October 25, 2008

AJEET Development

Filed Under (Design & Development) by admin on 25-10-2008

By PM Velankar .”velu”

As Anandeep Pannu says it was excellent recap on Ajeet development by Wg Cdr J Thomas . Being a first hand account it is of immense value ! Even if it is , as he says ” involved only on the periphery. ”

I was lucky to have flown Gnat as well as Ajeet . Unfortunately all the 31 odd hours I flew on the Ajeet were Flight Test sorties . These 31 odd hours were spread over a period of almost 7 years between 1977 and 1984 . 19 odd hours in 1977 - 78 on post production aircraft at HAL and the remaining 12 odd hours between 1979 - 84 on storage aircraft at Sulur . The flying was very thinly spread out , about 4 odd hours in a year . As all sorties were Flight Test sorties , never did any tactical , formation , armament work, High or Low Level navs or any “squadron flying ” , I am therefore not in a position to comment on steinemenns remark that “the Ajeet range performance was disappointing” .

My first sortie on Ajeet was a post production Flight Test sortie in HAL . I will not go in to the details of changes in various test parameters , between the Gnat & the Ajeet . I will rather give couple of things which made lasting impression on me during that first sortie .

After start up and switching ON of the R/T , what took me by surprise was the total SILENCE . Even the hum of running engine was not audible ! I blew in the mike but did not hear any thing . Called up “testing 123 ” etc , same silence ! Pressed the PTT and again said ” testing 123 ” , this time I heard myself and so did every one else listening on that R/T channel because the next thing I hear was Bangalore ATC saying ” aircraft giving test call we read you strength 5 , please give your call sign .” Thus I made my first discovery which left a lasting impression . It was that ” The feed from the mike to the ear phones was completed only when the PTT was pressed ” . In Ajeet one could not hear himself speak unless PTT was pressed . That being my first sortie on Ajeet , I was briefed on air test , but this particular aspect did not figure in the briefing .

In all the aircraft I had flown till then , the moment R/T was switched on all the sound inputs of the mike were fed to the earphones and the pilot could hear himself talk .Every pilot , particularly a fighter pilot speaks to the aircraft and himself to get that extra bit from the aircraft or from himself . I do not think there is even a single fighter pilot who has not cursed , shouted or egged himself on and on in a combat sortie . These verbal urgings and hearing yourself cursing loud and clear , almost always extracted that additional couple of “g”s or tightened the turn by that little bit more . Cajoling and coaxing the aircraft in low speed scissoring or in a dicey situation always worked and the aircraft did respond at speeds 05 Kts 10 Kts lower than to what you had operated in the earlier sortie ! I consider this a most desirable characteristic in an aircraft . Even the engine humming and the noise of rush of the air around the aircraft has always been good auditory input for a pilot .In fact I felt that in case of engine flame out , the loss of engine sound was the first indication the pilot got , even before he could confirm , albeit almost at the same time , the same from the engine instruments . Alas in Ajeet this important input was missing . According to me this was an undesirable trait , While at Sulur I had taken up this aspect with Maintenance Command and Air Hq. I am not aware if any action was taken .

Would like to know what seasoned Ajeet pilots felt about this particular aspect .

Another thing to leave lasting impression happened on the landing run . Ajeet had totally different brake system than the Gnat , except that both were toe operated there was nothing common . When the brakes are applied , toe pressure on both the brakes is more or less equal . In the Gnat , this more or less did not make much of a difference , the pilot by varying the toe pressures could manage to keep the aircraft straight and under control . . This more or less equal business did not work in Ajeet . If the toe pressure was more on one side , the wing on that side went down . So one tried to vary the toe pressure by reducing it on that side and increasing it on the other side , this would make the other wing go down !! I called it “wing rocking ” on the landing run . The amplitude would keep on increasing UNLESS the toes were totally removed from the brakes and the the brakes were reapplied . This obviously would result in increased landing run !!! Not a happy state if you were operating from 1700 yards runway and doing one odd sortie in a blue moon . May be with experience one avoided this “wing rocking” but with my limited experience and very widely spaced sorties I could not manage to eliminate it completely .

