Dieu Thuy had to "work her life" for 2.5 years at a five-star airline. While working as a co-pilot, a position that everyone thought could "make money", she also had to deal with many difficulties and barriers regarding health, physical strength and psychology.

Giving up the halo and turning point in life at the age of 24

Nguyen Tran Dieu Thuy (34 years old, currently living in Ho Chi Minh City) is one of the few Vietnamese female pilots in Vietnam today.

To sit in the cockpit - considered the heart and brain of the flight, ensuring the safety of hundreds of lives and assets of individuals and the country, the poor girl from Quang Tri had to go through countless challenges from the pressure of billion-dollar tuition fees to the days of trying 5 or 10 times harder to complete rigorous training courses...

Even after obtaining her pilot's license, she still had to face difficulties in the job application process - a profession that people still think can "make money".

Dieu Thuy used to be an actress who played many leading roles.

The keyword "pilot" was not in Dieu Thuy's previous career plan. Possessing a beautiful appearance, in 2008, the girl from Quang Tri participated in several teenage beauty contests.

In the following years, Thuy both studied and tried her hand at the film industry. Thanks to her beautiful appearance and ability to transform into a character, she received leading roles in films such as Doc suong mou, Huyen thuy 1C, Ben kia song, Nguoi mai vat, Nhung mat doi vong bao bao...

Her success at that time was the dream of many actors in the profession. However, after acting for a while, Dieu Thuy realized that she was not suited to stay in showbiz, so she decided to leave the screen .

Many people who knew the story blamed her for being foolish. However, in response, Dieu Thuy shared: "I chose a more difficult path, but I was able to struggle, do jobs that suited my personality, gain experience, and see the world."

In 2013, after graduating from Ton Duc Thang University with a major in safety engineering, Dieu Thuy started working in an American furniture factory. The job of ensuring safety for 3 factories with 11,000 workers was difficult and stressful.

The income from this job compared to other professions 10 years ago was not low - 800 USD (about 16 million VND at that time). But she seemed to have no time for herself.

Being an engineer and actress, the girl from Quang Tri decided to change herself to nurture a big dream.

Every day after leaving the company, Dieu Thuy rushed to the language center to improve her English. One day, Thuy realized that she needed to get out of the work cycle with the familiar route from home to the company.

You need to travel to many countries, see many cultures, meet many young people, and learn their thinking to have the opportunity to develop.

At the end of 2013, at the age of 24, the engineer decided to quit her job and travel to experience life. While surfing the internet, Dieu Thuy accidentally saw a flight attendant recruitment notice from Etihad Airways - a 5-star airline in Dubai. Dieu Thuy applied and unexpectedly was accepted.

The turning point of her life began here.

Working at Etihad Airways, the young woman has the opportunity to visit and learn about the cultures of more than 50 countries, and learn a lot about aviation expertise. In particular, she receives a "huge" income every month.

"Working on airplanes, because I am a "technical person", I often show curiosity about parameters, clocks, and machines. Once, when showing me the flight plan, a captain was very surprised at my ability to read the relevant parameters. The captain affirmed that I have the qualities to become a pilot," Dieu Thuy shared.

The chance conversation made Dieu Thuy nurture the dream of mastering the sky. But is that dream too far-fetched, especially when Dieu Thuy is a girl, her family is not rich, while the cost of studying this subject is up to billions of dong.

Save every penny to have 6 billion VND to go to pilot school

Dieu Thuy shared that she is originally from Quang Tri, her father is a civil servant, her mother is a teacher so they don't have money to send her to study pilot program. The entire tuition fee of about 6 billion VND, she had to save and borrow.

Sharing about the process of accumulating finances to nurture her big dream, Dieu Thuy said that in 2008, after participating in a teenage beauty contest, she was lucky to get a little bonus money and a few advertising contracts.

"That year, I saved 100 million VND. As a country person, I didn't dress up, didn't hang around, didn't shop. My education was covered by the money my parents sent me every month. I asked my sister to keep all the money I earned for me," Dieu Thuy shared.

From 2009 to 2013, during the time she was both studying and filming, Dieu Thuy lived with her sister to ask her for help in arranging her studies and artistic activities. After four years of studying hard, participating in 6 main roles, more than 30 commercials and ensuring the principle of spending no more than 1.5 million VND/month, the girl from Quang Tri accumulated 1.6 billion VND.

At the end of 2013, when she quit her job at the company, Dieu Thuy joined Etihad Airways and received a "huge" salary of 70 million VND, which later increased to 100 million VND/month.

At that time, the airline imported the super wide-body, double-decker A380 aircraft. Dieu Thuy was among the first personnel trained to operate it. Due to the complexity of the training, not many flight attendants took on this position.

Dieu Thuy once experienced stressful working time at a 5-star airline.

"Because of the lack of manpower, I have to fly a lot and the rest between flights is always minimal (according to the law) but not enough time for the body to recover. I work maximum hours, with minimum rest.

After 2.5 years of "selling my life" and wasting my health at a 5-star airline, I had saved up more than 4 billion VND. I naively thought that was enough to fulfill my dream of becoming a pilot. But no, the unexpected cost was much greater," Dieu Thuy shared.

After deducting the 4 billion VND she had saved for 6 years and the support from Vietnam Airlines' basic pilot training program, Dieu Thuy still lacked nearly 2 billion VND. This was a large amount of money that made her feel like "suffocating".

