AMMAN — Jordanian Muhammad Malhas has long
harbored dreams of being a pilot. Now at 76 years old, he's soaring above the
clouds in a cockpit he built in his basement.
اضافة اعلان
"Since the beginning of time, man has
been watching the birds in the sky, and dreaming of flying freely," Malhas
told AFP.
As a boy, he enjoyed flying his kite and
wondering how something so flimsy made of paper could soar so high.
"It was then the desire and love of
flying began to obsess me," he added, sitting in the flight simulator, a
replica of the cockpit of a Boeing 737–800, which he has spent three years
building from scrap and secondhand items.
"My heart was always hanging in the
sky, and my dream was to become a pilot, but circumstances did not allow
it," he said.
He graduated in hospital management from a
London university in 1969, and went to work with his father at the Amman
hospital the family had founded.
But Malhas kept his dreams alive, devouring
books on aviation, aircraft engineering and guides to learning how to fly.
He even joined the Royal Jordanian Air
Academy in 1976, rising before dawn to take flying lessons in a small Piper
aircraft, before heading to work. He obtained his license two years later.
For almost a decade he was a member of the
Jordanian Gliding Club, taking to the skies every weekend.
And by 2006, he was flying virtually thanks
to flight software he downloaded on his computer.
He joined a global network of flight
simulator fans, where they could fly in almost real conditions directed by an
air traffic controller.
"We were a group of about 30 to 40
friends, aviation enthusiasts from different countries chatting about flying
virtually in our spare time.
"We used to fly to Beirut, Damascus,
Baghdad ... even Britain and the US. Sometimes we sat for six hours on
computers as if we were flying real flights," he told AFP.
The joy of flying
Now retired, his life-long passion has taken
a new spin.
Sat in front of three large screens,
equipped with switches and indicators, in his homemade cockpit, Malhas has the
world at his fingertips.
All the parts were bought at local markets.
The chairs were originally part of a bus.
The screens show pictures of clouds and sky
above, rivers, forests and deserts below. He can even choose what the weather
outside is like.
The work took three years, with the help of
friends who are electronic engineers. And it cost around JD6,000 ($8,400).
His friend Ahmed Fares, 25, helped
installing switches and indicators which "respond to the conditions of the
plane, so that it looks like a real plane flying".
Sometimes his wife joins Malhas in the
cockpit.
"I think it is amazing to fly while
sitting at home and to feel the joy of flying around the world," he said.
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