By Air Commodore A.C.Goel AVSM (Retd.) I A F [TUBBY To IAF]
How Gnat Rolls
Having flown Toofanis, Sabres, T-33, and Mysteres and a total fighter experience of about 250 hours, I found myself posted to No- 9 SQN at Ambala in the end of year 1964. Flying officer Tubby Goel was in the exalted group of stalwarts like, R J M Upot [C O] and Johnny Greene, A J S Sandhu Black 1 as flt cdrs and Denzil, Chatto the Flt Lts to lead us. We had recently formed and No 23 Sqn was the oldest and well established along side under the command of test pilot Bhopinder Singh with Sikki as the leader of boys of both the units for good things of life.
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Tag Archives: Hobson Unit
Gnat was a poor platform for cannon! Only 70% hits!
By Air Marshal Prakash Pingale
This happened at Jamnagar in early 1965, when our
sqn (7), had gone for the annual work out, including air-to-air live.
We youngsters would be desperately looking for a hole in the banner
after our air-to-air sortie.
Also at the time, Sqn Ldr Johny Greene and Flt Lt Muzzy Mazumdar,
were tasked to validate suitability of Gnat a/c as an air-to-air gun
platform. After 15 odd sorties each, their report concluded that Gnat
was not a very stable platform due to the Hobson Unit, changes in the
GGS resistances etc. Appended were the scores. Johny Sir’s average was
over 70%, and Muzzy Sir’s 50%! Their banners used to be riddled with
holes!
Pingo.