66 Course

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.

View Career Timeline of Individual members in this course

4972 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Marshal Brijesh Dhar Jayal	4973 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Marshal Palamadai Muthuswamy Ramachandran	No Image Available 4974 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Ram Kumar Sinha	4975 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Group Captain Allan David Alley	4976 GD(P) Flying Officer Om Prakash Chopra Died in Service on 13 Feb 57
4977 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Squadron Leader Jayagopal Rajagopal	4978 GD(P) Flight Lieutenant Ramindar Singh	No Image Available 4979 GD(P) Group Captain Debabrata Sen Gupta	4980 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Bharat Balkrishna Bhadkamkar	4981 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Squadron Leader Arun Keshav Sapre Died in Service on 21 Nov 71
4982 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Amarendra Nath Sanyal	4983 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Commodore Narinder Singh Arora	No Image Available 4984 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Commodore Daya Krishan Ahuja	4985 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Arun Trimbak Thakur	4986 GD(P) Flight Lieutenant Denzil Neil Simpson
4987 GD(P) Flying Officer Jagjit Singh Bassi Died in Service on 25 Jun 57	4988 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Satya Prakash	4989 GD(P) Squadron Leader Ajay Sapru Died in Service on 12 Apr 67	4990 GD(P) Pilot Officer Basudeb Bagchi Died in Service on 28 May 56	4991 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Group Captain Nalini Kanta Pathak
4992 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Commodore Shashikant Ramchandra Paranjpe Died in Service on 19 Dec 85	4993 GD(P) Flight Lieutenant Sudhakar Vaman Khot Died in Service on 25 Oct 61	4994 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Vice Marshal Manjunath Sadanand	4995 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Commodore Chandra Kant Dhawan	No Image Available 4996 GD(P) Flying Officer Gurdial Singh Died in Service on 12 Sep 57
No Image Available 4997 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Ravindra Krishen Nanda	4998 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Group Captain Roy Burjor Kothawalla	4999 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Gurdip Singh Bakshi	5000 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Group Captain Hariman Singh Soorma	5001 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Marshal Ravinder Nath Bharadwaj
5002 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Manohar Lal Behl	5003 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Squadron Leader Subhashchandra Sadanand Thakur	5004 GD(P) Flight Lieutenant Madhusudhan Ray Died in Service on 12 Oct 61	5005 GD(P) Squadron Leader Shrinivas Prahlad Desai Died in Service on 27 Jul 67	5006 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Squadron Leader Jal Maniksha Mistry Died in Service on 05 Dec 71
No Image Available 5007 GD(P) Squadron Leader Baldev Singh Died in Service on 11 May 68	5008 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Gopal Virumal Hingorani	5009 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Tekkidath Vijayan Nair Vijayan Died in Service on 11 Apr 75	5010 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Commodore Satwant Singh	5011 GD(P) Pilot Officer Vasant Govind Mutalik Died in Service on 09 May 56
5012 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Air Commodore Krishen Kumar Bakshi	5013 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Arun Chandra Banerjee	5014 GD(P) Flight Lieutenant Priya Dev Kaura Died in Service on 03 Jun 63	No Image Available 5015 GD(P) Squadron Leader Prabhu Dayal	5016 GD(P) Squadron Leader Narindar Sethi
5017 GD(P) Flight Lieutenant Vidya Ratan Bakshi Died in Service on 08 Feb 61	No Image Available 5018 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Squadron Leader Edwin Philip Massey	5019 GD(P) Pilot Officer Vijay Bhavanishankar Nirodi	No Image Available 5020 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Vijaya Kumar Verma	No Image Available 5021 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Rajeshwar Kumar Verma
5022 GD(P) (Later ADM) Squadron Leader Monoj Mohan Bose	5024 GD(P) (Later F(P)) Wing Commander Nandkishore Shankarrao Ambegaonkar

The URL for this page is http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Courses/courselist.php?qunit=66

Note: All the data available here is publicly available in the Gazette of India, published by the Indian Government, or from public domain sources, press releases about Awards and Right-To-Information (RTI) Requests. Additionally data shared by veterans is added to the page with permission. No data with respect to serving officers below the rank of AVM is displayed. Information in Gazette of India and Award citations and photographs as released by the Indian Air Force are the only details displayed.

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66 Course