AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 112 of 332 The most difficult part was the take-off from the short runway. There were trees looming in front and one had to establish a decent rate of climb to clear them; however, for this, one had to get the undercarriage up as soon as possible to reduce the drag. So, for the single pilot, one had to first unstick clear off the ground, leave the right hand from the throttles which were at maximum, hold the controls steady with the left hand and then bend fully to the right to reach the lever that would pull up the wheels. "Believe me, it required some doing. An inadvertent pull back on the stick would mean that you stalled the aircraft and crash and if you pushed the controls forward, the trees would get you! God forbid if there was an engine failure just then; only He could save you!!” recalled the veteran. "In-flight, it was an eerie feeling in the cockpit and the workload was high. Especially at night, it was eerier with the ethereal glow of the ultraviolet lighting flooding the cockpit. "Also, at night, the far East was pretty much blacked out and the moon and stars were only company if the weather gods were happy. "All in all, the solo experience did wonders for my confidence in the aircraft and in myself, a confidence that carried me through my long innings in the Indian Air Force." Air Commodore Arun Dattraya Karandikar retired from the IAF after 30 years of glorious service in 1997. He holds the record for the most number of hours flown by a military pilot -- 12,980 hours -- for which he finds his name in the Limca Book Of Records. His glorious services for the Motherland will never be forgotten. Acknowledgement This article was earlier published in rediff.com and has been reproduced here with permission from them.