Ajeet was developed from the Gnat and though the outward appearance was same with lots and lots of commonality , with my experience I felt that Ajeet and Gnat aircraft were as different as chalk and cheese . They were two different aircraft altogether .

I do not think I would have fallen in love with Ajeet the way I did with Gnat even if I had managed to pile up as many hours on Ajeet as I had on The Gnat (750 +)

10 Comments posted on "AJEET Development"

Comments:

Shyam Hattangdi on October 25th, 2008 at 22:29 #

>steinemenns remark that “the Ajeet >range performance was >disappointing”.

I never flew the Ajeet - I handed over the squadron after reducing the entire inventory of Gnats to spares (a tremendous effort by the men under an excellent Engineering Officer)in anticipation of the Ajeet induction.

I however happened to be in Air HQs much earlier(AD Air Defence) in charge of the Gnat desk and remember expressing serious reservations in my notings about the range of the Ajeet when it was under development much to the chagrin of HAL bigwigs. Its range in the CAS role was so limited that you practically had to deploy/launch it from so close to the army formations that it was of little use. There were no drop tanks in the picture at that stage even though they may have been planned and I do not think they made very notable difference in the Ajeet’s final avatar.

J Thomas on October 26th, 2008 at 19:43 #

Agreed that the Ajeet’s RoA in the CAS role was inadequate from the operational point of view. But you get a different picture when compared with the Gnat.

Please correct my figures where they are wrong.

The Gnat’s internal fuel was 1590 pounds. Out of this, about 400 pounds would be consumed for start, taxy, take off and climb to altitude. 800 pounds was the reserve for joining circuit for landing. So 400 pounds was left for cruise. Some distance is covered during the climb and descent.

The Ajeet had 900 pounds additional internal fuel. This entire amount was available for cruise. So the range is easily tripled. The important thing was to fly without drop tanks and to fly as high as possible. For ground attack, a Medium - Low - High profile would have been optimum.

As mentioned earlier, the additional range was easily 500 nautical miles at altitude, equivalent to reaching Bagdogra from Bareilly.

What is “disappointing” about that ?

Philip Rajkumar on October 27th, 2008 at 7:38 #

I had run into a similar problem with wing rock on the landing roll in the Marut when I first started flying it in 1973. Wg Cdr Tilak told me that quick application of aileron into the rising wing and then centralising controls would stop the rocking. I tried it and it worked like a charm.The stick had to be moved quickly from side to side till the rocking stopped. Later on whenever I briefed a student TP for a solo on the Marut I told them about this little trick. On the Ajeet,however,the technique may have worsened the problem because of the narrow track. Did anyone try this on the Ajeet?
PR.

Gpcapt PM Velankar VM (retd) on October 28th, 2008 at 11:24 #

Refer Shyam Sir’s Comment above .
It jogged my memory and I remembered a uncharitable joke prevalent at that time.Not withstanding what Thomas sir has written and due apologies to all Ajeet Lovers ,The joke went like this ” TAKE-OFF 09 ,BOMB MIDDLE MARKER AND LAND ON 27 “

Gp Capt Arvind Kumar on October 29th, 2008 at 9:38 #

Velu Sir,
you are at your best once again.The Gnat and it’s derivative were never ment to be any thing other than interceptors.CAP OVER HEAD RW/OVER ANY NEARBY TACTICAL AREA was what it was meant for..Owing to its size and agility,the Gnat was also ideal for short range forays into nearby, confined air spaces such as narrow valleys.I remember tactical formation exercises in the Pahalgam Valley.The small size and agility of the Gnat were it’s best assets and if not used intelligently,could embarras even the best.Here is one such incident.

