After three years of being grounded, the Pinjore Flying Club has finally found its wings back. The club, being run by Haryana Institute of Civil Aviation, is now back on track, with a chief flying instructor in place to handle the operations.
The club — once an extremely popular attraction because of the glider rides it offered city residents — has been virtually closed since August 2009. With over a dozen craft, including the Cessnas, the club was considered to be the best among the three flying clubs being run by the Haryana government.
“The Pinjore school is preferred by students training for flying craft. This is because of its proximity to Chandigarh and also the perfect weather conditions Pinjore offers for flying. It is most suited for instrument training as well,” says Captain Kamal Kishore, executive director, civil aviation, Haryana.
However, the club has witnessed an erratic operation schedule since August 2009 mainly due to medical reasons put forth by the then chief flying instructor. In January 2011, flying came to a grinding halt after the CFI was removed from service.
The training craft as also the students were then shifted to the Karnal Flying Club for their classes till the hunt for a new CFI was complete. “We had no option. The craft had to be kept in use. Now we have sent the craft and the students back to Pinjore,” adds Captain Kishore.
New CFI Captain D K Punia joined recently, and flying classes have resumed at Pinjore since April this year. The club’s two training craft — Cessna 152 and Cessna 172 — have been pressed into service to train half a dozen students registered with the club. The club offers practice session for a commercial pilot licence, private pilot licence and student pilot licence. Charges vary from Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 per hour, depending on the type of plane being used for the training.
“The Cessna 152 is a two-seater while the Cessna 172 is a four-seater. The two planes have been sent to Karnal for servicing and should be back by June-end,” says J S Bedi, the chief engineer at the school.
“Until some weeks ago, we were training students on the Cessna 172. Then we hit another hurdle: fuel shortage. The aircraft fuel has to be made available from the IOC and they are themselves waiting for the fuel from Mumbai,” says another employee of the club.
Other than the Cessnas which are being used to train the students, the club has no serviced plane. “We would need at least Rs 2 crore to put some of the planes we have into use. It’s for the government to give us that kind of grant,” say Bedi.
The club is also not planning any pleasure rides. “The pleasure rides were paid rides and the system ran for a few years. But later, we stopped these. I don’t think that system can be revived now. We intend to focus on training quality pilots here,” says Captain D K Punia, chief flying instructor at Pinjore.
