Moving air

Between them, this father-and-son pair of helicopter pilots must have pushed tons of air in the service of Singapore.

When asked about the earliest memory of his dad Major (MAJ) (Ret) Chan Kwong Yuen as a pilot, Captain (CPT) Wilbur Chan said: "I remember seeing a UH-1H helicopter fly over the house once when I was about four or five. I later learnt that it was dad flying."

"I thought that was pretty cool," said the 27-year-old who harboured flying dreams of his own. CPT Chan joined the Republic of Singapore Air Force in 2009 and flies the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter in 120 Squadron.

As pilots, the father-son pair has travelled far and wide. CPT Chan counts his two years in the Peace Vanguard detachment in Arizona, United States (US), as his most memorable. "Every day was spent learning how to be a better pilot, and I learnt so much from operating with the US Air Force."

For MAJ (Ret) Chan, he remembered vividly his experience in East Timor (now Timor-Leste). He was deployed there in 2003 as part of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping efforts.

"We were living in field-camp conditions, and every day we would fly to send either troops or observers (from the UN)," said the 58-year-old who was deployed there for six months.

"Back then, pilots relied heavily on manual controls and reading the lay of the land to carry out our missions," said MAJ (Ret) Chan.

Today, pilots like his son have to contend with a wealth of information coming in from sophisticated computer systems that can acquire targets from miles away, while having to keep the aircraft airborne and on course.

Said MAJ (Ret) Chan: "For today's pilots, the challenge is to manage all of the information coming in while in my time, communications (while flying) was very difficult!

"The RSAF has really grown; today's airmen and women operate advanced platforms and there are so many opportunities to learn and progress."