Date:17/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/17/stories/2004121705052000.htm

National

Last lap for fighter-trainers

By K.V.S. Madhav

GOODBYE: Five Surya Kiran aircraft fly over the Iskra at a ceremonial function near Hyderabad on Thursday. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD, DEC. 16. As the sun set, the silvery fighter aircraft blazed into the still-blue skies from the Hakimpet Air Force Station here. This was no ordinary sortie for the Polish made Iskra, which served the Indian Air Force (IAF) for three decades and helped mould batches and batches of fighter pilots. This was the last lap. Thursday was retirement day.

The Iskra jet trainer aircraft, which saw 58 batches of pilots — 1,500 in all — learning the art of flying on it in a marathon ride lasting well over 1.9 lakh hours, was phased out at an impressive ceremony here on Thursday. The Iskra was inducted into the IAF on October 1, 1975 at the Hakimpet training base where pilots selected for the Fighter Stream would undergo training as a prelude to flying supersonic jets.

After a few sorties watched by an assembly of senior IAF officials, trainers, pilots, cadets and civilians, the flying machine taxied onto the parade ground, the roar of the engine down to a whimper. The pilots emerged as a Chetak helicopter showered rose petals on the flying machine. The helmets and oxygen masks were placed on the trapezoid shaped wings as the men in uniform stood ramrod straight, bidding farewell to an old mate.

The band played the notes of `Abide with Me' as silence fell. With the canopies open, the old aircraft appeared to take in the last strains. A solitary bugler took up the refrain. As the final notes faded away, it was the end of an era.

Air Marshal B.N. Gokhale, Senior Air Staff Officer, Headquarters Training Command, said the Iskra was synonymous with generations of fighter pilots, who revered them.