October 10, 2008

There is no subsitutte for experience

Filed Under (Design & Development) by admin on 10-10-2008

By Gp Capt PM Velankar VM (Retd)

After doing production testing of overhauled Gnat aircraft for two years and logging almost 150 plus hours of flight test time at 5 BRD Sulur I was posted to ASTE to under go No 5 PTP course!

Dear reader, remember I was a student officer, so I became privy to what is written in the next para only after the event as they say.

ASTE was allotted a Gnat aircraft for some development trials . To this day I do not know what those trials were. The aircraft was instrumented for the trial purposes and to the extent required for the trials. All this work took time and maybe the trial work was getting delayed too much. Unfortunately the aircraft was taxied out a few times but never got airborne and returned to the tarmac. Then one day I was called by Wg Cdr “Tommy ” Thomas, a TP with transport background I think. Being staff TP with ASTE he was fully aware of my flying background. We talked of Gnat flying for a little while. Then he told me that I was required to do an air test on the Gnat. He told me just to get airborne and see if there was nothing drastically wrong with it .

I went to the aircraft did externals found some attachments and gadgets which were not on other Gnats I had flown. I was informed that they were for telemetering and part of the trial instrumentation. So far so good. Jumped in strapped up and found the cockpit layout was also altered. The gunsight was missing. There were some extra instruments, some regular instruments were missing, lots and lots of extra of wiring in the cockpit. The answer to the query was ditto.

Started up and taxied out . Even before I had got out of the tarmac I realised that the aircraft WAS unserviceable. It was “pulling too much to the left ”. A fairly common snag which almost every gnat pilot knows and has encountered some time or the other. Anyway, I thought to myself to carry on and see what happens at higher speeds. Lined up for take-off. I was cleared for take-off and given winds as 10 to 15 Kts from the left. I commenced T/O run and found that the aircraft had a hell of a lot of bent thrust, by 100 Kts or so, things had become very lively indeed !!! Taking off was just out of question !!! As all Gnat pilots know too much of bent thrust needs little careful handling on takeoff. If to add to the problems, there is strong crosswind from the left, things get compounded and “right rudder Left aileron ”, a very unnatural control application and combination, can be quite disconcerting and needs skill acquired through experience for a safe take-off. In the squadron aircraft with excessive bent thrust were always taken by experienced pilots !! I abandoned the T/O which I had no intention to carry out in any case . Now I knew why the aircraft had not taken off on earlier occasions. As during those days there were fairly strong cross winds from the left for runway in use . I returned to tarmac & switched off . Entered the snag as ” aircraft pulling too much to the left ” and went to report to Wg Cdr Thomas .

When I told him that the aircraft was U/S and what the snag was . He said that he had also felt that the aircraft was pulling to the left but thought that it was due to the “bent thrust ” all gnats are supposed to have. So I told him that bent thrust came in to the picture only during take off run & at full throttle. If aircraft pulled during taxi it was an unserviceability. He said no wonder they had problems taking off and had to abandon every time .

After the snag was rectified I did do an air test / general handling on that aircraft . First and the only time I had ever flown in an instrumented Gnat! Wg Cdr Thomas also flew after that and I presume completed the trials .

That incident did increase my respect for the staff TPs by a notch. The TPs are exceptional to above the average pilots, possessing very high degree of flying skill , As Philip Rajkumar used to say ” TPs need to be good pole man ” and they were all really really good “pole man ” all of them. Still , they had no hesitation to accept something which they did not understand and ask anyone they thought could answer , even if it was a student officer !

It is truly said,” there is no substitute to experience “.

Conntribution to Gnat 50 years

October 05, 2008

Fire Warning! To eject or not that is the question.

Filed Under (Personal Tales) by admin on 05-10-2008

By Gp Capt PM Velankar VM (Retd)

This incident took place when I was posted to 22 Squadron. One day I was detailed to carry out an Air test on an aircraft after completion of one of the 100 hours servicing cycles from the R&SS . 

Startup taxi etc were absolutely normal and all parameters were within limits. After being cleared for take-off max RPM, JPT and all the readings were normal and within limits. Acceleration during the take-off run was also normal. Nose wheel came up at the normal place and unstick was also at normal place. So far so good.

However, as soon as I had unstuck and got airborne the fire warning light came on. Barely off the ground and with aircraft accelerating normally but speed well below 150 Kts, ejection was not an option. There was also no question of throttling back, checking wake for smoke and the JPT being within limits etc. Writing and reading this takes time but in reality, as soon as I saw the fire warning light I had transmitted the emergency and asked the ATC to check if they could see any fire or smoke coming out of my aircraft. As usual, not anticipating such a call from an aircraft which had just un-stuck, no one from the ATC including the duty pilot understood the call and I had the mortification to hear the ATC asking me to “Come again”. I again told them that my fire warning light was on and to check my aircraft for signs of any fire! What I got back was “Your transmission not clear, come again “. I repeated the call and as everything felt normal, except for the fire warning light which was shining brightly, informed the ATC that I was turning downwind for an immediate landing. Incidentally, another aircraft had lined up after me and even though now I can not recollect the identity of that Pilot, he was on the ball and was the first one to tell me that there was no smoke or fire visible on the aircraft. A couple of other aircraft in circuit and by now the ATC also confirmed that “It appears that there was no fire and that no smoke visible on my aircraft. A ‘tear-ass’ curved approach and normal landing was carried out. The fire warning light was on even during the landing run, It was again confirmed by the ATC and a couple of aircraft that everything seemed normal and there was no sign of any fire.

