Eighteen days after his 17th birthday, Remy Donawa became one of the youngest Bermudians to earn a pilot’s licence. The Warwick Academy student is now licensed to fly private, single-engine planes.

“It is a bit like a car licence,” he said. “I can fly, but I cannot have people pay me to fly them around.”

Remy’s dream is to become an airline transport pilot for a large commercial airline.

“I have wanted to be a pilot for as long as I can remember,” he said.

When he was a toddler, his grandfather would often take him to St George’s to watch aeroplanes taking off and landing, to entertain him.

Remy first declared his intention to become a pilot in a school report in grade three at Paget Primary.

A few years ago, his mother, Rona Donawa, saw a local television news interview with Bermudian pilot Sheridan Smith, who qualified as a first officer for commercial planes in 2017, at age 25.

“At the end of the interview, he said if other Bermudians were interested in becoming a pilot, to reach out to him,” Ms Donawa said. “I did just that.”

Mr Smith, based in Florida, directed Remy to flight instructor, Jennifer Adams at the Palm Beach County Park Airport in Lantana, Florida. Ms Donawa scheduled a discovery flight there to test how Remy would fare in a small aircraft.

“I knew as soon as I stepped into the plane that this was what I wanted to do,” he said. “It was like I got to live out my dreams. I was amazed. These aeroplanes are so little, they get off the ground in a matter of seconds.”

He started taking lessons in Florida, a year ago, during school breaks.

Ms Donawa said, as a single mother, it was no small sacrifice for her, financially. “It is very, very expensive,” she said.

Not only did they have to pay for flight at $265 an hour, but they also had to pay for travel expenses going back and forth to Florida.

“I just believe that when your child has a passion for something, you need to encourage them,” she said.

While training, Remy had to do 60 hours of solo flying. He was excited when he did his first flight without an instructor on board, in April.

“I got the engine started and then taxied out to the runway,” he said. “After I made my radio calls I remember looking over my right shoulder and seeing that there was no one else in the plane.”

He took off, flew around the airport several times and then landed without incident.

His second solo cross-country flight, however, had a hiccup.

“One of the requirements for getting your licence is that you do a cross country ― a flight 50-miles from the airport you start at,” he said. “You have to stop at another airport. You can fly back or go on to another airport.”

He flew 146 miles west from Lantana, Florida, just north of Miami, to Punta Gorda, Florida. Everything went well until he was flying back to Lantana and found that thunderstorms were coming in.

“I had to divert to an airport that was basically in the middle of nowhere,” he said.

When he landed, the airport was deserted because it was the weekend. It was such a small airport he could find nowhere to tie down his plane.

“I took all my stuff out of the aircraft,” he said. “The terminal was open, but it was just me sitting in there by myself for two hours. I called the airport in Lantana to let them know where I was, and also called my mother.”

“I was freaking out, wondering where he went,” Ms Donawa said.

He took his flight check exam in August, scoring 93 per cent on the theory exam before doing a flight assessment with an examiner.

Now he is waiting for his official pilot’s licence to arrive in the mail.

“First they have to do background checks,” Remy said. “My instructor printed out a temporary licence for me. I was just relieved that I had passed my tests. The best part was telling my mother and grandmother that I had passed.”

To mark the occasion, his instructor cut a square out of the back of his T-shirt, a tradition with pilots.

“Historically, planes were really, really loud,” Remy explained. “If you were flying with your instructor seated behind you, you could not hear them. They would tug on your shirt tail to get your attention. Cutting your shirttail symbolises that you are ready to fly on your own.”

The day after qualifying, he took his mother and grandmother for a ride around Florida.

“It was just a nice tour of Florida,” Ms Donawa said. “He did amazing. We were not scared. We had been watching him take off and land for months, without incident. His instructor was always really, really pleased with his progress.”

She said having BermudAir, the island’s own airline, brought new hope to young Bermudians who want to become pilots.

“Before, if you wanted to become a pilot it just was not possible to work in Bermuda,” she said. “A Bermudian pilot would have to get a job with a foreign company and spend years working overseas until they decided to do something else, or retired and came home.

“BermudAir makes the profession so much more accessible to young Bermudians.”

Remy is now in his last year at Warwick Academy and is starting the college application process.

He hopes to attend flight school in Florida, and eventually get his commercial aviation licence.