The Hindustan Trainer - 2 (HT-2)

HT-2
Details: Ci-1965, PTE Allahbad

This is the HT2. The HT2 was one of the first planes to roll out of the HAL (Hindustan Aeronautical Limited) production lines and was called the Hindustan Trainer 2. But of course everyone had to refer to it as the HT2. The HT2 was a trainer and dad graduated on to the planes after his 25 hours of his flying on the L-5 at the Nagpur flying club.

Dad's log book states that he was at the Pilot Training Acadamy from the 22nd of Nov 1964 to 16th March 1965. So in all probablity, this picture has been taken sometime around the end of 1964 or the begining of 1965. All the flight cadets were required to do another about 25 hours of flight training (this time under Airforce supervision!). Dad ended up doing a total of 28 hours of flying. Out of the 28, 5 hours were solo flying.

The HT-2 was already well in service by the time dad actually got to fly them. The August 9 1951 edition of The Hindu proudly proclaimed the self sufficiency of India in training their own pilots. A certain Captain Munshi is reported as follows,
"Captain Munshi, Chief Test Pilot, told TheHindu that it was easily manoeuverable and responded quickly and effectively to controls. "

But I doubt that anything can be as cut and dried. A report of the flight of the HT-2 retrived from the Bharat-Rakshak vaults warns the HAL of the follows,

" The steering seemed a shade more sensitive than the other controls (which are themselves quitesensitive) and may lend itself to coarse use in the hands of, or rather under the feet ofpupil pilots It Is understandable that an aircraft stressed as highly as the H.T.2 will have sensitive controls, but a comment at this stage may not be entirely out of place, The H,T.2 controls are much lighter than any trainer in use, and it would be Interesting to see the reactions of the instructors and the pupils to this difference."

I am not sure if a 25 hour old flight cadet also would find the sensitive controls as "interesting"! Must get a clarification form dad on that the next time I speak to him.

A most excellent write up on this beautiful plane can be found here on the BR website. It would be a shame to not go on that webpage.

The HT-2 no longer serves the Indian Airforce, but HAL did provide another plane for the Indian airforce aleed the HPT-32. If I am not mistaken, flight cadets still start flying on this plane in India. As far as the HT-2 is concerned, it still plays a very important role in many parts of India. Giving someting to fit in front of ugly building to divert attention from it.

Nagpur Flying club

Training staffL-R: Capt Tharegaonkar(in white shirt) , Capt Ramamurthy(Standing centre) , Capt kanga (With shades), Flt Cdt VP Roy (without cap)

Details: Circa 1965, Nagpur flying club

These are the pictures of dad's training at Nagpur flying club. I was wondering why airforce cadets were undergoing training in civilian facilities and by civilians. It seems that during the emergency of, Airforce had given five flying clubs the contract to give basic flying taining to its cadets. This included a total of 25 hours of flying. Five of these hours had to be solo.

L-R : Dad, Capt Kanga, V.P.Roy

The imposing trainer was Capt Kanga. I wonder how he could have fit in most of the cockpits of that time. If you notice in the second picture, dad actually had to stand on top of the planes wheel and the other cadet on the chock to even reach his shoulders!

The First Flight

The L-5 aircraft

Details : -Circa: 1964, Nagpur EFTU (Elemantary Flight Training unit)

This was the plane that dad first learnt flying on. This was a two seater plane that could run for up to a couple of hours though I'm not sure how much distance it would have covered in that much time.

The plane belonged to the Nagpur flying club which is where dad's Elementary Flying Unit was based. It does seem a bit of a plum that I find myself in the same place so many years later.
I found this website that does tell us a bit about this plane. But I think dad's old picture looks better!

The Jawa Gang

The bikers: (L-R) : S "Su" Soares , A.K "Babu" Shyam , Dad , A.V "Bhaggu" Bhagwat, V "Pashu" Pashupathi

Details : -Circa: 1970, 22 Sqn, Kalaikonda

Now we are talking! These were the days when having a Jawa was the thing that cool dudes did. ...Actually I think those days are still going on, but regardless.
Apparently in those days the only bikes available were the Royal Enfeild, Rajdoot and Jawa. The Royal Enfield with its high pricing was something a young Pilot Officer could never afford. The Rajdoot was dismissed as Flimsy due to its construction. The only scooter around was Vespa and a fighter pilot would of course never be spotted dead on one of those. The bike of choice was the Jawa. We see them in all their spendour out here. I wonder if we could figure out if these bikes are still around?

Please note the overalls with the Gnat symbols. :)

Dad with a Gnat MK1

Details : -Circa: 1969, 22 Sqn, Kalaikonda

Tell me life got any better then this!