On the wings of a dream

PILOT, runner and tireless charity worker, Yvonne Trueman celebrated 40 years in the air this week with a party for friends, family and fellow runners and fliers.

Yvonne first came to the island more than 30 years ago and is the holder of the first, and only, Bahraini Private Pilot's Licence (PPL) ever issued.

She is also Governor of the Middle Eastern area of the 99s, the International Organisation of Women Pilots.

Growing up in Hatfield in the UK, Yvonne's involvement in aviation was almost inevitable since it is an aircraft town through and through.

She said: "If you were born in Wales you went into the mines, in the same way, if you were born in Hatfield you went into aviation."

And true to form, after an education at Hatfield Technical College, Yvonne went to work for the de Havilland Aircraft Company eventually becoming personal assistant to the chief test pilot John Cunningham who made his name as an exceptional night fighter pilot during the Second World War earning the nickname Cats Eyes Cunningham.

During her time at de Havilland Yvonne was involved with the world's first jet-liner the de Havilland Comet which made its maiden flight in July 1949 giving the British a five-year lead over their American rivals.

In 1963 she left the company to marry and set up a family aviation business. Feeling the lure of the skies she decided to learn to fly and earned her UK PPL and night rating after just three months of training.

She says, to this day, her first solo flight is one of the high spots of her flying career 'as it is for every pilot'.

Others include when her late son Capt Julian Pooley, who was later killed while serving with the Army in Belize, took his licence and first flew his mother in his Piper Cub. She said: "I was terrified and somewhat of a backseat driver but also immensely proud."

And also flying in Dubai during the first Gulf War when Kuwait was invaded.

At the time Yvonne was due to fly her check rating and she said: "No-one knew when the ground invasion would start. We booked an aircraft, did our flight plan and took off on February 24, 1991.

"Oblivious to this dramatic event, we were airborne and well into our itinerary by the time we realised what was happening.

"Flying high above the UAE, we had a bird's eye view of all the activity moving out of Abu Dhabi, the field ambulance in Fujairah and the activity out of Dubai.

"It must have seemed very strange to the folks on the ground to View this tiny Piper Warrior aircraft flying amongst the military movement. That was really an unforgettable experience."

Yvonne also served as a co-pilot during the Iran/Iraq war ferrying passengers out of Baghdad to Kuwait.

She said: "That was a novel experience as, in those days, to see a woman pilot was really quite unusual in the Arab world."

She was invited to join The 99s by renowned lady pilot Sheila Scott in 1974 but, after moving with her family to Bahrain in the late 1970s Yvonne found herself in an area of limited flying due to the lack of small aircraft on the island and the security situation.

However, undeterred she became a part, and later Governor of, the Arabian Section of the 99s and, at her party, she was celebrating recruiting five new members in the last month alone.

She said: "My area runs from Egypt to Oman and I have just taken on Afghanistan as well and we have female pilots signing up from across the area. A member has recently joined from Iran, we have members flying commercially in both Bahrain and Qatar and I have just enrolled a new woman from Afghanistan who is there with the UN Food Programme.

"It's an exciting time for women pilots in this part of the world as our network is really expanding, we now have more members than many of the European countries which is particularly pleasing since flying is much less common among women here."

But that is something Yvonne, who has flown all around the world and holds British, American, New Zealand and Bahrain pilot's licences as well as a seaplane rating which she earned in Florida, is determined to change.

And she is particularly looking forward to the Bahrain Air Show planned for 2010 which will put Bahrain on the worldwide aviation map.