The Story of Aroma’s First Female Pilot, as told by her mother Wanika Thomas tells the story of her baby daughter.
Wanika Veavu is from K-Kele village and married to John Thomas from Rabaul, they have 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girl. “This is her baby girl’s story” she stated.
My daughter Elaine always knew she wanted to be a pilot from a very young age. She would often travel up and down the Magi Highway to spend school holidays at KK with her uncles and aunties, and flew back to Rabaul, North Coast.
Change in scenery during her travels sparked a passion for traveling and adventure at a very young age. When Elaine was in grade 10, her dreams of becoming a Pilot were coming into shape , that’s when her 3rd brother Kelly was accepted into Mapua University in Manila, Philippines to study Mechanical Engineering in 2012, she saw that as opportunity for her to pursue her dreams of flying to study in Philippines, Wanika stated, “She convinced her father and I to let her move to a new country to start a new chapter at the age of 16 “…Further “I must say, it was one of the hardest things I had experienced having to let my last born daughter explore the world on her own”… Elaine moved to Philippines in May of 2012 and completed her Private Pilot License by December, then obtained her Commercial Pilot License and Instrument rating by the end of 2013.
At that time, the Flying School she attended didn’t have a Multi-Engine aircraft for her to do her Multi-Engine rating which is a requirement for getting a job, which meant she needed to transfer to a new school or place in order to complete her Pilot Training, thus she moved to Fiji in 2014 where she completed her Multi-Engine type rating.
She then decided to do Airline Transport Pilot License and completed her training by the end of 2017, during her studies in Fiji, She met her Soul mate James, who is mix Fiji and England, and in 2019 they had beautiful daughter. She spent most of her time in Fiji adapting to motherhood, whilst travelling the world with her partner James who at that time was a Second Officer with Fiji Airways on the Airbus 330 & 350, They often visited PNG with their daughter quarterly.
During COVID19 she was with her family in Fiji. In March of 2022 Elaine and her daughter visited us and coincidentally Air Niugini had just put out a recruitment Ad for First Officers & Captains. With just over 250 hours flying time, she thought she’d give it a try. Elaine got a response in April, and went through with the aptitude test, and got shortlisted for the Simulator assessment, and passed the interview.
By August of 2022, she was officially accepted as First Officer Thomas for Air Niugini on the Dash-8, Elaine & Myrah were bound for Melbourne to do their type rating in September, commenced line training in November through to January and passed her Line Check in February. Elaine, now 29 has been flying the Dash-8 with Air Nigini for over 2 years and logged nearly 1500 hours, she flys to and from Fiji during her days off and spends time with her partner James, now 30, who is also First Officer on the Boeing 737 for Fiji Airways.
She’s currently expecting a 2 child whilst traveling the world with their 5 year old daughter, Wanika finally stated “God’s timing is perfect and he has a plan for everyone.
All things are possible with God!
Credited: Aroma Coasts Gifted, Talented and Blessed.
Mytagii
Infinite Intelligence 