Wing Commander Inderjit Singh Sandhu was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in November, 1954. He was employed on test flying duties from March, 1968 to May, 1974. During this period, he served as a Test Pilot in different establishments such as Aircraft and Armament Testing Unit, Base Repair Depot and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore and Nasik Divisions, and has served in a wide variety of assignments in test flying. In addition to aircraft evaluation, he has also participated in important development trials and user trials on various armament and avionics to ascertain the suitability of such hardware against the Air Force requirements. His flying standard has been consistently above the average and he has shown great depth of professional knowledge, maturity and balanced judgment in his assessment of various aircraft and systems tested by him. During his tenure at Aircraft and Armament Testing Unit he has actively associated with the development and flight evaluation of the Marut aircraft. During an incident, involving serious systems malfunction, he showed great presence of mind and devotion to duty. In order to save the aircraft and obtain vital information on the type of malfunctioning he stayed with the aircraft and tried to control it beyond the call of duty, sustaining injuries in the process. He abandoned the aircraft only when he had tried all available means to save it and has obtained information on the fault which later enabled remedial action. In his tenure at a Base Repair Depot, he tested wide variety of aircraft and brought to bear his excellent professional capabilities on improving the performance standards of the aircraft being delivered from the depot. During this tenure, he flew 400 hours in testing a wide variety of aircraft. He was posted to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore, from January, 1971 to April, 1972. During this tenure he participated in development as well as production of all aircraft designed and produced at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. He flew a total of 327 test flying hours during this short period. He was then posted to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Nasik Division from May, 1972 to May 1974. During this time he was one of the only two pilots who carried out all production and testing requirements. Throughout, Wing Commander Inderjit Singh Sandhu has rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order. |