Photograph: The man and the machine

Siba, who was twenty-one years old, then told me about his journey to his dream profession, which started in a small, crowded township house in Dimbaza, outside King William’s Town where he was among eleven children dependent on his grandparents’ pensions and his mother’s teaching salary.

“It wasn’t a bad childhood. We didn’t have everything we wanted, but we got what we needed,” he recalled.

A career in aviation appealed to Siba when he saw the disciplined way in which people in that field whom he met, carried themselves.

“In Grade 10, at Aliwal North High School, there were a couple of guys doing their private pilot’s licences. They spoke with respect, their shirts would be ironed.”

Later he saw the same on a school tour to the SA Air Force base in nearby Bloemfontein.

“I could also see how much those pilots loved what they were doing. I decided flying was the career for me.

“Flying is no nine-to-five job. It’s a lifestyle. If you don’t walk, talk and dress well you won’t make it through the training.”

The opportunity for Siba to undergo training came when he was awarded a bursary by the Eastern Cape transport department and his present employer, East London-based AV8 Helicopters.

The selection process began when he was among 530 people competing for two bursaries.

A ruthless series of further selection and exams followed. He qualified in seven months before our meeting and in that time had also flown charters that had involved flying brides from their homes to their wedding ceremonies, and tracking stolen cars.

“The thieves get really scared.”

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