Francois Marais is a 67 year pilot and businessman based in Cape Town South Africa with 48 years of experience in commercial aviation on both airplanes and helicopters. He holds licenses to fly 90 different types of airplanes and 15 different types of helicopters, accumulating over 26000 hours of accident-free flying on both.

Growing up with aviation, his father was a pilot in both the South African Air Force and the UK’s Royal Air Force serving during the Second World War. His father owned an aviation crop spraying company, where he learned to fly while still in school.

After graduating high school in 1975, he spent two years in the South African National Defence force as a commissioned officer where he was taught strong operational skills and still serve in the Reserve Force today.
His primary interests focus on setting up turnkey aviation companies with key elements involving aviation safety, safety management and the tutoring of young pilots.

He has flown all over the world on contract work, including countries like Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Colombia, Venezuela, and Mauritius amongst others, but Cape Town remains his favourite place.

He enjoys working with people and consider himself a “people’s person”.