Silva McLeod

In her own words

As a child every time I heard an airplane approaching our village I would run out and follow the tiny little dot travelling across the sky. I was fascinated about how clever those people were flying the machines from one place to another. I didn’t talk about wanting to fly because people would have laughed at me, but the thought remained. When I met my future husband Ken he had been hired to build a hospital on my island of Vava’u and I knew he would understand that I wanted to learn to fly. He did and said to me ‘it can be done’.

After marrying, moving to Australia, and having two children, we got Ken’s cancer diagnosis. He wanted to fight it and said to me: ‘Do you still want to fly? One thing I’ve learnt from this is if you have a dream, go for it.’

He gifted me a flying lesson and it was a challenge. I wondered ‘can I do it?’ I was a girl who grew up on a small island without electricity who came to Australia and couldn’t even drive a car about to embark on flying an aeroplane aged 31 years. I came to flying older, achieving my airline pilot licence when I was 36 and was absolutely blessed to be surrounded by a team of positive supporters throughout my study.

I was the first Tongan woman to become an airline pilot and captain and it was very special to me when I made the captain’s announcement in the Tongan language when I joined Royal Tongan Airlines.

Another career highlight was working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, where you fly as a single pilot. I loved it and found it such rewarding work.

I was very happy and not looking to move when Virgin International approached me. They had seen an outdated cv of mine on a pilots’ web platform and asked me to update my resume and apply. The call came when I least expected it and I was in my mid 40s. It was so sweet.

Defying gravity

My advice to others is – head  down, bum up. There is no easy way to reach your goals - whether it is law, medicine, or aviation – it’s hard work. Flying is extremely rewarding and gives you a total rush when you defy gravity at lift off and become airborne –what other profession can give you this!

People often ask me ‘do you think I can do it?’. My reply is always ‘do YOU think you can do it?’ because if you have the will you will forge through the barriers. 

My other advice is to just chip away at your goal and don’t look too far ahead. Don’t look at the top of the mountain or you will never start the climb; just take one step at a time and before you know it you will be halfway to the top.

New horizons

After taking a redundancy from Virgin during COVID in 2020, I embarked on a new, fulfilling career in residential real estate and started writing my memoir.

Writing became my therapy, it was literally my grief taking me there. My husband had always been my fan and he was proud of where I had come from and what I had achieved. He had constantly suggested I write my story. When I wrote my book I thought I would self-publish and found an editor who in turn suggested I pitch it to a publisher first.

I took her advice, pitched in February, got three offers, and had a publishing contract in March. The book has led to lots of speaking engagements as my experiences resonate with all walks of life and I hope inspires young ones to pursue what they want to do.