Start Date : 22 Jun 64 End Date : 29 Oct 66

96 Pilot Course - The course training was broken up into five states pre- commissioning - AFAC, EFTUs, PTE, AFFC and finally applied stage at various conversion units. Direct entry cadets selected for the 96 PC joined AFAC Coimbatore on 22 June 1964 and completed ground training on 24 October 1964.

Thereafter they were sent to various Elementary Flying Training Units (EFTUs) between 6 Dec 1964 and 1 March 1965. They were expected to do 25 hours of flying including about five hours solo. Tambaram and Nagpur had L-5s, Kanpur, Delhi and Patiala had Pushpak.

The Course was then sent to Pilot Training Establishment (PTE) Bamrauli for Basic stage flying between 28 March 1965 and October 1965 on the HT2. 27 NDA Course joined up at this stage. While the direct entry cadets did again 25 hours of flying, the NDA entry cadets did 50 hours.

The Course was then sent to AFFC Jodhpur for the intermediate stage flying on the Texan T6G/Harvard aircraft between October 1965 and 11 March 1966. Each Flight cadet was given between 75-80 hours of flying hours with about half of it being solo.

For the applied stage, the course was split into four groups on 24 March 1966. Roughly 60 cadets each were sent to FTW Hakimpet on Vampires for Fighter stream, No1. TTW at Begumpet and No. 2 TTW at Yelahanka on DC3 Dakota for Transport stream and 12 cadets were sent to LSTU Bamrauli on Bell G3 for helicopter stream. On completion of these stages successfully on 29 October 1966 they received commission and Wings. This was the largest course in IAF till date with 191 commissioned pilots.

SK Singh (10421) got the presidents Plaque for Best all-round officer of the course. He also got the CAS Medal for the best all-around officer of the Transport Wing and Das Gupta trophy for best in Transport Flying. VK Awasthi (10422) got CAS Medal for Best all-round officer of Jet Wing and JV D'silva (10447) got CAS Medal for Best all-round officer of Helicopter course. SS Grewal (10434) got Majumdar Trophy for best Jet Pilot.