Training days

L-R : Flt Cadet sharma , Dad , suraj kumar .
Details: NagpurFlying club, Ci 1963

This is a nice picture of dad at the Nagpur Flying club. If you go back a few posts to the Flying club, you'll see that the plane in the background is the L-5.

I tried to dig up more info on the other people with dad in the picture. Most of the digging I did was on the Bharatrakshak website. It is a site maintained by truly dedicated bunch of people.

This is Suraj Kumars page in the site. It doesn't mention much other then that he was a fighter pilot and was a Fl Lt.

Also on this webpage there is mention of him and on that page there is also an picture of him standing in the group picture. Apparently he went to flying hunters and in the 1971 conflict, he was posted with the 20 Sqn at Pathankot. His mention goes as follows:

"...Four Hunters flown by Fg. Offs. DeMonte, Suraj Kumar, "Bond" Heble and Kailey flew a sortie to Lahore and Walton in search of opportunity targets. They found and attacked some railway installations and a train somewhere near Walton. They came back without damage."

Sadly I couldn't find much about Sharma. The Air Force seems to be blessed with too many from the Sharma Family.

But without disputing the beauty of the picture, I did find the positioning to be a bit strange. After all mostly anyone would take the picture with the front end of the picture. Am not really sure what was going on in the minds of these chaps so many years back. I think cadets have always been the same over the years!

Commission

Commissioned into the Airforce by Gen J Choudhuri

Details: Circa 13th March 1966,

Dad got his commission on the 13th of March 1966. The person giving him the commission (I'm not sure if that is the right term to be used.) was the then Army Chief General J Choudhuri. I was a bit confused as to why an army officer was commissioning Airforce pilots, but apparently it is a common occurance to invite the Chief Guests from the other wings of the Armed Forces.

If you notice the picture, the Peak-cap of the cadet on the further side of Dad has a white strip on it. What is not visible out there is the fact that even his stripes are covered with a white cloth. As the General goes down the line of Pertified boys ( assumption!) the job of the person behind dad (I think a Sqn Ldr by his stripes) was to remove the cloth over the stripes and the Peak Cap. Then the General would pin on your Wings and Walla! You were an officer!

The person on dad's right is Pilot Officer Sawminathan. After commissioning, in March 1966 both dad and Swaminathan were posted in Tejpur. Dad was on Vampires and Swaminathan on Hunters. Swaminathan died in Jan 1967 when the Hunter he was taking off with had a flameout. A "Flameout" is the phenomenon when the jet engine that is propelling the plane gets extinguished, thereby handing over the plane to the forces of gravity. I asked dad why he didn't eject? Dad was reticient. "They found that something was wrong with the hydraulics and a lot of other things... You know, I was on vacation when it happened..."

I let it drop. I guess somethings don't need to be put in words.

The Bina Topi Ka Photo

Passing out picture of the 9th Entry batch, 1964, AFAC
Details: Circa : May 1964, Location: AFAC Coimbatore

This is an favorite old picture isn't it? A snap of passing out that is taken officially at the end of the course that is then handed out to you before you pass out. I remember that I always had to pay for a picture of myself, be it a class picture or a batch passing out picture at TS Chanakya.

For some reason these pictures always last the test of time and the faces of the people, look back at you with regimented attention over the years. While the other pictures, those taken by themselves, under the wings of the planes, in grassy meadow, or at a banks edge, never last. I find that tragic. And it is those pictures that I want to put here eventually.

Dad had joined the 9th Entry batch and did his AFAC (Air Force Administrative College) , Coimbatore from 9th Dec 1963 to 9th of June 1964. So I guess this picture must have been shot sometime in May 1964. If I was under the impression that the Administrative college was focused in teaching the budding cadets war manouvers and the administration of great nations, I was soon disabused of those notions. As per dad, the only thing he remembers from the AFAC was the parading and the PT's!

It really isn't very hard to find dad out here. He is the only one in the picture without a cap! As I had first seen the picture, trying to scan it to spot dad, my reactions were like ,
" Hey look! there's a person there without a cap!"
"... Isn't that you dad?"

Dad has no convincing explaination. He sheepishly tries to put it off as a one time lapse of uniformity! :)

But the two of us shall always refer to this as dad's "Bina Topi ka photo."

The Havard IV's

A line up of Havard Mk IV's
Details: Place-Jodhpur , Ci- 1965

This is a great picture. Imagine a young flight cadet with a few hours of flying coming over to a lineup of planes like this and think, "Now We're talkin!"

These planes are the Harvard IV D ac. That is what Dad's log book mentions them to be. I could not find out much about the plane, but

Dad attended the AFFC (Air Force Flying College) at Jodhpur from 17th Mar 1965 to 04th Sep 1965. So the picture seems to have been taken some time in the middle of 1965. Out there he did a total of 74 hours of flying, 42 day and 3.30 night dual and 28 day and 2.30 night solo.

This site does tell us a bit more of the Havard and a few new snaps.