Basic Flying Training School


Date Raised : 1987-10-20
Basic Flying Training School was established on 09 Dec 1987, when a need to train more military aviators was felt. With the Air Force Academy operating at the limits of its capability, a decision was taken to establish a new ab-initio flying training establishment at Bamrauli, christened as the Basic Flying Training School aimed to impart training on the indigenously developed HPT-32 aircraft. The first batch of Flight Cadets of the 142 Pilots Course made their way to Bamrauli. On July 5, 1999 the school changed its role from training Flight Cadets of Indian Air Force to training officers of the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard. As the role of the school changed to helicopter flying training, the last of the HPT-32s flew out of BFTS in Dec 05, as the unit welcomed the Chetak Helicopters into its fold. Training flying for the first course on Chetak helicopters at BFTS commenced on 01 Feb 2006, thus pioneering helicopter flying training for Pilots from sister services and para military forces, thereby, becoming the almamater for generations of military aviators.

Aircraft Types operated over the years:

Commanding Officers


20 Oct 87 - 07 Jul 90
Group Captain
Aditya Vikram Pethia
8384 GD(P)
CO
Bamrauli

08 Jul 90 -
Group Captain
Prabhat Chandra Prasad
8444 GD(P)
CO
Bamrauli

Unknown -
Wing Commander
Guriqbal Singh Nijjar
12020 GD(P)
CO
Bamrauli

08 Jan 96 - 11 Apr 99
Group Captain
Sapan Kumar Karmaker
13379 F(P)
CO
Bamrauli

12 Apr 99 - 01 Jan 02
Group Captain
Gurdip Singh Kochar
13149 F(P)
CO
Bamrauli

27 Sep 04 - 25 Dec 05
Wing Commander
Seethepalli Shrinivas
18787 F(P)
CO
Bamrauli

26 Dec 05 - 16 Sep 07
Wing Commander
Maneesh Agrawal
19552 F(P)
CO
Bamrauli

17 Sep 07 - 25 Oct 09
Wing Commander
Devendra Parshotam Hirani
21019 F(P)
CO
Bamrauli

26 Oct 09 - 16 Oct 11
Wing Commander
Rakesh Kumar Singh
21258 F(P)
CO
Bamrauli

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.