pilots who kept me and each other sane through this global paradigm shift.

We landed in South Africa to do our flying training on 14 March 2020. Full of excitement and enthusiasm little did we know that upon reaching we’d be put into quarantine. We crawled out a week later, thrilled to commence our training, only to see the entire country transition into a state of lockdown for two whole months which felt like eternity to be honest! I remember thinking to myself that day, “Hah, this is definitely not going as planned!”

Anyway, like they say everything happens for a reason, well, so did this. These two months gave us time to get to know each other, while getting comfortable and familiar with the school. The lockdown turned out to not be that bad. I actually ended up getting so used to it, that I dreaded the lockdown being lifted and having to get my life back into a schedule!

Soon came the 1st of June and operations finally began! Heart thumping, exhilarated and very much over-dressed, I had my first flight on 04 June 2020. A date that’s gonna be tough to forget. But, I’m not going to lie, thirty minutes into my flight, I honestly got a little bored! It’s not all fancy and glamorous as most people think it is. At least, not at this stage. Then came my second flight, and my pompous thoughts were put to an end. I mean it really changed me. My instructor let me take off and I couldn’t believe my eyes as I did. Before I knew it, I was in the air and quite literally even cloud 9 felt like a tiny blimp as I looked out the windscreen! It felt like all the months spent studying in Ground School and waiting in lockdown paid off. I was finally flying an aircraft and it was cathartic to experience that!

Even though at times I have to wake up super early in the morning or even skip meals for a flight, I realise it’s all part and parcel of being a pilot. The world from above is just too beautiful to look at and that for me, makes it all worth it.