Walter Mmari Makes It To The Left Hand Seat

Walter Mmari is a man who has made it into the left-hand seat of an airliner - yes with a lot of help from Airlink’s CEO Rodger Foster who saw his potential at an early stage of his career - this is his amazing story.

Walter tells his story:

“I was born in 1983, in Tanzania, the second of five children. At the young age of one year, my family emigrated to Australia where my father found work. Between 1984-1989 my family lived in Australia, New Zealand, and Western Samoa. I vividly remember being on-board Qantas’ B747’s on numerous occasions, being allowed to visit the flight deck and mingle with the crew thus beginning my lifelong love for aviation.

I attended the early years of school in the abovementioned countries. We then moved to Swaziland in 1990 and I completed my primary and high school in Swaziland, matriculating in 2000 with great grades that allowed me entry into university to study medicine in Johannesburg. After some thought, I realized that aviation was something I had to do, and my parents agreed for me to take a two-year gap whilst they collected funds for my PPL. In late 2002, I began my PPL course at Virginia Airport, Durban. I completed my training in 2003 and returned to Swaziland. Although I would have loved to continue with my CPL training, the funds were not forthcoming immediately and I went to Tanzania for a couple of months, flying a Piper Cherokee with a friend, building only a handful of hours. In 2004 I commenced my night rating training at Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria. The flight training was painstakingly slow, and to add another blow, my parents separated in 2006, at which time I was left with very little chance of continuing my training.

2006/7 - sheer determination lead him to where is today: