JOIN USThe Indian Air Force’s (IAF) present plan envisages training 220 pilots a year. But on any given day, the IAF has only about 15-17 basic trainer aircraft to train pilots, jeopardising its training programme.
Even these have to be divided between the Air Force Academy in Dundigal and the training base in Hakimpet, Secunderabad, where the training is conducted.
The IAF Training Command, headquartered in Bangalore, has never been shy to concede that its pilot flying training programme––post grounding of the HPT-32 Deepak basic trainer aircraft fleet in 2009 — has been in some limbo.
And its chief, Air Marshal Rajinder Singh has made a serious case of the same in the recently concluded Combined Commanders Conference in Delhi.Sources in the IAF said: “Air Marshal Singh, in his presentation, explained the condition of the training programme due to the shortage of trainer aircraft and the immediate need for a basic trainer.”
The source said that Singh had stressed on how the Kiran fleet of aircraft are being stretched to its limits and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to train pilots.
Non-availability of a trainer aircraft, leading to a major crisis, has forced the IAF to reduce the number of flying hours on basic trainers––the ageing Kirans, something that the Parliament’s public accounts committee has taken serious objection to.
A well-place source in the Training Command said: “At any given time we have about
15-17 aircraft available for training. On some days we have only 13 and some days there are 15.”
The IAF chief’s statement at the Commanders’ Conference is not the first time the Training Command has raised the issues.
Speaking to Deccan Herald from Dehradun, Air Marshal (retd) Dhiraj Kukreja, who preceeded Singh said: “We had raised this issue even when I was at the Training Command. I can assure you that it is the priority of the command and even the Chief of Air Staff has this on his mind and has taken it up with the ministry at different levels.”
Explaining the importance of the trainer aircraft, Kukreja said these aircraft are not only used to train ab initio pilots. The Kiran fleet, which is being used as the intermediate trainers after the grounding of Deepak are also crucial for the IAF’s ‘Con Training.’
“The aircraft is not only used to train new pilots but also needed for continuous training of the instructors (Con Training) who are essential to train the new pilots,” Kukreja said.
Although there are many Kiran aircraft available with the IAF, only 15-17 are available for training on a given day. This is because: Already past its shelf life of 20 years, the Kiran fleet is being stretched beyond its limits. “The aircraft that should be doing 30-40 hrs of flying in a month is doing between 50-80 hrs a month resulting in the increase of frequency of inspections,” a senior IAF officer said.
And more inspections mean more sorties –– eating into the already aeging life of the aircraft –– before the ab initio pilots get on to it for training.
After every inspection, even the engine has to be ground tested. “Although there might not be too much of pressure on the engine during the ground runs, it still eats into the flying hours of it. A typical testing could eat into any where between five minutes, 7.5 minutes, eight minutes or sometimes even 10 minutes of the engine’s flying hours, which has about a 1,000 hours,” the officer said.