Pilot Gabriel is Walking On Air
Date: 12 March 2004
It is always exciting when history is made, but when you're the subject of the occasion it is just "overwhelming and amazing".
That's according to Gabriel Ndabandaba, who at the weekend became the first black man to fly with the SA Air Force's Silver Falcons aerobatic team.
Thousands of people at the Saldhanha Harvest Festival cheered and whistled when Team 61 took to the skies in four Astra Pilatus aircraft.
Ndabandaba, 25, flew in the number four position and was the star of the show when he broke away from his fellow members, performing turns and rolls in a solo aerobatic display.
He said the occasion was "a bit overwhelming and I still don't believe it happened".
He had always fantasised about making a career in aviation but while growing up in Umlazi, Durban, close to the city's airport, the dream seemed unreachable.
"Every time I heard a plane land, I would run out of the house and look at this amazing big thing that managed to fly in the sky - I was interested to find out how."
His parents wanted him to be an academic and he had to do a lot of convincing to change their minds.
Once Ndabandaba was accepted into the air force, he passed from one "tough" training stage to another. In 2000 he qualified as a pilot, and as a flying instructor two years later. Now he is not only a B Category flying instructor and second-in-command of Bravo Flight at the Central Flying School in Langebaanweg, but also the first black Silver Falcons pilot.
"It is like climbing a mountain and all of a sudden you find yourself on top," he said.
"It has been one dream developing into another. The sky is the limit and I feel on top of the world."
On being the only black person in a previously white-dominated field, Ndabandaba said he was surprised to find that his fellow pilots understood that they had all advanced so far because of their skills. However, his flying had surprised white air force veterans on a trip to Zimbabwe.
"They hadn't realised a black pilot would fly them, and were so tense the first few minutes ... But when we came down they couldn't help but express how enjoyable the flight was".
Cape Argus
