How IAF continues to make India proud
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has recently finalised a stretch on the under construction Lucknow-Agra Expressway to build the country’s first road runway for fighter jets.
Earlier, on May 21, Indians had woken up to the front page photographs of an IAF Mirage 2000 landing on the Yamuna Expressway near Mathura. It was a matter of immense pride for the nation.
This was the first time an Indian military plane was carrying out a landing on a road though many countries, including Pakistan, had carried out such landings earlier. Road runways are used for emergency landing and become important if airbases are crippled during war. A dedicated section of the road is prepared with thicker-than-normal surface and a solid concrete base.
Landing on a road requires a high level of professionalism and courage.
There have been instances galore where IAF crew has displayed an exemplary degree of intrepidness, expertise and dedication in peace time operations that have largely remained under the radar.
Imagine flying an unpressurised piston-engine transport plane (Dakota, Packet, IL 14) over the mountain ranges in Kashmir that are much higher than the aircraft’s optimum flying ceiling, necessitating unwieldy oxygen cylinders and cumbersome clothing to protect against the cold. Add to that the bumpiness owing to the weather; only visual flying and landing because of either a lack of, or rudimentary, flying and landing aids; no landmarks available in the winters when the entire landscape wears a shroud of white; no question of any safe forced landing in case of an emergency, and one gets an idea just how tough and unforgiving the conditions could be. Even though from the air the majestic landscape stands out as an unforgettable sight, it is no compensation for the strain and rigors that the crew has to undergo. In the country of their origin these planes did not have to cope with flying in such challenging conditions!
This was the actual situation in the 50s/early 60s. In Ladakh, the IAF played a logistical role – transportation of men and material and supply-dropping. The Army had set up forward posts and since there was a dearth of roads, the men and material had to be airlifted. While Srinagar had some limited flying/landing aids, Kargil had none and Leh had a radio-telephone with a range of few miles. At advance landing grounds (ALG) there was no aircraft-to-ground communication.
Briefing at 4am at the Srinagar airport, take off by 4.30 am, two-three sorties a day, frequent long waits for weather clearance - elements seemed to conspire to make life very difficult indeed! I recall my father getting up at 3am every day, drinking a hot cup of tea made by my mother and leave for the airport on his scooter at the height of the Kashmir winter.
Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) in Ladakh is a historic camp site located close to Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin area near the base of the Karakoram Pass. It has an airstrip of loose gravel texture quality at an altitude of 16,614feet, and is the world's highest airstrip. It had two runways: one each for landing and take-off, because there was not a large enough level ground to suit both purposes. The runways were on sloping ground. Aircrafts had to take off on the runway sloping down which ended in a precipice. Landing was done up the slope to reduce speed. The base was established during the Sino-Indian conflict in 1962, with the first landing done in a packet fitted with a jet engine, creating a world record. It was operated with packets from 1962 to 1966 (my father did many sorties) and had to be closed down when an earthquake caused loosening of the surface soil.
At Kargil, the landing strip sloped down towards the river and the space available to manoeuvre the aircraft was so restricted that one had to plummet down. Foreign pilots flying UN Observer teams had very seldom been subjected to flying in such conditions and they held our pilots in high esteem.
By 1961 the Air Force started using AN 12s. These aircrafts performed extremely well under difficult circumstances. How hazardous is flying in these parts was underlined by the crash of an AN-12 of 25 squadron in February, 1968 on the Dhakka glacier in Himachal Pradesh, killing all crew and 98 soldiers on board. One body was found 45 years later and four more subsequently. I vividly remember my parents (my father was then the squadron commander of 44 squadron of AN -12s) visiting some of the bereaved families of the crew and personally informing and condoling them.
The situation has changed over the years. In DBO, work was undertaken to make the airfield operational again, and on 31 May, 2008, it hosted an An-32. On 20 August, 2013, a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft landed there. However, even with the upgrade of facilities, navigational aids and avionics, flying in these areas is still a perilous activity.
Flying in the north-east has its own set of challenges - high mountain ranges, thick tropical jungles, steep valleys and the mighty Brahmaputra. The surface communication network is sketchy and the road network rudimentary. Flying is the only mode of carrying people and supplies. As in Kashmir, flying is strenuous and dangerous because of the temperatures, overall weather conditions, and the unavailability of flying aids. Since the aircraft is operated at the critical limit of its flight envelope with reduced safety margins, the unpredictable weather calls for a high level of flying skills.
Flying is undertaken only between sunrise and noon. By early afternoon, hill shadows and associated poor visibility make sorties impossible. Unmanageable clear air turbulence, low-level wind shear, and low clouds also pose problems.
In a typical drop sortie by an An-32, while flying at a speed of around 250km an hour and at times just 100feet above the hills, the navigator gives the signal to the ejection crew to get ready; the minus-five degrees Celsius air temperature outside making it very difficult for the crew. When the green light comes on, the flight engineer operates the release unit, dropping the load. With the dropping zones (DZ) situated in narrow valleys, the margin for error is very low and the drop has to be precise so that it doesn’t become irretrievable. The problem is accentuated during the pre-monsoon season because of the jhum cultivation and the resultant smog.
Given the topography, take-off and landing in ALGs is a demanding exercise. The runway surfaces are semi-prepared and they are restricted in both length and width. An ALG is like an aircraft carrier deck but without arrester hooks. The approach to an ALG is steep owing to obstructions, and the landing/take-off circuit is unconventional. Landing in the narrow valleys with wing tips brushing the trees and the mountain side gives an eerie feeling.
At the Vijaynagar ALG, which is surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides, the AN-32 lands over reinforced metal sheets. Even a minor miscalculation in the landing speed could result in the aircraft hurtling into the mountains.
Our helicopter pilots are also doing an outstanding job. An IAF Cheetah helicopter set a new world record in November, 2014 by landing at a density altitude of 25,150feet at Saserkangri near Leh. Before that, another helicopter had landed at a record density altitude of 23,240feet to rescue casualties from a mountaineering expedition, in extremely challenging conditions. The weather was very bad. There was just enough place to hover with one ski on the ledge, in gusty conditions, the whirling rotor just a foot away from the solid mountain cliff.
As a helicopter unit’s motto states -"We do the difficult as a routine; the impossible (may) take a bit longer". This applies across the IAF to all our gallant air crew who work in the most trying conditions, without complaint, as a patriotic duty with the only expectation of being treated with respect and dignity by their countrymen.