On a spring thursday,in 78,it was a CAP vs Strike. 18 mounted the strike with Sk Marwah mission leader and yours truly as No2.2 Sqn launched the CAP.The ancient P12 valiantly scanned but before any vector was given,the mandatory ‘2 MINUTES’ call was given by the strike..I spotted the Cap and ordered SK to continue and come up on my left after the attack .The CAP,led by KN Datta, had spotted us and were in phase with the strike.It was then just a matter of aligning in a falling leaf pattern and mop up the ‘raiders’.During this,after completing my attack,I was plesantly surprised to see my strike leader exactly abreast and gently turning away.Quick on the uptake,I immediately called up ‘Contact,tail clear,joining up.Sk acknowledged the call and that was that.I now started wondering,’whats wrong with SK,why is he turning towards base and climbing’.
But as a good No2,I joined up neatly in fighting and awaited the next move.
What had happened was this.Strike leader had gone ahead with his attack,while I was concentrating on the CAP and also aligning to my tgt.after my simulated attack,as mentioned earlier,I had mistaken the CAP who had chewed up SK, for strike leader who was, blissfully reaching Anantnag.CAP leader was probably impressed with his No2.Then came the call’Shorts,whats’ your position’.I promptly retorted ‘Right fighting’.

Well Gnatties’,I’ll spare you the rest.Needless to say,the combined debrief was uproarius and hillarious.

Arvind’Shorts’ Kumar

K Rajaram on October 29th, 2008 at 18:06 #

Right – Gnat vs Ajeet! The two types (Marks?) have about the same number of hours on me (around 600 hours each) so I guess I could comment for what it is worth. Here’s my bit towards the discussion.

When you approached the Ajeet you missed the DME aerials (that Toothless Garry would keep ripping off in combat on the G-Bird). Like the 1100 series of the Gnat you were gifted a Radio Compass to show you the way back home instead of the DME which sometimes told you when you were within 40 to 50 miles of home but the kicker never told you in which direction. When you got in into the Jeet-Bird you missed that lean-back at 20 deg lightweight seat with its side pads that made the Gnat such a pleasant ride and gave you the ability to pick up your tail-chaser at 600yards six o’clock. Instead you had a big box with the chute right behind your head and you were hard put to see as far back. On the positive side you had the confidence that you did not have to wait for 500 ft agl before punching out and, of course, the Martin-Baker reputation was well-earned. The Indian instrumentation was neat and uncluttered and quite well-liked though it did not occur to me at the time that Murphy could influence maintenance in the manner indicated by PM Velankar’ story on the rpm guage. The ISIS gunsight was adequate though you missed the older sight and T-10 rocket combination. (The Lances used to call up for a “four aircraft pulling up for direct hits” at Dulongmukh in 1972 whenever the RSO was a Battle-Axe and by golly, the RSO would be constrained to give four directs as the score). The ISIS, though not designed for air-to-air, was pretty good (I did once get a one round fired and one hit on the banner!). The port gun often still fired only the round in the chamber and the starboard none at all!

In the air, the range was, I think, not materially different in the case of the G- or the Jeet-bird. The additional fuel in the Ajeet’s wings made up for slightly less than the fuel in the drop tanks but the lower drag made up for that. My log books show a number of 50 minutes to one hour sorties on the Gnat as compared to 40 to 45 mins on the Ajeet but that, I think, was attributable to ever-upward mobile bingos over 1972 to 1991. Ferry ranges and strike ranges were no less on the Ajeet than on the Gnat given the same bingo figures. Peter Steinmann possibly compared ranges with other contemporary western tech aircraft or against expected increases in range with wet wings. The wet wings made it mandatory to carry full fuel and therefore were not liked for Dissimilar air combat ( the Fishbed guys would be heading back home when the wet wings were still feeding – On the Gnat we would have taken clean aircraft preferably the 1100 series which did not have even the Tail (8th and 9th?) tanks. As all HAL built aircraft with wet wings the Ajeet too had its problems with wing leaks and some tai numbers had copious amounts of bostick on them.

Night flying was great on the Ajeet with its integral lighting and a view of the Kanchenjunga on a moonlit night from over the Tista valley at Chungthang was indeed memorable. The low sitting height gave a tremendous feeling of speed on landing at night. I do not particularly remember any difficulty with its roll on landing but you certainly could not evaluate your landings (on the Gnat you measured flats and were thrilled on seeing half a flat of usage). The Trainers had much less range of course but they were really good for their training ability. The rear seat had very good visibility with its internal periscope (even at night) and the training systems were terrific to work with.

