CNN African Voices, sponsored by national telecommunications operator, Globacom, will this weekend continue its tradition of bringing to viewers Africans who have excelled in different spheres of life by highlighting the story of two pilots and a paraglider.
The 30-minute magazine programme will, from Friday celebrate a hot air balloon pilot from Kenya; David Eris Nguruga, a commercial pilot from Pimville, Soweto in South Africa, Tumi Carter Katisi, and a paraglider from Mauritius, Hans Joachim.
David Nguruga is one of the top ballon pilots with ‘Class C’ flying license. There are less than 100 people worldwide with this highest qualification. His childhood dream of flying airplanes has careered into a 12-year romance with hot air balloons.
Speaking on his career, Nguruga said “I had developed a liking for flying airplanes when I was a kid. I remember, we were having lunch and this fighter jet came out. I stepped on my food just to see this plane. I was like, ‘whoa’. I said I want to be in one. So, I think I developed that from my childhood but never thought that I could do it”.
Katisi’s love for flying was ignited in her tenth grade when she got an assignment to shadow a professional in the workplace. She had earlier planned to become a medical doctor and chose to carry out the assignment in a hospital but none of the hospitals she contacted responded. She then decided to reach out to her aunt, a staff of South African Airways.
After her first experience, Katisi explained that she used every opportunity to visit the airport and gradually she became familiar with pilots who shared their secrets with her and allowed her to share in their simulator time. She eventually got her commercial licence having received communal help to pay her huge fees. An elated Katisi has promised to use her experience to train other aspiring pilots from young South Africans females.
The third guest, Joachim is a specialist in recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. He has ruled the Mauritius skies over the years sitting in a harness suspended below a fabric wing.
Speaking on his profession, Joachim said “the development of our ability to identify these rising, warmer and therefore lighter air bubbles allows us to paraglide across the island – from North to South and from East to West.”
