Maravi

Capt Tembo: The high flyer

Capt Tembo: The high flyer
By Amos Malupenga
Sunday March 04, 2007 [02:00]

IT is not just a dream that Zambian Airways will one day fly into London or Bombay, says the airline chief pilot Captain Gerald Tembo. Capt Tembo says Zambian Airways has gone through some turbulent periods during its almost decade-long existence. He says now the airline seems to have arrived as the hard work and endurance of all members of staff is paying off.

Capt Tembo says the most successful story for Zambian Airways is its acquisition of the Boeing 737 which has enabled the airline to embark on regional flights, especially the Johannesburg route.

"We are now doing this on our own unlike previously when we did it with other people using their aeroplanes,” Capt Tembo says with relief. "We are now doing it for ourselves with our own planes and we are successful, we are efficient and getting there at the most affordable price."

Capt Tembo says his vision for the future is for Zambian Airways to fly into London just like British Airways flies into Lusaka from London.

“I think we can't just be contented with the region. British Airways comes here every time so we should also reciprocate by going into London," he says. “That's my vision. So the vision is to get better machines...people keep on complaining that the machines we are using are old. So we will need to get better machines and get into London, Bombay and places like Dubai. We need planes like Boeing 777 to do those flights."

Question: Who is Captain Tembo?
Answer: My full names are Gerald Jairos Chapendeka Tembo. I was born on the 12th of December 1960 in Chipata. My father was Tobias Kuzhi Chapendeka Tembo. My mother was Dumisa Phiri Tembo.

We were eleven in the family and I was a fifth born. But unfortunately we are now only five of us remaining. And since I was the fifth, I am now the first-born of the remaining.

Of the remaining ones, there is my immediate sister called Rose who is in Chipata, there is another sister in Mbala at the Zambia Air Force (ZAF). Then there is my youngest sister at UNZA where she is a lecturer. Her name is Valentina Tembo Musonda and then my brother Felix who is in Chipata.

I am married to Margaret Mwila Tembo. I married in 1989 and I have got four children - three boys and one girl. The eldest is 15 and the youngest is four years old.
My wife is a nurse at Lake Road School.

Q: Could you give me your brief educational background?
A: I started my grade one in 1967 in Chipata at St Ann's Primary School. In 1971, my father was transferred to Kasama where I continued school in grade five up to grade seven.

In 1975, I went to Kasama Boys Secondary School. Initially, I wanted to go to Lubushi or Malole but in that year that is when Kasama Boys was opened as a new school so all of us boys in Kasama were forced to go to the same school.

After I finished form five at Kasama Boys, I had a stint at Zambia National Service for six months. Thereafter, I went to the University of Zambia in 1980 up to1982. In January 1982, I attended some interviews in piloting at ZASTI (Zambia Air Services Training Institute).

Q: What were you studying at UNZA?
A: I was in the school of natural sciences. From secondary school, all of us in the class were talking of becoming engineers because our class teacher was a science teacher so he indoctrinated us with engineering.
But in those days, when President Kaunda visited a town, school boys and girls were supposed to go and meet him at the airport. And when I was in form three, it happened that Dr Kaunda visited Kasama and we went to meet him at the airport. Then I saw the aeroplane and the crew and I told myself that I needed to become a pilot. So all along I had it at the back of my mind that I should do flying.
But when I qualified, I ended up in the school of natural sciences because of mob mentality. It was during that stay at UNZA that I met people like Elias Mpondela, the late Paul Tembo, even the ZNBC director general Joseph Salasini.
But when the Department of Technical Education and Vocational Training (DTEVT) advertised for pilots, I decided to take that avenue. That's how I went in January to do the interviews. And in April, the results were published. I was not even aware but an uncle of mine who went to check for his results at DTEVT told me that my name was appearing on the list.
So when I went there, they told me I was late and already replaced. Eventually, I was given a note to take to ZASTI. That time, I had never been to the airport. So I dropped off at the airport turn-off on Great East Road and then walked to a distance of about 15 kilometers to ZASTI. It was a long walk.
That’s how I joined the class beginning 12th of April 1982 and my flying career started. The course was called Commercial Pilots Licence Course number 12. We were 12 of us in class but unfortunately at the moment, only two out the 12 are flying. Of course some are dead while others are alive.
There is Michael Ngulube somewhere in Matero, there is Kapeshi Luluwa who was in ZAF but left. Now I think he is a pupil teacher in Zambezi.

