Nepal’s First Female Pilot

by SAHARA SHRESTHA

FROM ISSUE # 112 (April 2005) | IN THIS ISSUE
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Twenty years ago, the idea of a Nepali woman becoming a pilot may have seemed more than aberrant in Nepal. But that did not stop Rakshya Rana from dreaming to fly. She grew up to become Nepal's first female pilot.

Born on 7 Nov. 1967, to mother (late) Ganga Rana and father Noor Pratap JB Rana, Rakshya instantly made up her mind about becoming a pilot in her teens when she comprehended the fact that flying was a field which was, in Nepal, void of women. "I wanted to be the first Nepali woman pilot to acquire a Commercial Pilot License," she says. She recalls her friends who wanted to practice conventional professions like medicine, engineering and teaching, while she on the other hand desired to delve into an area where no Nepali women had before. "At that time, there was a strong public impression that women being a weaker sex were not capable of succeeding in a field, which was synonymous with danger and the male sex. The very challenge to prove women as strong and as good as men motivated me enough to try and become a pilot."

Rakshya got her training from Hoffman Pilot Center in Broomfield, Colorado for her private pilot license. She then moved to Addison, Dallas, Texas where she completed the rest of the training and obtained her FAA commercial Pilot license with Muli Engine and Instrument Rating in April 1988. It took her 11 months in total to complete the course. Rakshya was 24 years old when she flew professionally for the first time, with the domestic airlines Everest Air. As audacious as it seems for that time, Rakshya feels lucky to have had parents who were very encouraging about it all. "If you have parents who believe in you and are as supportive as my parents were, no difficulty can make any difference," she says.

Rakshya flew with Everest Air for more than a year. Her husband, with whom she was married for two years at the time, was also a pilot, a Captain for Royal Nepal Airlines. The two of them rarely got a chance to spend quality time with one another due to their flight schedules and that is when she made her decision to stop flying. "The constraint was so much that we used to wish each other on birthdays, New Years and other such occasions over the aircraft radio," she says. Rakshya explains to us that both of them realised that such a way of life was not favourable for a healthy married life and to bring up a family. She is now, for that reason, a full time wife and mother busy taking care of two children– a daughter named Saurya, who is 11 years old, and a son named Devashish, who is almost 6 years old. While her husband is mostly away on international flights, she spends time looking after the children's school matters and programs. "Although I miss it sometimes, there are no regrets I stopped flying because I achieved what I set out to and proved that women are as capable as any male. Besides, I never had planned for a life long career as a pilot."

A successful pilot, a caring wife and mother, Rakshya has proved herself worthy of being a part of a vanguard of women who are confronting traditional mind sets by merely setting out to achieve their dreams. Thanks to her the barriers have been broken and there are now about nine female pilots in Nepal, including former Miss Nepal 1998, Niru Shrestha, who is the fifth female Nepali Pilot.

Rakshya's advice for all the young girls reading this and dreaming of flying at 20,000 feet everyday? "Go for it. If others can send their womenfolk into space, you can very well fly at 20,000 feet and much higher."