At this point, she could only "call for help" from her family. Thuy's parents had spent all of their savings of 420 million VND to invest in their daughter. Thuy's older sister was a civil servant so her income was only average. The older sister then borrowed 500 million VND to help her sister pursue her dream of becoming a pilot. For the remaining amount, Dieu Thuy was forced to borrow from the bank.

"Being a pilot is a glamorous job or as many people say, "it makes a lot of money". However, getting a pilot's license is not easy, especially for families without financial resources like mine", Dieu Thuy recalls the days of struggling to pay for school fees.

She was one of the few female members of the training course in the US.

Spend 30-40 million VND to rent a plane, get your license early to save money

Dieu Thuy started studying to become a pilot in June 2016. For her, it was the most difficult time. She had to memorize a series of complex knowledge about air transport and European standard aviation theory.

Every day, she had to study from 6am to 12am. Seeing nearly half of the class drop out because of failing subjects, Thuy felt a little discouraged. But she did not allow herself to stop because if she stopped, the billions of dong she spent would be meaningless.

After studying in Vietnam, in May 2017, Dieu Thuy continued to the US to practice flying. The living expenses, rent, plane rental, teacher rental… made Thuy worried.

She spent as little as possible, traveled by bicycle, cooked for herself, did not play around and set a goal of completing the course in 12 months, while students usually take 2 years to complete this course.

One day, the young girl flew 4 flights to improve her skills, applying theory to practice. Her classmates who only flew once every 2 days looked at Thuy with admiration.

"For one flight, I had to spend 30 - 40 million VND to rent a plane, hire a teacher, pay airport fees, pay taxes... I felt so sorry because I had to save every penny," Dieu Thuy recalled.

Dieu Thuy at the time of receiving her diploma in the US.

With her own efforts, 9 months later, Dieu Thuy also held her basic pilot's license in her hands, 3 months earlier than expected. Dieu Thuy completed the rigorous course with a score of 88/100, ranking second in the class.

The basic pilot licenses she has obtained are: Private Pilot, Instrument Pilot, Twin Engine Commercial Pilot, and Crew Pilot.

The learning journey did not stop there when she also learned about JETfarm jet aircraft, flying with Vietnam Airlines' standard crew at PC Bay Viet School.

After that, she continued to go to Europe to train to convert from propeller aircraft to Airbus 320 jet aircraft...

Disillusioned when applying for a job in Europe, with only 0% chance, decided to return to Vietnam

After studying in the US, Dieu Thuy did not return to Vietnam immediately but applied for a job in France. At that time, she had been in France for several years and intended to stay in Europe with her family. However, the young girl was immediately disillusioned when things did not go as she had planned.

Dieu Thuy said that the European aviation industry seems to have been saturated for a long time. The generation of veteran pilots has not retired yet, and long-established airlines have enough human resources.

Thousands of old and young pilots from Europe have to flock to Central Asia, North Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa to find jobs - where the aviation industry is still young and growing strongly, with high demand for pilots and abundant job opportunities.

At that time, Dieu Thuy went against the majority, staying in Europe, with a 0% chance of getting a job. She sent her application to more than 10 airlines that she thought she almost met their criteria, but only 6 responded. One accepted her as a trainee co-pilot, another put her on the waiting list. Many airlines rejected her because the Vietnamese girl did not have at least 500 hours of flight experience.

Getting a pilot's license is difficult, finding a job is even more difficult. Dieu Thuy sighed and recalled: "The most difficult thing was finding a job. Having spent billions of dong to study but not being able to find a job was extremely stressful. If the pilot's license is not used for flying, it will expire and become invalid, becoming worthless, saying goodbye to the dream of becoming a pilot.

Some of my friends have been in this situation, spending a lot of effort, time, and money, but for many reasons they were not allowed to join the company, could not get a job, all in vain.

After struggling to find a job for a whole year, Dieu Thuy changed direction and decided to return home. Luckily, she was accepted by 3/4 airlines. After consideration, Dieu Thuy chose to join Bamboo Airways.

After joining the airline, Dieu Thuy gradually accumulated enough flight hours, completed a long training course and officially became a co-pilot. She has been with the airline for 5 years now.

Dieu Thuy shared that being a pilot is a difficult job for anyone, whether male or female. Everyone faces the same difficulties. However, compared to men, women will face some additional barriers in terms of health, physical strength and psychology.

"I often have stomach aches and fatigue during my menstrual period and have to get used to the pain increasing as the plane takes off and lands continuously. It is also difficult for female pilots to maintain their beauty because they sit for many hours in the cockpit with direct sunlight. Continuous flight schedules in the early morning and late at night also affect their health and appearance.

The beautiful everyday beauty of the female co-pilot.

In addition, female pilots also have time to get pregnant and give birth, during which time they will not be allowed to fly. After 15 months of not flying, having to retrain is also difficult. Balancing between children, family and work is also difficult, with many sacrifices.

There is a small group of customers who lack confidence in the abilities of female pilots, this is also a disadvantage and pressure for female pilots," the female co-pilot shared the difficulties of female pilots.

Looking back on her journey to achieve her dream of becoming a pilot, Dieu Thuy always silently thanks herself for daring to confidently change. At 23, she gave up her acting career to become an engineer. At 24, she quit her job, traveled, and became a flight attendant.

The girl from Quang Tri then dared to conquer her unimaginable dream of becoming a female pilot. In her current position, she feels proud to do a difficult job, to master the sky and bring interesting journeys to many people.

Photo: NVCC

Content: Pham Hong Hanh

10/09/2023 - 05:41

Dantri.com.vn