Start Date : 01 Mar 54 End Date : 08 Oct 55
66 Pilot Course - The course training was broken up into two states pre- commissioning – Basic and Advanced. Direct entry cadets selected for the 66 PC joined AFA Begumpet on 01 Mar 1954 where they were joined by cadets who had completed the 7th Joint Services Wing (JSW) course in Dehradun.
Basic stage flying training commenced immediately on the Tiger Moth. Cadets did approximately 80-90 hours of flying on this wood-and-fabric biplane, around 50 hours dual and 30-40 hours solo. The Course then commenced advanced flying training on the Harvard T6G, also at AFA Begumpet. Each Flight cadet was given approximately 100 hours of flying with about half of it being solo. During this period, Air Force Academy was renamed to Air Force College.
Along with 5 cadets from the Afghan Air Force, and Navy and NCC Cadets, the cadets received their commissions and were given their wings on 08 October 1955, by Air Vice Marshal AM Engineer, Deputy Chief of Air Staff.Pilot Officer BD Jayal (4972) received the Sword of Honour for the best all around pupil of the course and the Patiala Trophy for the best pilot of the course, while Pilot Officer PM Ramachandran (4973) received the Nabha Trophy for standing first in ground subjects.
The newly commissioned Pilot Officers then either went to Jet Training Wing (JTW) at Hakimpet, for jet conversion on Vampires (fighter stream) or to Conversion Training Unit (CTU), Agra for multi-engine conversion onto Dakotas between Nov 1955 and Jan 56. The fighters stream did about 65 hours each on the Vampire.
4972 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air MarshalBrijesh Dhar Jayal | 4973 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air MarshalPalamadai Muthuswamy Ramachandran | No Image Available4974 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderRam Kumar Sinha | 4975 GD(P) (Later F(P))Group CaptainAllan David Alley | 4976 GD(P)Flying OfficerOm Prakash ChopraDied in Service on 13 Feb 57 |
4977 GD(P) (Later F(P))Squadron LeaderJayagopal Rajagopal | 4978 GD(P)Flight LieutenantRamindar Singh | No Image Available4979 GD(P)Group CaptainDebabrata Sen Gupta | 4980 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderBharat Balkrishna Bhadkamkar | 4981 GD(P) (Later F(P))Squadron LeaderArun Keshav SapreDied in Service on 21 Nov 71 |
4982 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderAmarendra Nath Sanyal | 4983 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air CommodoreNarinder Singh Arora | 4984 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air CommodoreDaya Krishan Ahuja | 4985 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderArun Trimbak Thakur | 4986 GD(P)Flight LieutenantDenzil Neil Simpson |
4987 GD(P)Flying OfficerJagjit Singh BassiDied in Service on 25 Jun 57 | 4988 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderSatya Prakash | 4989 GD(P)Squadron LeaderAjay SapruDied in Service on 12 Apr 67 | 4990 GD(P)Pilot OfficerBasudeb BagchiDied in Service on 28 May 56 | 4991 GD(P) (Later F(P))Group CaptainNalini Kanta Pathak |
4992 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air CommodoreShashikant Ramchandra ParanjpeDied in Service on 19 Dec 85 | 4993 GD(P)Flight LieutenantSudhakar Vaman KhotDied in Service on 25 Oct 61 | 4994 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air Vice MarshalManjunath Sadanand | 4995 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air CommodoreChandra Kant Dhawan | No Image Available4996 GD(P)Flying OfficerGurdial SinghDied in Service on 12 Sep 57 |
No Image Available4997 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderRavindra Krishen Nanda | 4998 GD(P) (Later F(P))Group CaptainRoy Burjor Kothawalla | 4999 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderGurdip Singh Bakshi | 5000 GD(P) (Later F(P))Group CaptainHariman Singh Soorma | 5001 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air MarshalRavinder Nath Bharadwaj |
5002 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderManohar Lal Behl | 5003 GD(P) (Later F(P))Squadron LeaderSubhashchandra Sadanand Thakur | 5004 GD(P)Flight LieutenantMadhusudhan RayDied in Service on 12 Oct 61 | 5005 GD(P)Squadron LeaderShrinivas Prahlad DesaiDied in Service on 27 Jul 67 | 5006 GD(P) (Later F(P))Squadron LeaderJal Maniksha MistryDied in Service on 05 Dec 71 |
No Image Available5007 GD(P)Squadron LeaderBaldev SinghDied in Service on 11 May 68 | 5008 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderGopal Virumal Hingorani | 5009 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderTekkidath Vijayan Nair VijayanDied in Service on 11 Apr 75 | 5010 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air CommodoreSatwant Singh | 5011 GD(P)Pilot OfficerVasant Govind MutalikDied in Service on 09 May 56 |
5012 GD(P) (Later F(P))Air CommodoreKrishen Kumar Bakshi | 5013 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderArun Chandra Banerjee | 5014 GD(P)Flight LieutenantPriya Dev KauraDied in Service on 03 Jun 63 | No Image Available5015 GD(P)Squadron LeaderPrabhu Dayal | 5016 GD(P)Squadron LeaderNarindar Sethi |
5017 GD(P)Flight LieutenantVidya Ratan BakshiDied in Service on 08 Feb 61 | No Image Available5018 GD(P) (Later F(P))Squadron LeaderEdwin Philip Massey | 5019 GD(P)Pilot OfficerVijay Bhavanishankar Nirodi | No Image Available5020 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderVijaya Kumar Verma | No Image Available5021 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderRajeshwar Kumar Verma |
5022 GD(P) (Later ADM)Squadron LeaderMonoj Mohan Bose | 5024 GD(P) (Later F(P))Wing CommanderNandkishore Shankarrao Ambegaonkar |