When Olebile Sekwababe was a young boy of 9, he saw an aeroplane flying over his village and was fascinated. He wanted to know how it could fly. He wondered if the aeroplanes had flexible wings to assist in propelling forward. He wanted to be an engineer so he could understand this magic of a flying machine.
Hetook Part 66 B2 Avionic Line/Base Certifying Technician training at Air Service Training in Perth, Scotland, United Kingdom. Then continued to pursue a bachelor of engineering (aircraft) at the University of the Highlands and Island in Perth College, Perth, Scotland, UK. Advanced training includes Dornier 328-100 Turbo Prop Initial Type Training – Avionics, Airframe and Plantplant, Dornier 328-100 Turbo Prop Initial Refresher Training, Strategic Planning Fundamentals, Managing Technical Projects, FAA Maintenance Error Avoidance, and FAA Aircraft Maintenance Documentation For AMTs.
Captain Olebile Sekwababe works for Botswana Defence Force in the Air Arm. He has been deployed in the VIP Flight Squadron because of his academic achievements in the aviation field and commitment to work. He has type training on the Dornier 328-100TP fixed wing aircraft. He makes sure that Dornier 328-100TP aircraft is always in working order/serviceable through conducting scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, repairs, inspections, and recordkeeping of maintenance activities. He also supervises aircraft maintenance planning and control center in the VIP Flight Squadron. He was nominated the best engineer in the squadron in 2015.
He is a part-time instructor (Avionics Department) at Technical Training School, Air Arm, Botswana Defence Force. He has taught a lot of student pilots and avionic technicians. As line and base engineer, Sekwababe provides refresher courses to the technicians on maintenance safety. He believes that safety should be given top priority in any aviation industry. He has taken a short online course on safety management systems to broaden his knowledge on safety management.
He has a few mentors including Colonel Job Sejoe, a commandant at Air Arm Technical Training School. "He is a very good leader, and has produced a lot of aircraft maintenance mechanics and technicians. He always advises me to work hard and aim high in my career. He encourages me to read a lot because in engineering we never stop learning as technology is ever changing."
To give back to the industry, he has created a group on Facebook called Aircraft Engineers Botswana, to encourage youngsters to find careers in aviation. He and three friends have started a project of building a simulator from scratch, and when it is finished they want to attract children in their community to have interest in aviation especially flying. There will be a lab where those who are interested in engineering can do hands-on projects and there will be some teaching lessons where children will be equipped with basic flying principles.
Sekwababe is studying maintenance planning and scheduling course to learn about the importance of preventative maintenance. In the future he would like to study quality assurance and aviation management because he wants to work at the country’s Civil Aviation Authority. "I want to make sure that safety is not an option in everything we do in aviation in Botswana."
