MADDU KHANNA, SUDHIR ASTHANA, RITU POONIA & MRS.CYNTHIA GREENE – LEFT US IN 2009
Category Archives: News
General News and Announcements
Photos of Gnat celebrations on Photo Gallery
Gp Capt Kapil Bhargava: Calling all Gnat Fiends
The way you are being addressed in this post is not an accident. AVM Ajit Lamba along with other recipients got a mail from me which was addressed to Dear Fiends. He promptly phoned to ask if this was intentional. It was then a Freudian Slip, though the idea was right. This time it is intended as all of us are almost fiendishly attached to the type.
My wife and I had come to Gurgaon on the way to attend a wedding in Rajasthan. I used the opportunity to get some lessons from my son Kishore whose idea and work it was to create this site. It has proved to be a proper repository for information on the Gnat and now includes photographs. Adequate control was ensured on the site to not make it a totally public blog. I needed lessons on how to manage it (not always successfully). The lessons this time were for learning how to upload pictures to the Photo Gallery of the site.
Please follow down to Photo Gallery. Under Gnat Vignettes, three sub-albums cover arrival etc, the sessions, and lunch. The other independent albums are for the Dinner at Le Meridien and the Reunion at ASTE. Since I cannot name many people in the pictures, the picture captions are neutral: a single title and a serial number. I wonder if I should add the photographs from the Brotherhood functions in Pune and include albums for pictures received from the UK and the HAL. In any case, these will have to wait till I am back home in Bangalore.
I request the Gnatties to identify the personalities etc and discuss any pictures they want with friends. But for this, please do not use the gnat-people email address. All of you Gnatties have the email address of each other. Using the already distributed directory, please keep the one-to-one exchanges between yourself and your contacts.
If anyone needs to make a large print of any picture, please ask me for its un-altered original file. These vary from, 1 MB to 4 MB each. For smaller prints or saving the picture on your hard disk simply right click on it and save the file on your own computer
In view of my plans for access to photographs in this manner, I had arranged with Mr Kapil Chandni that he should only produce a set of two DVDs for the live recording of the Vignettes session. Each set of two DVDs should cost about Rs 150 plus postage. We should hear soon about them and they should get distributed as planned by him. I now have little do with this process.
I do have one anecdote up my sleeve to be added to the site. But I wonder why the Gnat fiends have not added to them. It is your site and it should keep growing. Please have a look at Site Statistics – top right (third item) of the site itself. As of now, we have had 28479 visits from 7496 separate computer locations and 87 visits today. The visitor count below Photo Gallery was started a bit late and will soon be removed.
The site has been a bit inactive though visitors keep coming to it each day. It is now up to all of you to add your Gnat tales to share and inform others around the world about our aircraft. Surely, we have not covered all that we know about the Gnat and Ajeet. Stories and information for these aircraft cannot have already dried up. Please exercise the grey matter and let us have the benefit of your experience and knowledge, even the funny bits that tickled you sometime in the hoary past.
Reliving the days of Gnat’s glory
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
November 19, 2008
Bangalore: The Gnat jet fighter, which earned its name as ‘Sabre Slayer’ in the two India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, will be honoured in its golden jubilee celebration on November 21. The Canadair Sabre was a jet fighter built by Pakistan under licence from the US.
Around 200 pilots, engineers and flight-testers of yesteryear and their families from India and abroad will come to Bangalore for the event, which is being jointly organized by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) at the former’s Ghatge Convention Centre on Old Airport Road.
Some famous pilots of the previous generation have already arrived in Bangalore.
Air chief marshal, F H Major, will be the chief guest. A film on Gnat made by renowned aviation film-maker Kunal Verma will be screened at the event. A book on the old fighter jet edited by Pushpinder Singh will also be released, plus a photo exhibition will be held.
“The event holds significance as never before because we have not seen the coming together of so many experts associated with Gnat under one roof. IAF and HAL are proud to be associated with this event as it will help next generation aviators and engineers rub shoulders with some of the jewels of the past,” said chairman of the organizing team, Sanjeev Sahi.
HAL was the licensed producer of the Gnat; it made nearly 200 of them for the IAF. Apart from the IAF, the original designers and builders of the Gnat, Folland Aviation of the UK, was the only major operator of the aircraft in both combat and training.
KILLER INSTINCT: The good old Gnats
Register – Online or Offline
People have been writing in asking for a form that could be printed out, filled up and sent forward to the committee organising the event. This is essentially to assist those without online access. Of course, those with access will still have to download, print and pass on the forms but its an easy enough process.
For those who want to register for the event online, the page has been open for a quite a few days now and registrations are literally pouring in. Click here to go the registration form online.
Forms to print are available both as a MS-Word document as well as a PDF document.
Printed forms need to be mailed to:
Gp Capt NK Krishnan (Retd),
Chief Manager (Flight Operations & Safety),
Corporate Office,
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited,
5/1 Cubbon Road, Bangalore – 560 001
Do register as soon as you can.
50 years of the Gnat
On Friday 21 November, 2008 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), will be holding a nostalgic celebration for the Golden Jubilee of arrival of the Gnat in Bangalore.
It will begin with a session at HAL’s Dr Ghatage Convention Centre where hopefully some old timers will talk about the aircraft. This will be followed by a lunch hosted by HAL.
In the evening there will be a dinner for guests with wives by invitation.
All pilots and engineers involved with the Gnat in IAF, its manufacture in HAL or designing of Ajeet, would be welcome. If you are willing and able to attend, please plan accordingly. Please also spread the word around, especially to those who do not use computers.
HAL has expressed its inability to help with travel, accommodation or transport. If you wish to attend, please come back to this site in a few days where you can fill up the form for joining the celebrations. You may also need to help with the registration of friends who do not use computers.