Flying high over the rough seas

Sami Kooheji is a 23-year-old second officer with the Air Arabia in the UAE. He is the airline’s youngest pilot and has been with the company for nearly two years.

He may appear as a boy-next-door simply pursuing his dreams to fly airplanes aiming to become an established commercial pilot. But he will soon attempt to prove to the world that there is much more to him than meets the eye.
In a few days time he aims to set a world record by sailing from Bahrain to Dubai in a Laser Standard sailing boat non-stop for approximately 75 hours.
The 2007 Air Arabia World Endurance Sailing Challenge will begin on May 15 depending on weather conditions and Sami is preparing for the endeavour with vigour and determination.
Sami has been sailing since the tender age of four when he first went out sailing with his elder brother, Adam, who was already an experienced sailor at the age of 10.
“I idolised my brother. As a kid, I wanted to be him when I grew up. Sailing with him was great fun”
Belonging to a family of ardent sailing fans, Sami had all the means of starting a hobby that shaped into a passion and helped him shoot high up in the sailing scene in this part of the world.
Sami first learned to sail on a secondhand boat his father bought for him named ‘Optimist’, which was the only one of its kind in Bahrain at the time. By the age of 10, he shifted over to sailing laser boats that required a more experienced sailor to manage.
He would go sailing every Friday with his brother and his interest in the sport grew stronger. He took part in many local competitions and through each one he learned more about racing and set a goal reaching Olympic standard.
In 2000, at the age of 15, he travelled to CanCun in Mexico where he competed in his first World Championship Games and found the going tougher than he anticipated.
“I was unsuccessful in Mexico. It was much more than I expected. Entries from across the world were there. Everyone was so well trained and such good sailors. At that time I was overweight, unfit and inexperienced. The experience made me realise how much harder I had to work in order to achieve my goals.”
At the age of 17, Sami received a welcome boost to his ambitions in the form of Tunisian laser coach, Kasim Ben Jumia.
The Bahrain Maritime Sports Association, the National Authority for Sailing in Bahrain, appointed the coach to develop sailing in Bahrain.
He taught Sami the tactics needed to succeed in tougher competitions.
“Kasim told me in what areas I needed to improve, “ said Sami.
One of the first steps was to appoint a personal trainer, Kim Hewitt. Sailing requires extreme amounts of fitness and especially so with sailing a Laser Standard boat.
“I was 110kg at the time. One of my biggest achievements would be when I brought that weight down to 85kg!”
After his weight was looked after, he set about paying full attention towards his next and the biggest goal — to get to the 2004 Olympics at Athens.
“It was my dream to represent my country at the Olympic Games; to be able to compete at world-class levels,” he explained.
“I used to work out six days a week spending up to two hours in the gym. My fitness was excellent and my sailing had improved massively. I was preparing myself by all means to compete internationally.
“Back in 2001 in Kuwait, for the Al Kharafi international competition, before I started all the heavy training, I raced against 40 other Arab sailors and I was one of the last to finish. Just three years later I was ranked the best Arab sailor.”
Sami’s dream came true in 2004 when he was chosen to compete in the Olympics in Athens, where he was also the youngest in the laser class. 
That same year he won his first gold medal at the Pan Arab Games in Algeria.
Soon after the event, he decided to pursue his second dream, heading straight for the skies — to become a commercial pilot.
Sami enrolled for a six-month flying course in Dubai before flying across to Florida where he spent another six months at the Daytona Beach where he studied instrument rating, multi-engine technology and got his commercial training license. He came back and joined Air Arabia as an assistant dispatcher.
 He said: “Air Arabia gave me a chance to learn how exactly an airline worked, not just the flying bit, but also everything associated with it.”
In six months, he was called for an interview after which he started the Airbus 320 Type Rating training programme for two months.  After finishing the course the next step consists of 125 flights of training with instructor captains.
“I was new, inexperienced and the whole training was an excellent learning ground for me. I am extremely thankful to Air Arabia to have given me such a chance at such a young age.
“They helped me get started by giving me an opportunity to fly as well as continue sailing.”
Air Arabia is the main sponsor for the sailing challenge and it is co-sponsored by ART Marine who will be providing the support boat and sailing equipment for the challenge. The challenge will begin at the Al Bandar Resort and anchor at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel in Dubai.

Shilpa Chandran