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Bale Out from a Deepak

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Category: Flight Safety
Last Updated: Thursday, 24 December 2020 18:21
Written by Gp Capt M Sabharwal
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The HAL HPT-32 Deepak had a chequered career in the Indian Air Force - Introduced in the late 80s, it served for about two decades in the IAF, being used for the ab-initio flying training of IAF Cadets. Over the course of its career, more than 21 were lost in accidents.  Only two known incidents involved pilots successfully baling out - thus earning themselves membership in the Caterpillar Club.  The first such baleout was done by Flight Cadet M Sabharwal - later Gp Capt, 22122 F(P) . This is his account, first published in Flight Safety Magazine.

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I was a Japanese Prisoner of War

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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
Last Updated: Saturday, 04 July 2015 02:14
Written by Fg Offr K Velayadhun Nair
Hits: 10023

Towards the end of November 1944, No.2 Squadron IAF moved from Kohat to Mambur airstrip on the Burma Front to take part in the operations against the Japanese. Within a day of the operations starting, On 2nd December 1944, Flying Officer K V Nair failed to return from a sortie. His Hurricane aircraft, LA316 was seen force-landing near a Chaung 15 miles NE of Akyab. Nair was seen clmbing out of the aircraft but his  fate remained a mystery till about five months later when he was one of the Prisoners of War liberated from the Rangoon Jail.  Nair would give the following account of the period he spent as as a POW under the Japanese.

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The Ajeet Trainer - Short lived and scantily used

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Category: Retired Aircraft Histories
Last Updated: Monday, 12 June 2017 13:23
Written by Wg Cdr A K Gupta (Retd)
Hits: 11594
Ajeet Trainer E2427

The HAL built Ajeet Trainer is one of the odd-ball aircraft in the IAF's history. Only two examples were inducted and they were introduced at the fag end of the career of a legendary fighter. Wg Cdr A K (Lui) Gupta goes over their short career in the IAF - which lasted less than four years! 

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IAF goes International : Exercises with foreign air forces

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Category: Contemporary Articles
Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 May 2015 03:10
Written by Air Marshal Subhash Bhojwani
Hits: 16202

Soldiering is not a profession which gives one the opportunity to learn on the job. The lessons thrown up by realistic exercises play an important role in a soldier's training for war. This article is a look at the IAF's participation in various International exercises between 1999 and 2007, and the lessons it learnt from its international exposure. 

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Dakota in a Combat Zone

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Category: The India-Pakistan War 1965
Last Updated: Wednesday, 06 May 2015 13:12
Written by Arunesh Prasad
Hits: 13535

The official history of the No.43 Squadron carries the following tantalising tidbit . "On 6 September 1965, the squadron had its first direct encounter with the enemy. Three aircraft took off from Amritsar in the evening with for Hunter escorts when they were attacked by a formation of four Sabres and a B-57 bomber. The Hunters latched on the Sabres. The B-57 got a chance and fired at the last DAKOTA, which was still on the ground about to take off. The DAKOTA was not hit and got airborne safely." . This incident did not get told anywhere else till now - as Sqn Ldr Arunesh "Bachu" Prasad puts on record what happened that evening.

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Sparrow or Moss?

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Category: The Bangladesh War 1971
Last Updated: Thursday, 23 April 2015 02:48
Written by Air Marshal Subhash Bhojwani
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Did the IAF ever use the Tu-124 Moss AWACS?  As first alleged by John Fricker in an article written on behalf of the Pakistan Air Force? Air Marshal Subhash Bhojwani sets the record straight. 

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God's Gift to Women

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Category: The Last Quarter: 1972-99
Last Updated: Thursday, 09 April 2015 04:49
Written by Gp Capt Johnson Chacko
Hits: 13341

A young Canberra jock in a much decorated and revered squadron is faced with an emergency that could take his life and that of his navigator. This is the story of a rare Canberra 'belly landing' that helped save a much valuable aircraft

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The MS 755 Fleuret Story - A Forgotten Chapter

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Category: Jets and Growth 1948-64
Last Updated: Monday, 20 January 2020 17:28
Written by Wg Cdr Donald Michael (Retd)
Hits: 11886

In 1954, a the prototype Morane-Saulner MS-755 Fleuret trainer arrived in India for an evaluation in training Flight Cadets. Wg Cdr Don Michael was one of the two instructors who evaluated the aircraft during its short stint in Begumpet. Article updated with new photos. 

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......and one flew under the ......

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Category: Jets and Growth 1948-64
Last Updated: Monday, 23 July 2018 05:17
Written by P V S Jagan Mohan
Hits: 20025

Many years ago (circa 2002) we published the story of Flight Cadet Balan Menon and the escapade that caused his exist from the Air Force. Balan Menon passed away on 24th April 2018 at 1630 hrs, due to respiratory complications, at the old age home in Thumba (Trivandrum). 

"A man with a brilliant mind, determination and undying passion for aviation, a maverick who lived by his own rules of right or wrong, never afraid to explore frontiers of science and technology far ahead of his peergroup, a man who could have achieved fame and fortune but didn't care; he has left us quietly." ~ Wg Cdr U G Kartha

Now Updated with the contents of an old letter - that Balan's late mother has written fifteen years ago when she read this article.

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