An interesting point was made in the discussion on the acquisition of the Gnat for evaluation by the USAF for radar trials. In 2 Sqn in the last days we did some DACT with Mirages too with a view to learn survival in an ASF environment. Even on the defensive Ajeets would paint on the Mirage radars at only 7-8 km when the Ajeets would also have visual contact and could initiate their defensive turns in time. After the first head-on cross, you know, two Ajeets could even contemplate an offensive attempt against a single M-two grand ! A stealth aircraft ahead of its time?!

Actually both versions were great aircraft at any time or age!

Ashok D Chhibbar on October 29th, 2008 at 18:31 #

I couldn’t agree with Rajaram more.Never had a problem with the Ajeet both by day and night. And found it to be quite stable while dropping Spanish retarder bombs too!

Gp Capt Arvind Kumar on October 30th, 2008 at 8:53 #

Hi Raja,

Great write up.Should be included in ‘Air Clues’.

Shorts.

K Rajaram on October 30th, 2008 at 12:59 #

I forgot to mention earlier that the Ajeet had a very good six-degree freedom of movement, HAL built simulator on which one could fly not just IF but even practice air-to-ground armamaent delivery! Of course, one could shoot and analyse approaches.However, the simulator was unserviceable most of the time during the Sqn tenure and finally became fully serviceable only when the Ajeets were to be grounded permanently.
The brand new complex housing the simulator was handed over to the Lightnings, brought in by a course-mate, Randy, who handed the outfit over to Limey, another course-mate and good friend. But what did the AF do with the simulator later?
And, Chibbs, sir! What kind of results did you get on the retarded bombs? We found the max mil drop on the ISIS quite inadequate and the “1001…1002…” technique made us quite unpopular with the metal-pickers at Dudhkundi!

Gpcapt PM Velankar VM (retd) on October 31st, 2008 at 12:46 #

Dear Rajaram ,

Great write up . May be after some more hourson type , I also would have sorted out the rocking and may be liked it a littlt bit :-).

October 08, 2008

How many Gnats can be flown with a single A/H and a pair of Main Wheels !!!

Filed Under (Personal Tales) by admin on 08-10-2008

By Gp Capt PM Velankar VM (Retd)

Foxed by the title, Read on to unravel the mystery.

After being part of 22 Squadron for almost 5 years from 1969 to 1974, In July of that year, I was posted to 5 BRD Sulur. This was not my first visit to that place as I had ferried Gnats from 22 Squadron to Sulur for a major overhaul and also accepted, air tested Gnat aircraft after completion of a major overhaul and ferried them to 22 Squadron. However during those ferries even in my wildest dreams, I had not imagined that I would be posted there not once but for two tenures and would spend almost six years at that place and have some wonderful times.

I was posted to do an air test on overhauled Gnat aircraft and clear them for allotment to the Gnat Squadrons. Production task ( number of aircraft to be overhauled ) for the financial year was given by Air Headquarters. So 31 March assumed vast significance in the scheme of things at the BRD. All sorts of rotables and a very large number minor and major items like a canopy for re-bubbling, main undercarriage oleo legs, aero-engine etc were removed from the aircraft received for major servicing and sent to HAL Bangalore for servicing as BRD was neither equipped nor had qualified personnel to do the job. While HAL was doing their job, technicians at BRD stripped the airframe carried out the servicing of the airframe, fuel cells, change on power looms replacing the cables and the wiring etc etc . There was always mad rush and race against time to finish the task against all odds of provisioning, servicing and mainly against lack of timely supply of rotables from HAL Bangalore.

The less said about the work culture at Public Sector undertakings the better it is. I do not know how things are now but only thing good which can be said about the HAL Bangalore of those days was the cost and the quality of executive lunch in Officers Canteen. ( by the time I went on deputation to HAL even that had gone to dogs as a cost-saving measure ) . So it was no wonder that It was a herculean task to get back in the right time , the serviced rotatables sent to HAL.

That is how it came to pass that in that year all the servicing schedule on four Gnats was over. The aircraft were ready to be offered for the air test. Even one air test on these would mean achieving the task by FOUR aircraft !! However, only one aircraft was offered for airtest and flown. The other three aircraft could not be offered for flying even though ready in every respect because Artificial Horizon (A/H) was missing from these aircraft !!!! A/H sent for servicing to HAL Bangalore were still awaited. Protracted correspondence had not yielded the desired results. Frantic calls had the same results. As a final solution, it was decided to cannibalise the only available A/ H to the other aircraft and do the air test. Till such time remaining A/H were received, these four aircraft were flown with that single A/H !!!!