Q: Why are these colleagues of yours not flying?
A: There were a lot of problems that time. The exams we were writing were from the Civil Aviation Authority of UK and foreign exchange that time was difficult to come by and the government was only able to pay for a particular student for one sitting. And if you failed two subjects then you had to re-write all the five subjects but the government was not ready for those who failed more than two subjects.
So it happened that out of the 12 of us only two - myself and a gentleman called Gordon Chikwelu who is flying in Nigeria - managed to pass all the subjects.
About four of our colleagues managed to have partial passes i.e. four out of five subjects but the rest had three out of five and the government was not ready to fork out the pounds again. These colleagues had the potential but the odds were against them. One of them eventually trained as a ground instructor so he is lecturing at ZASTI as a chief ground instructor at the moment. This is Mr Chrispin Mumba.

Q: Is ZASTI still training pilots?
A: Yes, it is limping. And it is very discouraging the way things are going because there is a very big deficit of pilots. Even here at Zambian Airways we have vacancies but we do not have pilots to employ because even those who worked for Zambia Airways are now old. Maybe the youngest could be like me at 46. The others are above 50 and these are the ones that have gone outside the country to work. So there is a void below.
And ZASTI now can only limpingly produce pilots to a stage of Private Pilots Licence (PPL). Like you, you can go there and do PPL for the next one month; you get 40 hours, you safely can take off and go up in the sky and pass a general flight test then you have got a PPL.

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There are a few people who have done that. And what Zambian Airways is looking at is those people who have shown commitment to that level, pick them up and then give them sponsorship for a commercial pilot licence so that maybe we can have a reservoir.

Q: Will Zambian Airways sponsor those with potential at ZASTI or they will be sent out of the country?
A: It might take some time at ZASTI. What I will propose to my chairman/CEO (Mutembo Nchito) is that probably as a company we can help ZASTI to develop the capacity by putting equipment in the air and also look at instructors. We would like to do it locally unless otherwise. I am an ex-ZASTI student and so I would like ZASTI to tick. I am proud of that institution. The infrastructure is just out of this world but we have just neglected that place.

Q: Let's leave this issue for now; we will get back to it later. Could you now tell me where you worked after leaving ZASTI as a graduate?
A: Training for a commercial pilot licence takes a maximum of two years in a conducive atmosphere but I took about three and half years because there were so many problems at ZASTI. After we graduated, I stayed on at ZASTI to do my instructors’ rating. In those days, jobs were hard to come by. Some people ended up joining ZAF. Some people in the group that was ahead of me, people like Captain Shadow Chatupa and Kabungo ended up in the air force.
I was at ZASTI up to1987 to join the Flying Doctor Service. They were flying planes called highlanders. They were very slow but they could carry so many people and even had stretchers. I stayed there for one year and then I went to Chingola to join Travel International Air Charters. These had better aeroplanes and so I felt that I was advancing because as pilots we talk of advancing depending on the machine that you are flying.
I was in Chingola for two years before I left to join Roan Air in August 1991. Roan Air had quite a fleet of planes; we had business jets, a Challenger which we were running for the government through ZCCM which was a presidential VIP plane. In 1991, we had a fleet of about seven planes and we were busy with charters.
In 1994, I went for my airline transport pilots licence (ATP). ATP makes it legible for one to be promoted as commander of the aeroplane. You have to have that certificate for you to be considered to be Captain of the plane, the overall boss of the aircraft.
The company sent me to flight safety in Florida for a six weeks course. From there I went to Canada to do the Challenger 601 course because at that time the Challenger was a government plane being used by the President.

Q: Is this the same Challenger that President Mwanawasa flies in?
A: No. This one is a new version which is 604. The old Challenger was 601. So I was in Canada for that course for four weeks. Before that, I had become Captain on all the Roan Air fleet. And I first flew Dr Frederick Chiluba as Captain to Chilubi Island. It was interesting because Chilubi has a short airstrip. Well, it was done nicely and I was happy about it.

