By Michelle Barrett, Staff Reporter
Desiree and husband Ian after receiving their private pilot licences. - Contributed
WHEN 19-year-old Desiree DePass was announced Miss Jamaica World 1999, the news sent her adrenaline pumping and sent her on a natural high. Four years later, this young lady is still on a high but not from the overwhelming feeling of winning a beauty pageant. Instead, she gets that same feeling whenever she enters the cockpit of an airplane.
It was shortly after exchanging marital vows with her long-time love, businessman Ian Pullen, that Desiree received her first experience in the cockpit. So exhilarating was her first flight, that she decided flying airplanes would be her new career path, a step up from being a flight attendant with Air Jamaica.
"When Ian invited me to go on a discovery flight with him, I was reluctant and a bit scared at first, but then after taking the controls, with the flight instructor beside me, I was so amazed thinking that here I was actually flying a plane," gushed an excited Desiree when Flair visited her Barbican home on her night off.
This flight, she explained was like a disguised answer to a question which she had been pondering for a while. "Someone asked me one day when I was about to board a flight, how I saw myself in the next five years and that question got me thinking seriously about my life and career. Although there is nothing wrong with being a flight attendant, I didn't want to spend the rest of my life serving food trays on a plane. At one moment, I was even thinking about becoming a nurse and started reading books written on that profession. Then, I discovered flying and so those books were tossed aside," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
MAJOR CHALLENGE
The former Miss Jamaica described getting her private pilot licence which she and her husband both received in October last year as a major challenge. The hours spent at thousands of feet in the air mastering the controls, the sleepless nights of studying especially between flights and the nail-biting examinations that came at the end of the process are just some of the things she has faced in pursuing her dream.
In addition, getting one's pilot licence is also expensive as the lessons that she completed so far cost her a total of US$7,000. Despite these challenges however, this 5 ft. 6in. beauty said she is not the least bit perturbed by them and has decided to switch her position at Air Jamaica from being a flight attendant to a commercial pilot. "When I tell people about my ambition to fly a commercial airliner, some scoff at it and remark that I won't make it, but I'm here to prove them wrong," she commented.
To achieve that goal, Desiree will be heading for Florida in the USA soon, where she will be stationed for three months to complete her hours to become a commercially rated pilot. The time it takes to get a pilot licence she explained, is dependent on the individual as one is allowed to go at his/her own pace.
TOUGHING IT OUT
A typical work day for Desiree starts at 6:00 a.m. when she rises and prepares herself for work. She then travels to the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston from where she commutes to the Montego Bay hub at the Donald Sangster International Airport and joins her outbound flights there. During the flight, she is constantly on the move catering to passengers' needs. She barely has time to eat her meals and usually devours them in a "cut and swallow" fashion standing most of the time.
"It can be very tiring and there are times when I have jet lag and so at the end of the day I'm totally exhausted. When I reach home, I have to perform my wifely duties such as cook, look after the house and spend some time with Ian. I usually have to squeeze in whatever time I have to study. It's difficult yes, but I just have to condition my mind to go through it," she smiled glowingly.
Are there any plans to have children in the near future? "Oh, no. Not right now. I have to get my commercial pilot licence first and have my career up and running then I can think about babies."
At this point, her husband joins in on the conversation and said that he fully supports his wife and expects her to have an outstanding career in the skies. "I guess I was responsible for making her present career choice so I've got to see her through it."
