My Daddy Strongest

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The Briefing Room
2006-12-11 03:41:05
From L to R: Shivadas, P Singh , Velankar(dad) ,Dhillon & Shankar.Cir:1967 , 101 Squadron This is a great picture. Not only does it capture a part of their daily work life, but also pictures like these actually show that the usual snaps that we see of the planes making a loop in the sky are a result of (hopefully) hours of planing and dedication.Dad was in the 101 fighter squadron from the 24th Dec 1966 to 31st May 1968. So this picture has probably been taken in 1967 in the briefing room. The nickname of 101 Sqn was "Falcon" and the Motto was "Anwishyawedhi" which means "Search and destroy".The Sqn was raised on 1st May 1949 and had spitfires in it. But by the time dad made his way out there, they were operating Vampires. Today 101 has Mig 21's as their mounts.During the early years of the IAF, Photo-recce (PR) was an urgent need and the originl spitfires of the 101 sqn were used for this purpose, but later on the the Vampires in 101 were used for the the same purpose. This articl...
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Dad with a Gnat MK1
2006-12-02 15:33:03
Details : -Circa: 1969, 22 Sqn, KalaikondaTell me life got any better then this!
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The Jawa Gang
2006-12-02 15:33:03
The bikers: (L-R) : S "Su" Soares , A.K "Babu" Shyam , Dad , A.V "Bhaggu" Bhagwat, V "Pashu" PashupathiDetails : -Circa: 1970, 22 Sqn, KalaikondaNow 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. :)
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The First Flight
2006-12-02 15:33:03
The L-5 aircraftDetails : -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!
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Nagpur Flying club
2006-12-02 15:33:03
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 clubThese 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.RoyThe 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!
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The Hindustan Trainer - 2 (HT-2)
2006-12-02 15:33:03
HT-2Details: Ci-1965, PTE Allahbad This is the HT2. The HT2 was one of the first planes to roll out of the HAL (Hindu stan Aeronautical Limited) production lines and was called the Hindustan Train er 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 t...
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The Havard IV's
2006-12-02 15:33:03
A line up of Havard Mk IV'sDetails: Place-Jodhpur , Ci- 1965This 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, butDad 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.

The Bina Topi Ka Photo
2006-12-02 15:33:03
Passing out picture of the 9th Entry batch, 1964, AFACDetails: 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 und...
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Commission
2006-12-02 15:33:03
Commissioned into the Airforce by Gen J ChoudhuriDetails: 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 com...
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Training days
2006-12-02 15:33:03
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...
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