GFS pilot Burnet Shek lives his boyhood dream
For Burnet Shek Tat-ching, joining the Government Flying Service in 1995 was a childhood dream come true. "I wanted to be a pilot ever since I was a young boy," Shek, now 47 and a fully qualified helicopter pilot, said at the GFS headquarters at Chek Lap Kok airport.
For Burnet Shek Tat-ching, joining the Government Flying Service in 1995 was a childhood dream come true.
"I wanted to be a pilot ever since I was a young boy," Shek, now 47 and a fully qualified helicopter pilot, said at the GFS headquarters at Chek Lap Kok airport.
Shek grew up near Kowloon City, catching glimpses of planes taking off and landing at the old Kai Tak airport.
He was 26 when he joined the GFS and part of his training was in Scotland where he learned to manoeuvre through the unforgiving conditions of the North Sea.
Now Shek is one of the most senior pilots at the GFS. He was the commander who delivered a much-needed helicopter to Sichuan in 2008 to help with the search-and-rescue operations after the province suffered a massive earthquake.
"You do a lot of hand and visual flying, you save somebody and you also get paid. All of that, it's a gift for me," he said.
One of Shek's most memorable rescues was in 2004, when he led a team that saved a fisherman who had fallen into the sea near Dangan Dao, a remote island in mainland waters 20 kilometres from Hong Kong.
