Comments on: STARTING THE INDIAN AIR FORCE TEST PILOTS SCHOOL

By: T Philip

T Philip — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 12:47:45 +0000

When I received your mail of Feb 19th forwarding a mail from Maj Gen Surjit Singh I glanced through it briefly. When I realized that there was quite a bit of reading material, I decided to save it for reading during my trip to Calicut. I did just that!

You have had an amazing journey in the Indian Air Force!

I first read the post about Admiral Arun Prakash. The demonstration of asymmetric flying in the Canberra with you as instructor was so well written, that I could literally feel my safe legs turning to jelly! I let out a not very soft “WOW” mid-air when I read the bit where you trashed Adm Prakash’s purportedly rock solid defence with the US Navy Text Book to validate his calculations and had the gall to correct the printed matter with red ink and sign it!

The Ukranian naval base where the Russians had “created” an aircraft carrier defied imagination.

Maj Gen Surjit Singh’s narrative was catchy. Standing first in the UPSC entrance exams and throughout 6 long terms is probably unparalleled. So is 2nd place in yachting at age 17! I remember reading about the details of renaming of the Hunter squadron in one of earlier posts.

I did not know till now that you were the first Indian to train at the USAF Test Pilots School and that you had trained under Astronaut Aldrin.

The wide variety of aircraft you flew in the USA is mind boggling, though I did not quite understand their descriptions.

I did know that you were the one who set up the IAF Test Pilot’s School. I was not quite aware that students for the Army, Navy and Coast Guard also were trained there.

The struggle with slide rules and the lone calculating machine and the arrival of the first calculator brought a smile to my lips. I would like to borrow your method of repeating the first day’s question paper on the final day of the entrance process because as it proved, this is the only way to see how far a person is willing to go to learn on his own. Absolutely brilliant, I must add!

Shunning the White Man for help in a pioneering venture oozes guts. Especially when the courage of your conviction drives you to ignore the chain of command.

Painting one wall in a room partitioned with steel almirahs, with black cement to use as a blackboard is funny, yet highly practical for a start up strapped for funds. Finally, awarding diplomas to the spouses of graduates was indeed a warm hearted gesture!

Thank you for sharing the post. I have shared these thoughts with others at home.

By: J Thomas

J Thomas — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 06:37:47 +0000

Thanks Sundara Raman. Nice connecting to old colleagues.

Yes, the Kiran accident you have mentioned was tragic. The pilots were Flt Lts D Yadav and Ghildiyal and the aircraft was with HAL. FLt TR Kishore’s accident was several years later and that was also an HAL aircraft.

Yes, I remember Francis. We were neighbours as children in Tambaram back in 1947.

By: A. Sundara Raman

A. Sundara Raman — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:46:52 +0000

Now I remember, his name is Francis, a Radar tradesman from DSS. Unfortunately I also remember the Kiran aircrash where F/L Ghildiyal & TPR Kishore died. wonderful pilots……….

By: Sundararaman Iyer

Sundararaman Iyer — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:12:47 +0000

Liked the article very much. It was my last and most favoured Unit. Had a longer stint there during the early years of TPS, ETPS, FTS etc., (1975-82).

By: J Thomas

J Thomas — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 14:41:15 +0000

Thanks Rakesh. The Canberra was an excellent aircraft for the Test Pilots Sschool because it showed what twin engine stability and control should not be.
The sad part is that we lost a number of crew and aircraft due to these issues.

In 1970 I went to Preston, UK to collect a B-66. I took the opportunity to meet Roland Beamont who did all the initial flight tests of the Canberra. I asked him why the engines were kept so far out, just like a propeller aircraft. He tried to say things like cross wind effects etc. Partly true because the Avon Mk I (on the early Marks including the T-4) would easily stall during cross wind roller take offs. Then his secretary pulled him away for another meeting.

But glad to say that international standards for maximum permissible rudder force for asymmetric flying has been reduced from 180 lbs to 150 lbs.

By: Rakesh Sharma

Rakesh Sharma — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 14:37:44 +0000

Tommy sir, many thanks for the forwarded email and my references therein.

You had converted me onto the Canberra during the PTP course at ASTE. Even today, when i think about that experience my leg goes into a spasm doing all those single engine approaches!

Stood me in good stead as I did my Preview on the B 66 and got the max marks for it but missed out on the Flightt Evaluation trophy because my ground subjects avg was 69.6% while trophy eligibility cut off was 70%.

Thanks for that experience, nonetheless!

By: A. Sundara Raman

A. Sundara Raman — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 01:11:28 +0000

Thanks for the article. I joined ASTE on promotion as Sgt in Avionics Lab in May 1975 in the old Hangar at HAL Bangalore. Later moved to a bigger Hangar opposite that and stayed there until 1982 when I left the AF as a JWO. I made a record of a 7-year stay in one Unit. Had a wonderful opportunity of performing a trial modification in Mig – installing American Collins V/UHF for the first time and went for flight trials at Jamnagar. Had a lot of interaction with most of the Officers at that time – I still remember Sqn Ldr S K Misra (tech sigs) who gave me the opportunity of modification in Mig a/c. During my service there received a Commendation from the CAS through the hands of Air Cdr PK Dey in 1978 or so. I remember your name very much – I think there was one Radar Mechanic, a baldy chap, who was related(?) to you or very familiar to you – my memories are fading now. Hope you & your family doing well……………

By: Dhiraj Mullick

Dhiraj Mullick — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 08:49:45 +0000

Good read and a lovely articulation of a very challenging task sir.
As it is said “The only way to get ahead is to accept challenges”
And I do feel that such challenges are indeed what make a life journey memorable!

Thanks sir!

By: S Aiyyanna

S Aiyyanna — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 04:58:04 +0000

Thank you, Joseph!

Such an interesting read. Thank you for remembering me and sharing it with me. You guys are all well and truly such superstars!

My best wishes to you, as always.

By: J Thomas

J Thomas — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 04:54:19 +0000

Thanks General. The digital calculators were a first for the air force and, probably, for all the Defence forces. Prior to that, we were using slide rules and a few mainframe computers. BTW, the Apollo 11 first Moon landing had a digital computer for the lunar lander with a memory of 64 kB. It could not cope during the final stages of landing and the lunar module pilot had to take over manually.

Each digital calculator cost was Rs 36,000. For two calculators, in today’s money, the cost was over Rs 10 lakhs. Yes, we had 32 % inflation in 1973 and the nation wen tthrough a major crisis.

In 1972, I spent 4 months with Lockheed. They were also using slide rules and mainframe computers.

The diploma for spouses is very popular. Many of them frame the diplomas. I should have mentioned that, last year, the school graduated the first lady Flight Test Engineer.