To touch the clouds was the height of ambition of many teenagers in the city. And a flying club in the city gave them wings to be a bird in the sky. Founded in July 14, 1959 by Colonel Goda Raja Varma, the Kerala Flying Club had the distinction of having trained generations of pilot and flight engineers from Kerala.
Today, for the first time in its 60-year existence, former students of the Club, now known as the Rajiv Gandhi Academy for Aviation Technology (RAGAAT), are meeting to pilot the future of the club in the right direction.
It all began with an informal conversation among a group of residents who had learnt flying at the Club. Captain Sajith Kumar (United Airlines), Ajith Mohan (flight engineer, Emirates), Captain Arunkumar (Qatar Airways), Sajan Janardhanan, Ratheesh Babu (chief engineer, RAGAAT), Premjith and Ashok Kumar put their heads together and decided on a blueprint for a meeting. They got in touch with their friends and batch-mates, many of them working as pilots and flight engineers in different places in India and the world. They felt that it was high time they decided on a new course of action to help the Club regain its pride of place in the skies.
What caught their attention was the fact that many teenagers who dreamt of taking to the skies were now forced to go abroad or outside Kerala to learn flying and that too at exorbitant rates.
“We wanted to highlight the fact that here was an institution with a proud history of flying. Moreover, thanks to the government, RAGAAT had bought first-class flying machines for the students. However, RAGAAT had to take a back seat owing to lack of experienced instructors who were prepared for a long assignment,” says Captain R Kalias Nair, a pilot and instructor with a commercial airline.
- The Kerala Flying Club used to train pilots for ‘A’ and ‘B’ license to qualify as pilots for commercial airlines.
- Captain TKR Nair recalls that the old airport near Shanghumugham beach belonged to the royal family of erstwhile Travancore. They owned DC 3 (Dakota) for their personal use.
- However, when a group of prominent citizens headed by Col Goda Varma Raja took up the cause for a airport in the city, Chithira Thirunal Bala Rama Varma, the last monarch of Travancore, happily handed over the aerodrome, building and hangar to the authorities concerned in the late forties.
- The first chief pilot was Captain KS Krishnan. The Club has one Pushpak and a HT2 aircraft.
- In the meantime, the flying club was renamed as Kerala Aviation Training Centre. It functioned from the same hangar till 2000. Expansion of the airport necessitated the shifting of the flying club, and the State government stepped in to build a hangar and office for the present RAGAAT, which came into existence on June 1, 2006.
The alumni of the flying club hope to work in cooperation with the government to bring the shine back to the club. “Many flying clubs in India are hampered by lack of equipment but this one has four single-engine Cessna 172 aircraft, of which two are glass cockpit airplanes and a state-of-the-art Piper Seneca twin engine aircraft for advanced, the latest in this field, for advanced training in flying” adds Kailas.
They feel that what is an impediment in the progress of the club is the “unrealistic salary structure, which is a reason why instructors are not willing to stay on for long”. During the meet, they plan to come up with some proposals such as giving the instructors a share of the revenue when the number of students increase so that instructors get a reasonable pay packet.
“There are many pilots and flight engineers, former and current, who are staying in the city. They have expressed their willingness to take classes without any remuneration. Even non-resident pilots have agreed to take classes without any fees. We see it as a way of paying back to the club where we had our initial lessons in flying,” says Kailas.
- The ‘mega mela’ today at Uday Suites will have about 50 to 60 pilots and flight engineers who learnt to master the flying machine at the KATC. The organisers have invited all current students, staffers and instructors at the club. The meeting is from 4 pm to 9 pm. The organisers have also brought out a directory with the names of all the students who learnt flying or engineering at the Club. Contact: 9840773737
He adds that the aircraft with RAGAAT could even be used by ministers to reach far-flung places in an emergency. “In this way, the flying club can be revived for different purposes.”
With the boom in jobs for pilots, the organisers of the meeting assert that RAGAAT, with the right flight charts, will soon take off to become a prime training centre for aspiring pilots.