I remember another time when main wheel tyres were not available in almost exactly the same circumstances except that HAL was not a guilty party at that time. It was then that a single pair of main wheels were cannibalised to fly three/four aircraft ( I forget the exact number ).

It speaks volumes for our Technical Officers and technicians and a tribute to them that even against all odds they always delivered the goods, then, and continue to do so today. The Gnat kingpins Shaukat & Sylam were in charge of Gnat floor those days.

Sir my hats off to you and our Technical Officers and men who do the impossible !!!

Today being Air Force day let us touch the sky with glory.

COMMENTS.

K SANJEEVAN.

Dear Velu, You really did touch the sky with glory, in them days. Sanjeevan

SASHI RAMDAS .

As usual, extremely well written!!! I never realised you wrote so well. A most "readable" style! Rgds...................... Shashi

October 06, 2008

Pilot Error: They can’t even read JPT & RPM Gauges properly!

Filed Under (Personal Tales) by admin on 06-10-2008

Gp Capt PM Velankar VM (Retd)

This incident took place in the year 1977, when I was on Deputation to HAL. I think it was the last week of the Mad Month of March. Being a Public Sector Undertaking, “Financial Year End ” fever was on. There was great urgency to air test as many aircraft as possible. It was quite late in the afternoon when I was called to do the first air test on the newly manufactured Ajeet. There was the usual Puja and coconut breaking ceremony, every one had sweets and prasad. Many times I thought that the puja was not so much for the good omens it would bring the aicraft but for the leisure time it offered the workers and the sweets which were distributed in generous quantity.:-)

After having a bit of the sweets, I did the externals, jumped in and strapped up. I asked for the air and started the aircraft. As the RPM was building up I looked at the RPM gauge and got the shock of my life. There was some thing terribly wrong - the gauge was calibrated in “degrees centigrade”. Looked at the JPT gauge to see how it was coming up and got another shock. Here again, some thing was terribly wrong. This gauge was calibrated with RPM. I switched off the engine and got out.

The Supervisor was worried and came to check what was wrong and why I had switched off instead of taxing out. I told him that the RPM gauge and the JPT gauges were wrongly installed. In fact their position was interchanged. That fellow just did not believe what I was saying. After all, during every stage of manufacture, every thing was checked by one person above the other. Finally there were people from some Government Inspection Agency (I forget which defence dept it was) whom the HAL technicians called “Aircraft Inspectors.” Not only that, the aircraft, in the process of production and making it fly worthy was given a large number of ground runs, full throttle runs, etc. not only by the HAL technicians but also by the Aircraft Inspectors as well. No wonder the Supervisor did not believe me nor did the others who were present around the aircraft. Finally, he and every one, including the Aircraft Inspectors looked and saw, looked and saw again in horrified disbelief, because the position of these two gauges was WRONG, they were interchanged.

There was no explanation as to how and why such a mistake was not only committed but also not detected for over a period of 20 days plus when the engine was first installed and the aircraft offered for air test. As I was leaving, supervisor asked me what I was going to do. I told him that I was going to make a written report to the CTP about such gross negligence and carelessness on the part of every one involved. Every one present gheraoed me and begged me not to do that. They promised to rectify the mistake, be doubly careful in future to ensure that such a mistake, nay, any type of mistake would ever take place in future. Finally I entered the snag in the snag sheet (Form 700’s equivalent in HAL) and left for crew room. The entered snag was : -

“On start up, the RPM gauge did not register beyond 650°C and the the JPT was more than 6000 RPM.”

4 Comments posted on "Pilot Error: They can’t even read JPT & RPM Gauges properly!"

Comments:

Gp Capt Arvind Kumar on October 7th, 2008 at 12:15 #

Dear Velu Sir,

That was a real good one.
Remembering our ‘Ankush” days(BKT 75-76) and your generous hospitality.
Arvind’Shorts’Kumar

Gpcapt PM Velankar VM (retd) on October 8th, 2008 at 12:37 #

Hello Kumar , happy to hear from you . Have you installed strong movable spot light on your car as it was on the Jawa ? Where are you ,coming to bgl?
velu .

