Nur Moana Ishak is flying high these days, literally. She is one of the first female commercial airline pilots in Malaysia and is now a first officer with AirAsia.

Her small frame belies her ability to control and fly multiple-tonne hunks of metal high above the earth. She says she certainly gets surprised reactions from people.

“At first, they don’t believe me because of my size,” she says, smiling. “When I meet people and tell them I work with AirAsia, they immediately respond, ‘Stewardess?’ I’d tell them ‘no, I fly the aircraft’. I do get that a lot.”

Her interest started when she was 11 years old. She says she loves the sound of the aircraft engine, for reasons she herself can’t explain.

Defying stereotypes: When commercial airline pilot Nur Moana Ishak tells people she works with AirAsia, they automatically assume that she is a flight attendant.

“At first, I wanted to become a fighter pilot,” she reveals. “I sent in my application but was unsuccessful. Then I applied to be a commercial airline pilot. After finishing school, I had my training in Malacca at the Malaysian Flying Academy. I went through 15 months of intensive study, both theory and practical, and had to accumulate 200 hours of flight.”

Nur Moana was one of the pioneer batch of female pilots to graduate from the MFA. She recalls that there were only three women in her batch of 21 students.

In AirAsia, there are currently 10 female pilots, while three are still in training. Asked if her male colleagues treat her differently, Nur Moana says they treat as just one of the guys.

“During training, everyone has to be on par with each other.”

For Nur Moana, the most difficult thing about flying is going through bad weather, which is when her skills are really put to the test. But she says the responsibility towards her passengers is really what drives her confidence.

“It drives me further to take them safely to their destination,” she says.

While some pilots might think that commercial flights are not “real flying,” because everything is programmed, Nur Moana believes otherwise. The human touch is always needed, she says.

“We still have to monitor the system, every minute, every second,” she says.

As for being one of the very few female pilots in the country, she says: “I do feel proud of what I’ve achieved. I’ve had this dream since I was a kid.”

Source - The Star.