Q: What is the problem when the airstrip is short?
A: The problem is sometimes landing distance is not adequate for the aeroplane so you have to calculate. It depends on the weight; the less the weight the less the speed and the heavier the weight, the more speed. But I had no problems when I flew Dr Chiluba because I was used to that airstrip because I used it a lot when I was with the Flying Doctors Services. And besides, I had taken Brig Gen Godfrey Miyanda for campaigns when he was Republican vice-president a day before I flew President Chiluba.

Q: How often did you fly Dr Chiluba?
A: Quite frequently. I flew him all over the country. I also flew him on the Challenger a number of times.

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Q: Had you had occasion to fly President Mwanawasa?
A: I have been flying President Mwanawasa since 2003. I was approached to help out fly the Presidential Challenger, the latest Challenger. At the time, there was only one Zambian pilot flying the Challenger Captain, Shadow Chatupa who was flying together with some white pilots from South Africa.
To date, I fly the Presidential Challenger but because of the busier work schedule I am not flying as often as I would like. From the time Zambian Airways acquired the Boeing 737, I have been very busy.

Q: So those stories we hear that the Presidential Challenger is exclusively flown by South African pilots are incorrect?
A: Yes, because I have flown that Challenger. I have even flown Mr Nelson Mandela on the Challenger.

Q: Where?
A: In South Africa. I flew him with his wife Graca Machel from the air force base in Pretoria to Cape Town. We spent a night in Cape Town and the next day we flew into Maputo in Mazambique where we left Mr and Mrs Mandela before coming back to Lusaka. So it is not true that only white pilots fly the Challenger. Now, there is even a gentleman who has qualified on the Challenger and I think slowly, it is becoming a Zambian crew.

Q: So when did you join Zambian Airways?
A: I joined Roan Air in 1991 under ZCCM until it was privatised in 1998 to become a management buy out (MBO). So we just evolved from Roan Air to Zambian Airways. I became chief pilot of Zambian Airways in 1998 until now. So basically I have been here from 1991.

Q: How many pilots are you in Zambian Airways?
A: We are now totalling 13.

Q: What would be the adequate number?
A: With the new busy schedule we are looking at, we should have had 18 pilots.

Q: So one can safely say that you have seen Zambian Airways grow?
A: Yes.

Q: And how would you describe its growth and transformation?
A: It has not been easy because the rate of turnover of pilots had been very high. The atmosphere was not conducive, money was not very good. Through that turnover, maybe we have trained about 15 pilots through this place. We have five pilots flying in Nigeria from here, there are pilots flying in Dubai and South Africa who passed through here.
The hardest part had been to get a crew together. This takes a long time and the dream is slowly evolving to what we have now. Even with the conditions of service, with the commitment we have now going into regional routes, things are very bright for the company. The Boeing 737 has opened up new avenues for us and people are slowly coming back again.
As for me, the feeling is fulfilling because I have seen Zambian Airways come from where we were struggling. We used to strain on the local market because the economy was not just there. It was a struggle to keep flying into the Copperbelt because the economy was dwindling.
Now with the regional routes, things are looking up. This is what I was looking for and slowly my dreams are materialising. All of us who are here could have easily gone to Nigeria, Dubai or South Africa but we waited to see Zambian Airways evolve and I think it has evolved. It's making sense now and I am happy as a pilot. It's just a matter of patience and having a goal or goals and foresight. This is what some of us had.
And to the young ones graduating, I can only encourage them to stick around and get the experience. And the experience in flying is being up there in the air. Here at Zambian Airways we fly so that experience will come very quickly and therefore easily unlike somewhere else where I hear upgrading of a pilot can take up to 14 years, for a pilot to come from the right hand seat to the left hand seat to be commander of the aeroplane.

Q: Looking at the growth of Zambian Airways, do you think it will now make more sense for ZASTI to continue training pilots or maybe you are looking for already experienced pilots?
A: Just to jumpstart the operations of the Boeing 737, we needed people with experience. We have some people who flew 737 for Zambia Airways in those days who are back. So we have older pilots with experience on 737. And there are many more Zambian pilots abroad who want to come back because of the 737 and also the change in conditions of service. The whole thing is now making more economic sense.
But what I would like to do is start from the bottom and come up. There is more motivation that way; people start affiliating with the company instead of getting people from out there. That is the task we have.

