The UAE is the land of records. This boy’s story will soon break a few.
Mansoor Anis, a DPS Sharjah student, has recently become one of the youngest pilots in the world, taking the helm of an airplane by himself at just 14 years of age. With just 25 hours of training, a boy born and raised in Sharjah has passed the necessary certifications to commandeer an aircraft. An impressive feat for a boy this young.
The boy, Mansoor Anis, began ‘training’ at the age of seven, when he was introduced to a computer flight simulator by his New Delhi-based maternal uncle, himself a professional pilot.
“With the simulation software, he (the uncle) began training me how to fly a plane,” he said. “Since then I’ve had an interest in it.”
At the age of 13, Mansoor decided that he wanted to pursue flying as a career, and less than a year later traveled to Canada with his mother to begin training at the AAA Aviation Flight Academy in the city of Langley, which is located in British Columbia.
According to Mansoor, the academy’s chief flight instructor (CFI) was at first reluctant to take on such a young student.
“At first, the CFI wasn’t ready to take me. But after my first flight, he was very excited to teach me because he found that I knew so much and learned fast,” he said. “But it wasn’t easy. Flying a plane is a different feeling than the simulator. “What I had learned from my uncle helped me a lot,” Mansoor added. “For example, there were some theoretical things, like with the instruments, that he had taught me to use beforehand.”
On August 30, Mansoor took to the cockpit for his first solo flight in a Cessna 152. “I was a little nervous, but I was ready to fly. I was excited,” he said. “The flight was about 10 or 12 minutes. I was most nervous about the landing. It’s really tough. It had taken time to learn how to land properly.”
Having returned to Sharjah earlier this week, Mansoor was glad to see the support his friends and family gave him. “My family was really proud of me, and my friends were really happy for me,” he said. “They now want to see me in school.”
Mansoor’s father Ali Asgar Anis said he was brimming with pride at his son’s achievement. “I am really very proud of him, and I feel like I’m in the sky. It’s a fantastic feeling for me. I don’t even have words,” he said. According to Mansoor and his family, he has broken the record for the least amount of training time taken by a young pilot before his solo flight, shattering the previous records of 34 hours. Ali added that the family has already filled out the forms necessary for to be included in the Limca Book of Records, which celebrates the achievements of Indian nationals in India and abroad.
In the future, Mansoor said he has no doubt that he will take up flying professionally. “I am planning to go again to Canada next year to continue flying. If I don’t continue I will forget everything. At 16 years, I will take a recreational pilot permit. At 17, I will take private pilot license and at 18, I will take a commercial pilot license,” said the boy for whom the sky is not the limit.
Mansoor also had a bit of advice for other young people interesting in taking to the skies. “When flying, you actually don’t need to be scared. It’s fun,” he said. “You don’t need to give up easily.”
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