Gpcapt PM Velankar VM (retd) on October 8th, 2008 at 12:51 #

I thought it was a classic case of”Murphy’s Law”. In the Gnat the dimensions of the gauges were different and they could never be installed in any place other then their own .It was not so in Ajeet the sizes were identical even the appearances were similar . So the HAL technicians goofed up and wrongly installed RPM gauge where they should have installed the JPT gauge and vice-versa . So it was , I think it was technical error , supervisory lapse . Anyway , Must be stupid pilot making error in reading the gauges or was my sarcastic brand of humour missed again !!!

kapil on October 11th, 2008 at 19:32 #

Dear Velu, I believe you are being over-sensitive and taking offence where none is meant. Your humour comes through very well, especially the way you wrote the snag. As seen in the two comments, it was much appreciated, including by Air Mshl Ramdas. Your own comment on it only reduces the effect of the humour.

What you are missing is my dig at technicians by a change in the title. Haven’t you come across the tendency to blame the pilot any time anything at all goes wrong. Why do you think no one wanted to believe it when you said the gauges were interchanged? Their immediate thought would have been what I put in the title.

I faced this attitude throughout my career as a pilot, including 17 years of test flying. I started early, In 1952 just one year after joining the Battle Axes, we flew our 16 Vampires in a formation from Palam to Jamnagar. Coming in to land I had only two green lights with the right one red. ATC confirmed that the right leg was not down. After 18 attempts, including in the inverted position, it did not lock down. But suddenly on the 19th try I got three greens and landed. The right wheel had deflated probably because of some metal on the runway at Palam. The D-door was fouling and not letting the undercarriage come down. But what do you think was the first question the Chief Technical Officer asked me, “ Did you lower the under carriage properly?” I was stunned, but Nobby Clarke yelled at him and asked him to demonstrate how to lower the undercarriage to get only two wheels down. The CTO did not even want to investigate the cause, since after the wheel was changed the undercarriage worked just fine. It was his junior (Razdan) who found the cause by deflating the tyre and operating the undercarriage lever a few times. A mod had to be issued by de Havilland. This was the start, I have plenty of tales like this from my flying career.

Do you seriously think the changed tile is meant to denigrate you? If so, I apologise. In future I shall not edit or add anything to your submissions to prevent any possible angst.

Kapil Bhargava

Post sent to Gnat 50 years web site.

October 06, 2008

True Confessions - Velu’s Near-Goof-Up In 1971 War

By Gp Capt PM Velankar VM (Retd )
During 71 war I was in 22 Squadron and we were operating from Dumdum. The squadron had been operating detachments and had a major portion of the unit operating from Dumdum since September - October 1971.
Squadron aircraft crossed the international border to attack various ground targets or as an escort to Hunters for the first time on the 4th of December 71. A good number of sorties were carried out by almost all the pilots of the squadron. 

I did not cross the border that day but was detailed to carry out CAP sortie over Dumdum. I did three or four sorties of CAP with different No 2s. It was the same story the next day. Even after requesting the Flight Commander to let me go on ground attack sortie, I was informed that the CO did not want to send me across the border. 

My relations with the CO were not the most cordial. He thought I was a good for nothing useless pilot. On my part the feeling was mutual! 

So once again I did four CAP sorties. The same thing happened on the third day as well. Doing CAP sorties every day, for three days, had its effects ! Things had become so bad that even after flying was over for the day my head kept snapping and swivelling from left to right as if still looking around for the bogies ! It was OK so far as it went but caused lot of trouble in the evening when I could not put the glass to my lips as the head kept swivelling! For the first couple of sips I had to literally hold it still with my left hand and take a sip from the glass in the right hand. Things used to improve after a couple of drinks and and were back to normal by the time my normal quota was consumed!!!!
On the fourth day, the sun did not rise from the west but I had a feeling that things would be different that day. The start was not too good. For the first sortie, I was again detailed for a CAP! Boondi took four ac formation for a ground attack / attack on river-borne targets at a place called Satkhira.
The time was around 1030 or 1100 when I was told that CO wanted me. He told me that, as I was keen to do a strike sortie , to take a two ac formation to Satkhria and to get airborne as soon as possible, Vinod Batheja was detailed as no 2, apparently Flt Cdr’s urgings had their effect!!! 

