MS. Barbara Adams, the first woman in Guyana to hold a commercial helicopter pilot’s licence, recently paid a fleeting visit to Base Camp Ayanganna.

Adjutant General, Colonel Lorraine Foster, along with a team from Defence Headquarters, received her.
Ms. Adams is currently in Guyana for the Ex-GDF Officers’ 2023 reunion.
The Bishops High School graduate, who was attending the University of Guyana at the time, was chosen to attend the Oxford Air Training School in England. She triumphantly finished the programme, and obtained a Commercial Pilot’s Licence in 1977.

She achieved the historic feat of becoming the inaugural female helicopter pilot in the United Kingdom, and remains the sole female helicopter pilot in Guyana.
Following her graduation, she joined the Guyana Defence Force as an Ensign officer, specifically assigned to the GDF Air Corps. She piloted the Bell 206 and Bell 212 helicopters on numerous missions alongside the then President of Guyana Forbes Burnham, as well as various rescue missions for the GDF.

She later migrated to the US. Throughout her career, Ms. Adams was the recipient of numerous professional accolades, including the Pioneer Aviator Award bestowed by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds in October 2013, the Trail Blazer Award presented by the Guyana Unity Movement in June 2018, and the 2019 Excellence Award awarded by the Guyana Association of Georgia.

She occasionally her love for flying via her family’s flying Club in her adopted hom’s flying Club in her adopted home state of Georgia. Ms. Adams Wilson is the proud mother of three adoring children.