FUTURE FACES By Aaron Karp
Komal Rahane, Helicopter Student,
Veracity Aviation A personal loss inspires a dream of becoming an air ambulance pilot.
I
N 2007 IN INDIA, KOMAL RAHANE’S grandfather died of a heart attack after an ambulance arrived too late to provide paramedic care. Today, about to
obtain her commercial helicopter pilot license (CHPL), Rahane has her grandfather in mind as she pursues her dream of becoming a helicopter air ambulance (HAA) pilot.
“Every time I take off” during training flights, Rahane
says, “I wish the helicopter could have landed on our farm in India to save my grandpa.”
A Career Change Leads to Aviation In 2015, Rahane left her homeland and moved to Texas to pursue a computer science degree. Two years later, she found herself working as a software developer. But she realized a desk job wasn’t for her. “That wasn’t mak- ing me happy,” Rahane explains. “I was spending 10 hours a day sitting in front of a computer. It wasn’t my personality.”
She recalls that after moving to the United States,
she saw an abundance of helicopters in the air and was especially inspired by air ambulance rotorcraft. “I never saw a helicopter closely when I was growing up,” Rahane says. “In India, it’s really rare to have a passion for being a helicopter pilot, because you don’t see heli- copters landing and taking off.” But seeing helicopters flying in Texas made her real-
ize that “flying a helicopter is my thing.” Rahane began her pilot training in 2019 at Veracity
Aviation, a helicopter pilot training school and operator in Pearland, Texas. But before she could feel comfortable in the cockpit, Rahane realized she had to overcome a physical challenge that she had encountered in the Robinson R22, the aircraft in which she started at Veracity. “Aviation and cockpit controls were new to me,” says
Rahane. “The most challenging situation in the cockpit was not [being able to pull] enough power to climb and cross-check on instruments. A Robinson R22 gives a lot of vibration through cyclic control. My forearm and wrist weren’t strong enough for that.” But Rahane didn’t let those temporary limitations
stop her. Following a suggestion from her flight instruc- tor, she started going to the gym and lifting weights. “Before going to flight training, I started doing push-ups to gain more strength. I stayed committed and over- came my challenges.” Rahane received her private pilot certificate in 2021
and is now continuing her training toward her CHPL. She’d also like to obtain CFI and CFII ratings and hopes to become a flight instructor within a year, on her way to becoming an HAA pilot.
52 ROTOR JUNE 2023
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