This being my FIRST EVER sortie in enemy territory and that too as a Leader, I was extremely excited and rushed to prepare the map and do the normal planning for the sortie. I wanted desperately for everything to go smoothly with no f***-ups !!! As usual, when you are in a hurry things are just not found. Frantic search for the map, the pencils, protector, ruler was yielding slow results. In between people were telling me to hurry up as CO was enquiring whether I had got airborne or was still on the ground and he was being told that I was preparing the map !! Finally, everything was found and I had just drawn the line joining Dundum to Satkhira and measured the distance which appeared neither too little nor too much. Calculation of distances , timings and fuel consumption were next in line and still to be done when I was told that if I was not airborne within 15 minutes some other targets were expected and then I could forget about the strike and keep swivelling my neck over Dumdum airfield. 

All this while Batheja was hovering around and like a good no 2 was neither a hindrance nor help. But now he pipes up and says “Velu, it is OK I have been to that place in the morning with Boondi and everything was ok, no sweat. To my enquiry if he was “sure”, he said, “Ya, absolutely sure everything ok” I wanted to say “OK Bats kick the tyres, light the fires, briefing will be on D Delta”. Instead I just said, “OK Bats let us go, briefing as per the SOP” and we proceeded to the aircraft. 

Time elapsed between my being told to go for the sortie and we setting off for the aircraft less than 18 minutes!!!!

Startup, taxi, take-off and reaching the target at a height of 500 to 1000 feet was smooth and normal. The weather was fine with good visibility and thin 8/8 cloud cover at medium altitude. Our targets were ships / mechanised boats plying on the river in Satkhira area. There were quite a few of them and fairly big in size too. I told Bats to get in the position and go for the targets.
For the first time ever in your life, going into the dive, removing the safety, putting the right index finger on the trigger, tracking the enemy target and opening fire when at the correct range, seeing the bullets hitting the target causing devastation, pulling out doing a hard turn to see if you have hit the target and being pleasantly surprised that the bullets which missed the target on the range, had hit the mark accurately the. The target being destroyed. Believe you me, it is a totally mind-blowing experience. As a fighter pilot one has trained all these days to take on the enemy, that and only that is the purpose of all your training, hard work, in fact of your life and existence! Very few of us are lucky to really achieve and fulfil to any degree the raison d’etre of their being. I feel we were one of those lucky few! No words can describe how one really feels at times like this.
We carried out two passes. I asked for fuel check and asked Bats to join up for return. He gave me the fuel state, just borderline, but also said “Velu there, there at 2 O ‘Clock about 3 miles a big ship”. I made contact, could not resist such a good target and agreed for just one more pass. We got carried away and did one more pass. The ship was doomed. We set course for Dumdum at 500 to 1000 feet. I saw the fuel and started easing up. Climbed up to 5000 to 6000 feet and levelled out as there was thin cloud layer above that. Now Bats gives a call of Bingo. I was taken aback, we were still a distance from the base. I checked with the SU if they had joy on us and to give us pigeons to base. They had joy and we get the pigeons. We were a few miles from Jessore airfield. But I did not feel joy as Bats was bingo minus and wanted to land at Jessore. I told him to shut up maintain position and we started climbing. We got through the cloud layer and kept climbing to level out at around 16,000 ft as there was another cloud layer above that and much darker and thicker. We set the RPM for range flying and continue towards the base. By now Bats was yelling his fuel state and was wanting to land at Jessore or he may not reach the base. I told him to shut up once again and to maintain his position. I was getting worried, I thought, if I did not take back the formation with my no 2 intact, I would never again cross the border. In fact, the way things were between me and the powers that be, might not even fly again.
I called up the SU and reported ” This is Vodka 1 , steering so & so , at FL 160, estimate so & so miles from base “. SU promptly came on and said ” Vodka I have joy on you your pigeon’s so & so.” The pigeons tallied with my report and gave me a little bit of happiness. I recognised the voice of the controller. It was Bagchi, a thorough professional and a very good controller. I dropped all the formalities and said, “Bagchi, this is Velu, my No 2 is low on fuel, we are on top of 8/8s and have no contact with the ground, can you please take us and position us so that we can make a direct approach and landing also fly / commence descent in such a way that the whole thing is done at the least power setting, a sort of GCA if you can do that”. Being a professional he came back promptly and told me to ” stand by.” Within no time he came back and started controlling us giving new courses to steer etc. We continued, started descent when told to do so, entered cloud, carried on following directions. continued after getting below clouds and following directions, till such time he said, “Runway should be in front of you, report contact”. I reported contact thanked Bagchi and told him we were changing over to tower. Bagchi had done a wonderful job. Runway in use and touch down point was just ahead and we were ideally positioned for direct approach and landing. And all this while, once we had commenced descent we were flying at the least power setting,(( Mercifully except for asking if he could eject once or twice Bats had ” SHUT UP “, which was good as it did not disturb my prayers!!!I )) I confirmed if Bats had the runway in contact, told him to land first and went round after he had rounded off and about to touch down. By now for the last minute or so my own bingo light was also ON. I heard Bats asking if he could switch off at the end of the runway. I told him NOT to do anything of the kind and switch off only after reaching the dispersal!. To this day I am grateful to Bagchi for bringing us back safely, which may not have been possible considering the S*** we were in.
After landing reached the tarmac and saw that Bats was just getting out of the ac. I switched off, jumped out and briskly caught up with Bats. Nearly caught him by the scruff of the neck and shouted  "Damn it Bats you had said”, "ya, absolutely sure everything ok “,” so why the hell did we land up in such S*** “.

