Woman pilot soars high

Becoming the first commercial pilot from her hometown, Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan, Surabhi has made not only her family, but also the entire UPES community proud of her achievement. Excerpts of a chat with the alumna…

Surabhi Sharma is an alumna of UPES, B.Tech Aerospace (Avionics) class of 2011-2015. Even before pursuing her engineering career, she aspired to become a pilot someday. In pursuit of her dreams and to gather a better comprehension of the working of aircraft, she enrolled in UPES under the Department of Aerospace.  So when did she first decide that she wanted to fly aircraft?

Says Surabhi, “When I was in Class VIII, I remember watching Air Crash Investigation with my father on television. It may sound childish, but that is exactly when I decided I had to fly aircraft. Nothing else fascinated me as much as being in the air having control of the aircraft.”

Surabhi is currently based in Bengaluru. She has to her credit a Commercial Pilot license from National Flying Training Institute Gondia under the aegis of Indigo Cadet Program. She has been working as First Officer at Interglobe Aviation Limited (Indigo) since January 2018. 

Surabhi enrolled for the undergraduate programme under the Department of Aerospace in the year 2011. “It was a part of my plan,” she  explains, “to pursue this degree at UPES. It gave me an insight into the machine I was going to operate. My understanding of the aircraft improved and it also helped me pass the necessary examination with ease.” She wrote the entrance examination in her final year at UPES, and with appropriate guidance and mentoring from the teachers at UPES, she cracked it in the very first attempt.

Surabhi is the first woman commercial pilot from Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan, her hometown. Till now she has flown over 1700 hours, including domestic and international flights.

A message for the Alma Mater-

“Words cannot express my gratitude towards UPES. I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today without my college and for that I owe a huge ‘thank you’ to all my teachers and friends, mentors and guides who helped me through the process. Because of the environment at UPES, I got the chance to spread my wings and become the best version of myself. I have made life-long mentors here who I know will be there for me at any point in life,” she signs off.