Have you ever thought of taking a helicopter to Hong Kong? If you do, remember to take a look at the pilot. He may be Ho Wai, a young and capable assistant pilot who is the first Macau-born Chinese to get a license from the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau.

Ho, who is in his late 20's, has been working for the East Asia Helicopter (EEA Helicopter) for more than half a year. Before his new career as a pilot, he used to be a mathematics teacher in one of the secondary schools in Macau. He had his bachelor degree in aerospace engineering from Australia.

Ho was very hilarious when he got this position with EEA Helicopter, a private company. He has gone through lengthy and complicated training and examinations to get to this stage. First he had to pass both written examinations and flying tests to acquire the license. Then he took 10 months training in the United States. When he came back to Macau, he needed to have another flying test to see if he was familiar with the local air route before he began piloting the helicopter. He also needs to have training every half a year in order to have good flying quality.

Although Ho got this job by pure luck, he appreciated the fact that local pilots are encouraged and supported in Macau. There are now 30 pilots in EEA Helicopter, six of them are from Hong Kong and 23 are hired from other countries such as Australia, United Kingdom and Portugal. Ho is very lucky to be the first Macau-born Chinese to get the pilot's job.

Airplanes were Ho's passion ever since his childhood. He liked to play with airplane toys when he was small. This is the reason why he studied aerospace engineering in Australia. He likes to fly because he could see many things up in the sky and found it very interesting to see tiny little buildings and human beings from the airplane.

Ho thinks that there is still some limitation in pilot training in Macau. If a pilot is interested in flying another type of airplane, he needs to go to other places. He also thinks that the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau will provide more opportunities in future for local people who are interested in flying and becoming a pilot.