Richard Ong is one of those few gentleman of this world who has achieved what we all wish ourselves and that is to have a job which is more than a job, it is his interest in life. Richard was born in Brunei on the 10 day of October 1960, to those of you with Chinese interest this is a most auspicious date being the "Ten Ten".

Richard undertook his schooling in Kota Kinabalu and has lived here all his life and can be considered a true Sabahan. His first job was as an administrator with the Borneo Hotel where he worked for a year before moving on to what was to be his true love in life working in the aviation industry. He initially work for Singapore Airlines in their reservations and after 3 years he joined Sabah Air where he worked as an Operations Officer for over 14 years until finally moving to his present post of Chief Flying Instructor for the Sabah Flying Club (SFC) in 1995. Prior to this he had been working part time with the SFC where, after obtaining his Private Pilots License (PPL) he became an instructor and has not looked back.

Richard is now 38 and has accumulated over a 1,000 hours flying time of which over 700 have been as an instructor. This is no mean accomplishment and Richard can be congratulated on such an achievement. Fortunately for him, his other hobbies and interest also blend into his work, where communications play an integral part of flying, and Richard has become an amateur operator and been a member of SARS for ten years. When there was a survey of whale sharks in this area a year ago, it was Richard the pilot with a keen interest in community work in wildlife conservation for Whale Sharks ( and Asian Elephants) who flew the scientists around the coastal waters of Sabah looking for Whale Sharks.

Richard is now type rated on the two aircraft which the SFC has and they are the Cessna 172 (seen below) and the Piper Tomahawk.

Richards contacts are as follows: