SA’s first black female helicopter pilot
The founder of the Girls Fly Programme in Africa, Refilwe Ledwaba, is focused on aviation being accessible as a career for women
AS Refilwe Ledwaba boarded an aircraft for UCT, her medical ambitions shrunk away, replaced by a passion entirely her own – flight.
Helen Grange chatted to South Africa’s first black female helicopter pilot in the SAPS.
EVER wondered who the brave, highly skilled pilot of a helicopter in a car chase is? Well, the last time you witnessed the drama of one hovering over a fast-moving crime scene, the pilot might well have been Refilwe Ledwaba, who did 10 years as a helicopter pilot for the SAPS.
Today, her aviation career is no longer about disempowering criminals, but empowering women to follow her flight path.
Ledwaba is the founder of the three-year-old Girl Fly Programme in Africa (GFPA), aimed at making aviation an accessible career path for women, and each year it puts about 100 young women through a five-day aviation and space camp, which provides them with all the necessary knowledge and skills they need to prepare them for the aviation Industry.
“Many of these girls, from both urban and rural areas, have never been in an aircraft before, and aviation seems as inaccessible as a career option as it once was to me,” said Ledwaba, who by now has clocked hundreds of hours of piloting fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and has a commercial licence for both.
Ironically, the path cut out for her originally was medicine. Ledwaba grew up as one of seven siblings in a single-parent household in Limpopo. Ledwaba was content with the idea of being a doctor, until she stepped on an aeroplane for the first time.
“On my first flight to Cape Town to go to UCT, I was amazed to see the pilot was a woman.
“It was only then that I realised that women were pilots too, and I fell in love with the idea of flying,” she recalls.
Ledwaba had her studies to get through, however, and after she graduated with a BSc, she needed to find work to pay back her student loan.
“I looked for a job in aviation and got one as a member of cabin crew with Comair, where I met the same woman pilot again. She and I became friends, and we still are,” she said.
Determined to pursue her new ambition, Ledwaba started private pilot lessons at Zwartkops Defence Flying Club, then Lanseria Airport with Wits Flying Club, but it was not easy.
“I could only afford an hour’s flight time a month, so I wrote to various companies to get funding. The SAPS responded and I joined their cadet programme,” she said.
“I did my private pilot’s licence within three months, then went on to do my commercial pilot’s exams in both fixed wing and helicopter. In all, it took 16 months to get licensed to fly both.”
Ledwaba became the first black woman to earn an Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence for helicopters in South Africa, and became the country’s first black female SAPS helicopter pilot.
“It was my job, responding to crime call-outs like hijacking incidents, medical emergencies and also search and rescue missions for people lost or injured, including in the Drakensberg mountains. I did it for 10 years,” she said. It was risky, she admits. “You do have moments. It’s not normal flying. It’s hazardous, flying low over wires, and moving very fast in an emergency,” Ledwaba said.
“Criminals like bushes, so you are flying very low to try and locate them.
“You have to be highly alert, and skilled technically.”
After her stint with the SAPS, Ledwaba went on to fly fixed-wing aircraft for SA Express, getting an instructor’s rating, and decided to enrol for an MBA to hone her business acumen in the world of flying.
“I have a passion for academia, it comes from my mom, Hilda. She was a school principal and loved reading. She taught us a love of books,” she said.
Ledwaba confesses her mother was reticent about her change of direction at first, but “then when I got my helicopter wings, she understood the magnitude of what was happening”.
“She was a teacher, a mother and a role model. She was the one who taught us there are no limitations for women.
“All my siblings have done well for themselves. It was a given that we would go to university, but how we were going to pay was a different story,” she laughs.
Again, the MBA was a huge challenge.
“They really stretch you. The content is fine, but the workload is immense, and I stopped working towards the end of last year to complete it. But it was nice to get out and do something else,” she said.
Simultaneously, Ledwaba was building her Girls Fly Programme in Africa.
“I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others searching for a way into aviation, where I found no female role models. I love flying, but I love teaching even more,” she said.
Since her Girls Fly programme started, one student, from KZN, has gone on to study aeronautical engineering at Wits University, and another, from Venda, is studying astrophysics after doing a field trip to the SA National Space Agency.
“It is so gratifying to see women take their own wings in the aviation and aeronautical industry in South Africa,” Ledwaba said.
Happily single, Ledwaba is a traveller in more than flight.
“I love to see new places. I choose a country every year to visit,” she said.
“I go there and learn about the people and the culture. Travel humbles you, and reminds you that you are a small part of a much bigger picture.”
Ledwaba’s story was filmed by Beautiful News, a platform dedicated to sharing inspiring and uplifting stories that celebrate South Africa.
Told through a short film and photographs, the stories are released daily at 4.14pm on http://beautifulnews.news24. com/.
The initiative is founded by the creator of 21 Icons, photographer and filmmaker Adrian Steirn.