Test pilots and the taste of danger

On a muggy Tuesday, helicopter blades slapping in the distance, I listen to Gp Capt Pupinder Singh (Retd.) as he tells me how the self-protection suite in our glassy cockpit could be a lifesaver.

. We are not flying; this is inside a weaponised variant of the Dhruv Mk 4, parked on the tarmac at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)’s helicopter flight test centre on Old Airport Road in Bengaluru. Singh tells me the suite protects the pilot from “missiles and all that”.

. He goes on to explain the workings of the other components in the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) — the electro-optical pod, night vision goggles, the alerts on the electronic warfare system — as a scene simulates itself in my mind. I imagine a faceless man in the night sky, quietly surveying the ground from above.

. Into the unknown

. Earlier in the day, I had walked into utilitarian buildings at the central PSU, watching office assistants bringing coffee to rooms tagged with the names of the occupants. The test pilots emerge from their cabins and head out for a briefing. This is office proper — functional, no frills.

. Gp Capt M R Anand (Retd.), the Chief Test Pilot (CTP) at HAL’s Rotary Wing, breaks the method down to two must-haves — proven processes and exceptional discipline in following them. The flight test engineers conduct the briefings where they plan the test points in coordination with the designers and the test pilots.

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. The everyday rigours of a structured, state-owned organisation appear to complement the easy-banter comradeship shared by pilots and engineers. In the briefing room, they say the years spent in the forces help them prepare better for the inevitable risks but they also wear a rookie curiosity and passion as they head out to work every day. The constant risk assessment and predictive analyses and the engagement with evolving technologies make the everyday new, and different.

. An experimental test pilot, unlike a production test pilot, is involved with the aircraft from the conceptual phases till its formation as a full-fledged aircraft.

. The test pilot flies the prototypes all through the run-up to their certification, and doubles up as an interface between the designer’s ideas and the customer’s requirements. “We are the eyes and ears on the project,” says Anand, who joined HAL in 2012 , after serving 26 years in the Indian Air Force (IAF).

. Switch to testing

. Anand had about 1,000 hours on Mi-8 helicopters in the IAF’s Sri Lanka operations in the 1980s — he received Vayusena Medal (Gallantry) in 1989. He has flown 17 types of helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft for 5,600-plus hours. After being an instructor and working across terrains in multiple roles, a sense of monotony hit the 58-year-old from Chennai. “The possibility of becoming a test pilot was exciting. It involved the whole gamut — the design, the technology, and I was getting to apply the aerodynamics I studied,” he says. At HAL, he flies 15-20 hours a month.

. At the briefing, a presentation is being made ahead of a test to ascertain the low hover point of a Light Utility Helicopter (LUH). Wg Cdr Subash P John (Retd.) tells me this is the daily 0930h where the day’s flying tasks are assigned. The helicopter’s preparedness is assessed. Discussions also cover wind speeds, ballast and the position of the videographer.

. Four-feet drop

. About 20 minutes later, I am at the test location watching Wg Cdr Anil Bhambhani (Retd.) in the LUH, attempting a four-feet engine-off landing. I sense that it is taking longer than usual and understand from the chatter around me that it has something to do with hydraulic pressure.

. Later, sitting in Anand’s office, Bhambhani says all parameters will be reassessed before the team heads out again for the test two days later. The processes are non-negotiable, and the detailing is nuanced — cockpit ergonomics, for instance, is customised to complement the helicopter variant’s design and overall utility.

. Each test flight has to be executed with precision to assess the helicopter’s performance. The Aviator-sporting test pilot is a composite of pop culture imagery that finds greater context in all the groundwork that goes into the flight. For the test pilot, flying is a brief, familiar interlude. The action happens before and after.

. The pilots are all men but things are changing. Over the past couple of years, women flight engineers have graduated from the IAF Test Pilots School, at the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment in Bengaluru. India will soon see women as test pilots, says Anand.

. Understanding risk

. The office of the CTP has some of his art, including the impression of a flight formation. The pilots have off-work interests that keep them in physical and mental shape — golf, yoga, tennis – but sometimes, the sortie itself is the calming routine, they say. “There is no escaping the risk. The pilot has to be prepared for all eventualities. There are processes in place to handle them. The rest is about executing them; some of it works like muscle memory,” says Bhambhani.

. The testing, at times, is done at varying altitudes and across terrains. There is always the unseen risk a pilot cannot prepare for, like a change in weather.

. “At these times, reliance and faith in the aircraft instruments and the skills honed over the years are what bring you and the aircraft back safely,” says Anand. He recalls an operation in the Vavuniya sector of Sri Lanka where the helicopter he was co-piloting was hit by ground fire, leaving him injured. “We did manage to recover the machine and land on a nearby spot but we lost an army officer on board,” he says.

