Born in 1992, the 27 year old Bob Omondi is living a dream of many Kenyans who desire to join the aviation sector.
Brian joined Kenya Airways straight from high school through a program that captured bright brains fresh from the KCSE exams
After a series of interviews and assessment, he was among the lucky who were chosen and taken to South Africa for training.
More than 1000 Kenyan students took part and only 19 were selected to proceed to the next level in South Africa
He spent in South Africa only one year and six months before returning to Kenya as a pilot and obtained his commercial pilot license
Pilots and first officers can only fly a commercial airline under the control and auspices of the captain who is the overall controller of a commercial plane
Bob Omondi began his training with KQ using the lowest ranking fleets owned by the Kenya’s national carrier.
Bob worked as the first officer for the low ranking fleets before making in to Boeing 737 then 787 where he is currently working as a first officer.
After clocking more than 3000hrs as a first officer, his license was upgraded to a captain, which means he can take control of the Boeing 787 as a captain and fly it under the control of no one else.
Bob has a total of 4000 flight hours as a first officer.
New York route from Nairobi is his longest flight he has flown an aircraft clocking as much as 15 hours without a stop.
Another longer route he has take an aircraft through is Bangkok which is at most nine hours from Nairobi
On his first flight controlling an aircraft, he felt so nervous and happy at the same time, because he could not believe that he was the one flying the plane
Bob has to keep fit and healthy because all pilots undergo a health check up every year while those over 40 years do the check up after every six months
As a pilot, he says that they also have to face their personal problems at home despite the fact that they are working.
He also says that pilots have to work hard even during key holidays like Christmas and New Year.
If you want to become a pilot, Bob says that you have to be extremely good at English, Physics and Mathematics
Being a pilot was his childhood dream from the age of seven years .
Courtesy of CHAMs Media
