Details : | Group Captain Vikram Rajasekhar (19714) was commissioned in Indian Air Force as an engineer in the Aeronautical Engineering (Mechanical) branch on 12 Sep 88. He has held the appointments of Senior Technical Officer of Mi-26 helicopter unit, CO, Mi-26 Tettra School, CO, 41 Repair and Salvage Unit (R&SU), Command Engineering B at HQ EAC, Directing Staff at Air Force Technical College and Chief Engineering Officer(CEO) of Air Force Station, Hindan. As CO, 41 R&SU, in Dec 2009 he has conceived and formulated a temporary structural repair scheme for recovery of a crash landed Mi-17 1V heptr 2-3352 at Chungtash helipad that helped in retrieval of the heptr by a joint team of R&SU and Mi-17 trained personnel. The recovery of the heptr was significant due to extensive damage to main frames as nose landing gear had pierced into cockpit and distortion of tail boom skin. The officer took keen initiative in studying various Battle Damage Repair schemes of HAL and cut open various structural elements on a Cat 'E' Mi-8 heptr at No. 3 BRD and formulated a viable and safe structural repair scheme. During his tenure in R & SU, he has also conceived a repair scheme for recovery of lL-76 ac that sustained extensive damage to all leading edges of aerodynamic surfaces and nose radome in May 2010 as the ac entered into bad weather while returning from Leh. The officer has done his M Tech at IIT Mumbai and Air Staff Course at DSSC, Wellington. As CEO, Air Force Station, Hindan the officer displayed exceptional professional acumen, resource management skills, positive approach and quick in arriving at solutions in extremely challenging situations. His adept handling of C- 130J Induction and numerous maintenance and training issues that came up has ensured smooth induction and operation of the fleet without major glitches. The numerous maintenance issues that were overlooked in the Letter of Acceptance and Infrastructure of the project raised by the officer has been a source of lessons learnt and were quickly addressed during the definitisation stage of the C-17 Project planned ai Hindan. His involvement in both the Projects, attention to details, forecasting and timely projection of issues is of exceptional order. His involvement and commitment in a number of highly significant events & issues such as conduct of two Air Force Day Parades, recovery of Mi-35 belly landed heptr, recovery of Chetak heptr that landed in field due to engine failure, refurbishment of WIP Mi-17 heptrs that was pending for three years, expansion plan of AFNIT Communication network, offloading of armament trains, commissioning and acceptance of SREATC R-33 radar, erection of WCDMA equipment, Centre of Excellence Workshop, conduct of various training workshops assigned by Air HQ I HQ WAC, Exercise Gauntlet etc. is extremely praiseworthy. For distinguished service of high order, Hon'ble President is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Group Captain Vikram Rajasekhar. |