Shema, African Kid who Started Learning How to Fly a Plane at 7, Has Flown 3 Times as a Trainee

Graham Shema started flying lessons at the age of 7 after his mother enrolled him in an aviation academy Shema developed an interest in planes at the tender age of three when a police helicopter blew off the roof of his grandmother’s house.

In 2020 when he was just seven, the boy became a sensation in his country with his display of aircraft knowledge and budding flying skills.

The 8-year-old Ugandan boy, nicknamed ‘Captain’, who has already flown Cessna three times and whose role model is Elon Musk has become a sensation in his country for his aviation skills.

Graham Shema has earned the nickname ‘Captain’ thanks to his impressive aircraft knowledge and flying skills.

The young boy has already flown as a trainee three times on a Cessna 172.

A lover of math and science, he says his dream is to be a pilot and an astronaut, and someday travel to Mars.

‘My role model is Elon Musk,’ said the boy, a pilot’s white shirt and black slacks hugging his small frame.

He said: ‘I like Elon Musk because I want to learn with him about space, to go with him in space and also to get a handshake.’

He has been interviewed on local television and even been invited for meetings by Germany’s ambassador and the country’s transport minister.

When his instructor at Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport, asked him to explain how the engines worked on a Bombardier CRJ9000 plane parked on the tarmac, Graham replied flawlessly: ‘The inlet tubes suck in the air and inject it into the compressor, the compressor squeezes it with the fans, after squeezing it with the fans, it becomes hot’.

Graham’s passion about flying was triggered when a police helicopter flew so low to the ground that it blew off the roof of his grandmother’s house.

The incident took place on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital Kampala while he was playing outside and according to his mother Shamim Mwanaisha, 29, a travel agent, it ‘triggered something in his mind.’

She said it was then when her son started bombarding her with questions about how planes work – up until she contacted a local aviation academy and he began lessons at home on aircraft parts and aviation vocabulary

Five months later Graham was thrilled to start flying lessons.

‘I felt like a bird flying up,’ he said of his first flight.

Since then he flew three times as co-pilot and during the pandemic he has been focusing on aviation theory, and immersing himself in videos about aviation and space exploration on his virtual reality viewer.

Courtesy: Daily Mail #Blacksregion