That fellow says everything was OK except that we had followed HIGH - LOW - HIGH profile.!!!!!!!!

 If anyone had come close to committing a murder it was Velu at that moment ! Any way the mistake was mine for taking a strike formation without proper planning.
I told Bats in a threatening voice if he ever told any one of the closest shave which we had, I would kill him. I also kept quiet about the whole thing.
RS Mehtamour EO later gave me the refuelling figures.

I have a feeling that the last few minutes before Bats had reached tarmac and switched off, his engine was running on fuel fumes AND my prayers.
It is since then that I became firm believer in the power of the prayer.

 Later I carried out quite a few sorties, happily without any F***-Ups and to the satisfaction of all.

4 Comments posted on "True Confessions - Velu’s Near-Goof-Up In 1971 War"

Comments:

Gpcapt PM Velankar VM (retd) on October 6th, 2008 at 19:46 #

This is exactly what I had written in the para after we had reached the tarmac ”
“After landing reached the tarmac and saw that Bats was just getting out of the ac . I switched off , jumped out and briskly caught up with bats. Nearly caught him by the scruff of the neck and shouted ” Damn it bats you had said”"ya , absolutely sure every thing ok “”so why the hell did we land up in such S*** ” That fellow says every thing was OK except that we had followed HIGH - LOW - HIGH profile .!!!!!!!! If any one had come close to committing a murder it was velu at that moment ! Any way the mistake was mine for taking a strike formation without proper planning.
Having already owned up the mistake I feel that key sentence ” That fellow says every thing was OK except that we had followed HIGH - LOW - HIGH profile .!!should have been left as it was . The way it is amended cuts out the humour and now the way it reads it seems unfair to me and .

Ashok D Chhibbar on October 6th, 2008 at 20:15 #

Great writing, Velu. Nice to read a good story which includes not only you but also Bats….a good soul.

kapil on October 6th, 2008 at 20:45 #

Velu is right. I am sorry, I did not understand the allusion and changed the paragraph without rechecking with him. No slight or unfair slant was intended.
It is a good story, well-told and I hope we get more such items from him and others.
I will try and check with the author except for obvious errors in editing. I hope everyone will do their best to reduce this extra work for me.
With apologies to anyone who thought I was running Velu down.
With best wishes,
Kapil Bhargava

Ivan Jalaluddin on October 7th, 2008 at 1:08 #

Good story and funny too,in a charming schoolboy Commando comic way!

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)