葉維義先生 (一九九七年校友)

校友簡介:

  • 一九九七年王肇枝中學中七畢業
  • 香港中文大學工程學學士
  • 副機長(空中巴士 A330)

文章分享:

WSC, A Place to Take Off

 

Time really does fly. I remember the good days in Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School which now live only in my memory. I remember the days when we studied hard, laughed with friends, sweated while playing basketball, cried after receiving our exam results, and cried some more when one of us left to study overseas. For me, the most important part of my growing up was in WSC. It shaped who I am and influenced the rest of my life.

Over the past 50 years this beloved school has made stunning progress, contributing to society and producing thousands of brilliant people in all career sectors. In comparison, I am just like a passing breath of wind. It is with great honour that I, an ordinary student, am occupying a whole page in this commemorative booklet. I am quite ordinary, but what readers will be interested in is my not-so-ordinary career, I am an airline pilot.

At the age of 16, when students in Hong Kong are in Form 4 and preparing for their exams, overseas pilots can start flying, attaining a flying license before even learning to drive a car. However, to become a fully-trained airline pilot is a long and rough road. Pilots-in-training need to accumulate experience of 2,500-3,500 flying hours before being able to even apply for airline jobs. Remember, the time needed to fly around the earth is just 24 hours. After struggling through 10-15 years of training, only a few lucky ones will get a job in an airline company with good pay. The majority of them are left behind just living and doing fairly okay. It is a true passion and realistic example about how to fight for a dream; not to give up too early or too easily.

But for the local pilot, it is a totally different story. Most airline candidates have little or no previous flying experience. In fact airline cadet schemes do not always look for pilots with a lot of experience. They look for candidates with the ability to learn quickly and confidently. After offering their expensive pilot-training package, companies want their candidates to complete the flying course, without failing, get a full license and to ultimately fly their big airline jets. They have to make sure that their investment on a potential cadet will be beneficial, profitable, and more importantly, certain.

The local cadet will only take one and a half years, while overseas it will take on average ten to fifteen years. Yet we all aim to reach the same level of qualification, that of a qualified airline pilot. This means that the training course in Hong Kong is terribly intensive and stressful. Actually, during the course we have to complete nearly 70 written tests in addition to practical flight tests like the first solo flight. We need to have multiple qualifications, like the private pilot license, instrument flying license, cross country navigation license, multi-engine flying license, commercial pilot license, and air transport pilot license; all within 18 months! We also study subjects like Aerodynamics, Radio Theory, Metrology, Mechanics, Flying Instrumental Principles, Navigations and Human Factors and Limitations. It was thanks to WSC that I was well-prepared for the lifestyle of intensive studying and consecutive tests. Even in my darkest hour like after failing a test, I had enough strength to overcome my sadness and to keep going. The saying, ‘no pain no gain’ is always true. Learning to fly and to become an airline pilot is not easy. It is even painful, but the rewards are tremendous.

Occasionally, friends ask me about how I became a pilot. Frankly, all I did was to try my very best and never give up. Actually, I did fail once to get the job at an airline company, but I prepared myself very well and succeeded after my second attempt – never say never. When you find your dream, just go for it! Live so that you don’t have any regrets when you are older and no longer have the chance.

I remember reading a very good book called Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell. It described the 10,000 hours principle to becoming successful: in any field you can be an ordinary person, but only after putting in 10,000 hours to achieving your dream, polishing your skills and developing your experience will you succeed. Even the great musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or the successful entrepreneur Bill Gates were not born geniuses. They too put in 10,000 hours into composing songs and computer programming before they achieved success. Those 10,000 hours are terribly long and arduous. But, once you succeed, the joy and rewards are great. Hey folks, find your dream and go for it!