'As I set course for the Helicopter Training School this morning,' notes IAF Helicopter Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe, 'I bow my head in respect for the institution which made me the man I am.'
'I also salute the Chetak which taught me much more than flying.'
'Both these institutions, in their own right, justify the crest and motto of the School: Achievement through Knowledge.'
The Chetak or the Alouette III helicopter completes 60 years of existence in the Indian Air Force today, April 2, 2022.
Originally brought from France in 1962, the aircraft had already seen two decades plus service in the IAF when my course first got to train on them.
Today, two years since I retired from the IAF, this ubiquitous machine doesn't seem to be anywhere near retirement; flying in large numbers across services, the police, paramilitary, and even in the civvy street.
To commemorate the occasion, grand ceremonies are being organised at Air Force Station Hakimpet, which has been home to the Helicopter Training School since 1972.
The HTS also celebrates its 60th anniversary around the same time, and both, the Chetak and the School, along with its alumni will gather to pay rich tributes to each other in the ceremonials that follow.
Memories of the HTS and the Chetak takes me back to 1985 when I first started flying the machine.
We had just earned our first thin blue-grey stripes that, when worn on our flying overalls could barely be seen.
On probation for a year as pilot officers, we were referred to as 'Student Officers' at the HTS.
Learning how to fly the rotary-wing was to unlearn what one had garnered in the preceding year in which we flew the HAL built Kiran (HJT-16) and the Polish Iskara (TS-11), both fixed-wing aircraft and got familiar with the new environs where one was able to traverse in many dimensions at the same time.
My first taste of the ubiquity of the machine was at HTS itself.
My instructor was a jolly fellow but a master at his job.
While learning how to land off a circuit and approach, if something went wrong, he would simply stop the helicopter mid-air and reverse it back to the point from where he wanted me to try the approach to land again.
During flying one afternoon, we were told on the radio that one civil trainer aircraft was missing, and, in a blink of an eye, we were on our way for a search and rescue mission!
Hovering the machine was the most difficult part of the learning process.
All we had learned in theory that an aircraft stalls below a certain minimum speed had to be shelved.
The helicopter could not stall and the trick was to get it from forward flight to zero speed hover in a smooth maneuver, something that our motor senses took time to get used to.
The helicopter required much better hand-eye coordination and needed inputs from all limbs to control the machine.
While learning to hover, we kept fighting with the controls to keep the aircraft over the H of the helipad.
The Chetak knew who was at the controls and danced and bucked about, telling us who was the boss; and this was quite tiring and exasperating.
But as soon as the instructor took over the controls, she stopped prancing around and behaved herself, much like how a good horseman would do to a runaway horse.
Soon enough, we realised that, other than the motor senses and the fact that the controls needed to be operated smoothly, hovering was also a game of the mind.
Our skills sharpened with one year at the HTS.
We were soon on our way to operational units, flying day in and out, and most importantly enjoying every bit of it and contributing to our national cause in many ways.
Year upon year, the HTS had, and has, kept producing these rotor warriors, who have done the fleet proud.
These men and machines have always been in the news, mostly for good reasons -- be it rescue missions, flood relief, fighting forest fires, VIP flying, flypasts, and even missile firing and more.
This requirement has kept growing with the induction of newer machines.
Besides the IAF requirements, pilots from the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the paramilitary, and even some from friendly foreign countries have learned the art of helicopter flying at the HTS.
This mecca of helicopters came into being at Palam on April 2, 1962, and moved to Allahabad and Jodhpur in the ensuing years before finally settling down at its current location at Hakimpet.
Pilot training was initially done on the Sikorsky S-55 and S-62 and was augmented by the Bell 47 a little later.
The Chetak came in thereafter and has been the mainstay of helicopter training since then, clocking millions of hours and churning out thousands of pilots.
There are many life lessons that I have learned from this machine and my alma mater.
First and foremost, size does not matter. This helicopter can do (and has done) things that its larger brothers cannot even think of doing.
Secondly, you need to treat any machine with respect. Treat it and handle it like a lady. Once you do that, it will always honour your commitment.
It is a man-machine combination which does the job, finally.
Thirdly, learn to respect the crew in the cockpit as well as out of it. Crew resource management is best learnt on an aircraft like this.
Last, and most importantly, plan well and be prepared for any mission in life.
If you want to sharpen your senses and know the power of the mind, learn to fly the helicopter.
You will end up with a sharp and thinking mind ever ready to take quick decisions.
As I set course for the Helicopter Training School this morning, I bow my head in respect for the institution which made me the man I am.
I also salute the Chetak which taught me much more than flying. Both these institutions, in their own right, justify the crest and motto of the School: Achievement through Knowledge.
Happy landings and blue skies to the HTS and the Chetak!.
Air Commodore Nitin Sathe retired from the Indian Air Force in February 2020 after a distinguished 35 year career.
The author of three books, you can read Air Commodore Sathe's earlier articles here.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