Q: So who is qualified to fly a Boeing 737?
A: For someone to be a co-pilot on the 737, we need somebody with a minimum of 2,500 hours of flying. In a year, a pilot is supposed to fly 900 hours so 2,500 hours will be close to three years of experience. And if a pilot has to be a Captain on a 737, he needs at least 5,000 hours of flying. This is more than six years of flying.

Q: And what role does a Captain on the plane play?
A: The Captain is responsible for everything on the aircraft; he has to ensure that the plane is safe, his crew is safe to fly on the aircraft. Basically, the Captain is the manager of the aircraft.

Q: During your stay with Zambian Airways, what would you say has been the most successful story?
A: The most successful story now is for us to go regional, especially the Johannesburg route. We are now doing this on our own, unlike previously when we did it with other people using their aeroplanes. We are now doing it for ourselves with our own planes and we are successful. We are efficient and getting there at the most affordable price.

Q: Any vision for the future?
A: Oh yes! I think we can't just be contented with the region. British Airways comes here every time so we should also reciprocate by going into London. That's my vision. So the vision is to get better machines...people keep on complaining that the machines we are using are old. So we will need to get better machines and get into London, Bombay and places like Dubai. We need planes like Boeing 777 to do those flights.

Q: Let me take you back to the issue you just raised about the status of the plane or planes you are using as Zambian Airways...I have heard a lot of people complain that the plane(s) you are using are old, what do you have to say about the condition of your planes?
A: The aircraft we have is very good. They have been looked after very well by SAFAIR, the people who have given us the planes. An aeroplane is inspected every day. When you start the day, the engineers start the inspection with what is called Check A. After 100 hours there are specifics drawn by the manufacturers to say 'you have to check this or that and check the systems'. So the systems are checked and the components are replaced. You might think the plane is old but the components are new because they are regularly changed. Our planes are in very good condition, they have been looked after very well and they fly well and as far as I am concerned they are very safe. That's why we fly them. People who say what they say in terms of complaints say that from a distance. They do not know what goes into maintaining our planes and some people maybe have not even flown on those planes.

Q: How exciting is it to fly?
A: Very exciting. That is why I am now clocking 20 years flying. If it were unsafe to fly, I wouldn't be here today. And like I tell people, I do not think I am paid for flying because that's my type of fun. It's fun to fly and no one can really pay you for flying. And by the way, I feel more comfortable and safe



Q: So what is the longest distance you have done so far?
A: So far, I have flown from Lusaka to Malta (an Island on the Mediterranean Sea) and then to London. I flew the President

Q: Which President?
A: President Mwanawasa. I flew the Challenger. There is one when we flew into Malta then into Rome (Italy) with him, there is another one we went Lusaka to Malta and Malta to London.

Q: What would be your word of encouragement or discouragement to the young ones wishing to take up flying as a career considering that prospects of flying in Zambia seem to be dull?
A: At one time, I was very discouraged about the whole career in Zambia. But now I can safely encourage the young ones to take up the career because the jobs are there and indicators are that the economy is turning around and there are people out there trying to revive aviation. I hear Zambezi Airline is bringing in an airbus and they are looking for a crew so jobs are there. The exciting times are coming back.

Q: And what would you say to the pilots who left the country after the demise of Zambia Airways?
A: Well, they are free to come back. Things are changing. In fact, some are back already. There are those flying in Nigeria but as things have improved. One can get the same money here as those Zambians flying in Nigeria. Prospects are getting better and I can see other pilots from the region start coming here.

Q: Anything to say in conclusion?
A: It's encouraging that the aviation world is slowly picking up and there are people who are working for it to work especially like our CEO and chairman. He has come up with a formula to motivate us so we are motivated. We will give him hundred per cent support on that one. Things are looking up and our dream of going into London can be fulfilled with the motivation we have.

Labels: PROFILE

posted by MrK @ 4:02 AM