. The stress-coping mechanisms are also shaped by families that understand what constitutes the making of a pilot. “They don’t tell us much but have their own networks (where the concerns are discussed). They are amazing. In the Air Force, when an officer moves up the ranks, we first congratulate the family,” he says.

. Racing machines

. “I was a raw, unguided missile, steered home by the Indian Air Force,” Gp Capt K K Venugopal (Retd.) says as he sits down to talk about his story from cadet to decorated combat pilot. As the CTP (Fixed Wing) at HAL, he leads a team of six test pilots and five flight test engineers with experience across the Sukhois, Jaguars, MiGs and others. A Vayusena Medal (Gallantry) recipient, he puts together the HAL playbook for fixed-wing flight testing, which he calls “the final phase of Quality Control”.

. This is well into the second half of the day. My interactions with over 10 test pilots and engineers helped me break down the abstractions around the romance of flying, around the allure of that faceless star pilot I had been looking for in this campus.

. Test pilots, by training, are oriented to analyse the aircraft’s behaviour and respond. In the event of an unserviceable situation in flight, the prescribed approach is to call off the test, recover the craft, analyse the data, and re-attempt the test. “A prototype is precious; every possible effort has to be made to recover it safely. That is the motto,” says Venugopal.

. The conversations keep returning to certain themes like legacy, history, vision, culture, and growth. The personnel I speak with, most with an IAF background, appear deeply respectful of HAL and its stature in India’s military aviation. “This is the kind of legacy company that has the spirit for disruption in its DNA,” says Gp Capt Harsh Vardhan Thakur.

. The CTP takes me to divisions under his supervision. There are strokes of sandal paste and vermilion on the doors we pass before we reach the library, where bulky box files hold the history of some of HAL’s show-piece projects.

. There are stories Venugopal narrates, about the evolution of the PSU — “some of the airplanes I fly are older than me” — over six decades. They include one from the fledgling 1960s when German aeronautical engineer Kurt Tank was brought in to design the HF-24 Marut, India’s only homemade fighter.

. Venugopal has just finished a long meeting. The scheduled flying for the day is over but this is no downtime for the lead pilot of HAL’s prestigious Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) AF Mk 1 A programme.

. He also leads an expansive project-to-product cycle, from research to design to marketing. Venugopal has over 4,500 flying hours on 26 aircraft types behind him; he has performed the first flight of at least four prototypes.

. During one of his initial tests on the Hindustan Turbo Trainer 40 (HTT-40), the aircraft entered a ‘flat spin’ — it lost forward speed and spun towards the ground. “I had read about it and as a matter of preparation, revised the situation but when it happened, it was a challenge. The motion was fast and the aircraft took longer than usual to recover,” he says.

. The CTP’s day starts at 8 am, with breakfast and briefings — “a deeply cultural” routine with military aviators — that assess the weather and status of the airfield, navigation aids, and support systems. Flying tasks are finalised. Meetings follow.

. He flies four or five times a week, mostly in development flight tests. Over the last five years, most of his flying has been with the HTT-40, the Intermediate Jet Trainer, the LCA Mk 1A prototypes, and the LCA series production aircraft.

. The profile of the experimental test pilot and the flight test engineer has expanded exponentially with time. It has increasingly involved additional competencies that include marketing nous. Venugopal says test pilots in India have been, by nature, a “low-key creed”, largely away from attention.

. Does he miss being on the frontline? “I’m 54 now and barring combat, I fly almost everything. Not many of my contemporaries in active service can say that. Besides, the greatest motivation is that whatever I’m doing at HAL is still in service of the armed forces,” says Venugopal who has been the CTP at HAL since 2017.

. Sonic boom

. HAL is switching from the licensed production regime to indigenisation and innovations like the under-development Combat Aircraft Teaming System, where a manned fighter leads a swarm of combat drones in action.

. “For a company like HAL, being our own OEM (original equipment manufacturer) becomes critical to our aspirations as a truly independent producer. The HLFT-42 (HAL’s next-generation supersonic trainer) is a programme that will take us closer to these capabilities,” says Gp Capt N S C Murthy.

. The pilots tell me about meeting deadlines in the face of operational delays, about the bosses who soak in boardroom pressure for the team, “like M S Dhoni”.

. The CTP, a Bengalurean, makes the most of his Sundays — HAL has six-day work weeks — with golf and visits to his organic farm in Gubbi, near Tumakuru.

. Social media is, usually, for professional interaction but he does track the chatter when loud, mysterious sounds that capture the city’s imagination are attributed to his team. “The sonic boom is usually the handiwork of test pilots, at least in Bengaluru,” he says.

. The pilots and engineers manage a work-life balance. I hear conversations among the pilots about the new ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ film. As we sit down to watch a corporate film, one of them says, chuckling, “I feel like ordering popcorn”.

Test pilots and the taste of danger

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