I taxied back to the R&SS. Seeing the aircraft returning so fast, The EO, Flt Lt RS Mehata, others and SNCO’s came to receive the aircraft. I called the engine fellow and frantically pointed to the fire warning light which was still burning brightly. There was no change in his expression as he nodded his head gave me the thumbs-up sign. Now, what did he mean by giving me thumbs up - here the bloody fire warning light was on, had scared the s… out of me and here was this fellow nonchalantly giving me thumbs up!!! I scowled, made my face furious and again frantically pointed to brightly burning fire warning light. The process of nodding his head giving me thumbs-up sign was repeated again but this time with the sign for me to cut the engine. The whole thing had taken place in just about 45 odd seconds, it was definitely less than a minute in any case. By now the Flight Commander, the CO and the whole of the squadron pilots knew of the emergency and my returning to the R&SS. I entered the snag in F-700, explained the same to the engine tradesmen. I walked back to the Squadron, expecting a pat on the back and a ‘good show’ for keeping a cool head and professional handling of the emergency from the Flight Commander.

On reaching, I found that all the Squadron Pilots were in the Crew room waiting to be addressed by the Squadron Commander. I was unceremoniously ushered in the crew room and told to find a seat. At this point in time I can not recollect the exact words of the CO, but the substance of it was that “Velu was a bloody fool who did not know his aircraft, As everyone knows the fuel tanks are virtually wrapped around the engine and in case of any fire, because of the construction, before anyone can say “Jack Robinson”, the aircraft would simply EXPLODE. The wisest thing to do in the GNAT, in case of fire warning light coming on was to EJECT immediately or else one was a goner in an exploding aircraft. Velu was very lucky and must thank GOD for being alive to continue his rum drinking days etc”. The talk continued in a similar vein for quite some time. It was solid bamboo and Velu was suitably chastised.

Within a month or so of this incident, Vinod Batheja while flying at medium to high-level sortie, reported fire warning light ON and ejected! Every Gnat pilot will own-up to missing a couple of heartbeats looking at the shining fire warning light due to sun’s reflection thinking that it was ON. To this day I believe that but for that particular talk, he would have taken proper emergency action and landed back safely!

1 Comment posted on "Fire Warning! To eject or not that is the question."

Comments:

ARUN PRAKASH . My dear Velu, Great story!! And so well told in your typical style (if you were you holding a rolled cigarette in one hand and glass of rum in the other, how did you type??). Warm regards to you & Preeti. Arun Prakash. SHASHI RAMDAS. Great one, Kumar!!! And so very well written in your very characteristic and inimitable style!!! Warmest regards to you and Priti from Puttu and me................. Shashi K . SANJVEEN Dear Velu, I enjoyed reading it. Are you coming to Bangalore for the Gnat do? We are in California at present and will be back in Bangalore on 21 Oct. Regards to self and Priti, Sanjeevan

Comments:

kapil on October 6th, 2008 at 22:49 #

RM (Mike) Oliver, Folland Test PIlot wrote: -

I was interested to read Velankar’s account of his Fire Warning experience. Fire warning systems are capable of tormenting innocent pilots in a quite shameless manner. On an early flight in the first Gnat trainer I fell victim to their macabre sense of humour. On the trainer, the system was different from that on the fighter in that there were primary and secondary warning panels. If a primary warning was triggered, alarm bells sounded in the headset and warning lights on the top of the coaming started flashing. You then had to look at the primary warning panel to see which of the Fire, Hyd, Oxy etc. words were lit up. On this early flight of the aircraft I was at about 20,000 feet when the clangers, as we called them, sounded and the warning lights started flashing. I looked at the primary warning panel and found nothing was showing, so I checked everything, cancelled the clangers, called Air Traffic and headed for Chilbolton. A couple of minutes later the clangers sounded again, but still nothing on the panel, so once more I checked everything and cancelled them. Just when Chilbolton came in sight they sounded yet again and this time “Fire” was illuminated on the primary warning panel. I informed Air Traffic, told them to keep their binoculars on me and landed safely. When I went down to Flight Development to debrief I heard giggles coming from the film reading girls and discovered that they had just come to the point on the voice recorder when I exclaimed in a rather agitated voice “Oh no, bloody hell, not fire, please couldn’t you make it something else”.

(Added via Kapil Bhargava)