CAPE TOWN – It was an extraordinarily special day for Gladys Mostert (84) and her grandson Andy (20) – a day when dreams long cherished finally took flight.
As a young boy, Andy, who hails from Kraaifontein, had two wishes; to become a pilot and to take his beloved Ouma on a flight. It was a dream that Gladys, despite her lifelong fear of flying, treasured deeply.
Andy’s passion for aviation took root in early childhood. As a toddler, he would spend hours playing with toy planes. In fact, almost as soon as he began to speak, he declared his ambition to become a pilot, a dream that never wavered as he grew older.
“My dad, Pierre, had a passion for aviation and took me to air-shows when I was growing up,” Andy recalls. “It fascinated me. By the time I was 13, a friend from church took me up for a flight. While in the air, I got to take the controls for a few minutes… and I was hooked.”
On his 16th birthday, Pierre surprised his son with an introductory flying lesson at a local flight school.
“From that day onwards, we began to work out how to make it happen,” says Andy. “Flight school is very expensive, so we started brainstorming ideas.”
At 18, Andy finally got his chance. He began training and earned his private pilot’s licence shortly before Christmas last year. Now, he is steadily logging flight hours and pursuing his ambition of becoming a bush pilot.
A dream transcends generation
Throughout his journey, his grandmother remained one of his greatest supporters. As a little boy, Andy had solemnly promised her that one day, when he was “grown up”, he would take her flying.
“It was my dream, and hers,” he says.
“He drew me countless pictures of aeroplanes, which I faithfully stuck to my fridge,” recalls Gladys with a smile. “He always told me, ‘One day, Ouma, we’re going to fly’.”
That long-promised day arrived just after Gladys’s 84th birthday.
Pierre drove her to the airstrip under the pretense of visiting Andy, who had taken his sister up for a flight. “When we got there, Andy walked up to her and said, ‘Come Ouma, today is the day’!” says dad Pierre.
“She was a bit nervous,” Andy admits. “Right from the start, she told me not to do anything crazy. I promised her I’d take it easy. The winds were strong that day – around 60 to 70 km/h – and we certainly felt them as we climbed, but ouma was incredibly brave. She didn’t scream once; she simply closed her eyes and stayed calm.”
“The hardest part,” laughs Gladys, “was clambering very ungracefully into the plane. I was nervous at first, but once I was settled in and Andy began talking me through everything, I started to relax. As we took off, he explained each step. It grew quiet, we gathered speed, and then came Andy’s words: ‘Ouma, we’re up in the air’!”
A day to remember
Andy turned the nose of the Sling 2, powered by its Rotax 912 engine, towards the West Coast. For the next hour and a half, they soared along the coastline to Saldanha and back.
“I don’t know who was happier – Ouma or me,” says Andy. “Having her in that plane with me was magical. It felt incredible to fulfil the promise I made as a child.”
“The first thing I wanted to see was Robben Island, and as we flew over the ocean, I reminded Andy a few times that I couldn’t swim,” she chuckles. “Seeing the coastline from such a low altitude was unforgettable.”
For Gladys, it was the birthday surprise of a lifetime.
“Scared and all, it was a surprise of a lifetime,” she says. “But all said and done, I reveled in it. It was hard to believe I’d actually done it, and so did my friends, until they saw the photos.
“An hour and a half flew by like minutes,” says Gladys. “I am so very proud of him. He’s a brilliant pilot – and yes, I would absolutely do it again, in an instant.”
