Worf
16th Oct 2005, 04:59
Does anyone have any information/pictures of the Dakota MK IV (HJ-849) in the attached photograph? I am helping my father write an article on his days as a nightfighter navigator trainer. I need more information about the airplane - this is the only photograph of it that I have ever seen. A brief history of it follows.
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http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1950s/10/10-Dakota_Small.jpg
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My father was posted in as second pilot (as a Flying Officer) to fly it with 10 Squadron when it came back from the Uk after retrofitting with the AI Mk 10 radar (identical to that of the Vampire NF 34s operated by the squadron) in 1959. Earlier all navs were trained in the UK (some on Beaufighters). Sqn Ldr Mitra was to be the captain - but he got posted out on promotion soon after qualifying my father as captain. Before this dad had been flying Dakota's in the North East (on the border with China) from Barrackpore/Jorhat/Chabua with 11 Squadron. He was one of a group of pilots who had been passed out a year early from the National Defence Academy to start pilot training. He as still a Flight Cadet when he got his captain rating on Dakotas at Transport Training Wing Begumpet (!) - this AFTER the Prentice/Harvard wings stage! His date of commissioning remained the same. No free lunches in the Indian Air Force!
Almost all the Navs to be trained as nightfighter navs were trained by my father - he had no second pilot assigned to him and took along fighter pilots or navigators as co-pilots. He was awarded an AOC-in-Cs commendation for handling an engine failure on take off (on this very aircraft) from Santa Cruz airport Bombay at very low level. The navigator in the co-pilots seat (who was a Wing Commander) never even realized that there was an engine failure until my father turned to downwind! The Dakota had navigator consoles in the cabin, in which QNIs could train the navigators in the black arts of night radar interception. A Harvard II B was used as a target aircraft. Since the navigators could not see much from the cabin, the training could be done during daytime.
The aircraft used to be flown for air tests or other activity by other pilots, but the only other pilots assigned to fly it were Flt Lt Bassi and Flt Lt Augier.
Bassi, my fathers replacement in the squadron was killed later in a T-6 crash in Tambaram. Augier, later an An-12 pilot, is now retired in Australia. But by that time (late 1961-1962) the Vampire night fighter was pretty obsolete so no new navigators were being trained - the Dakota being used to do continuation training and for transport tasks.
The photograph was taken at Palam in 1960. His squadron commander was then Sqn Ldr Sikand who is the Sikh introducing the AOC Ops Group Air Vice-Marshal Erlich Pinto to a pilot-navigator crew. You can see my father standing below the Dakota, having been inspected a few moments before (I have a picture of him talking to AVM Pinto during the same inspection). The tall gentleman in the back is Group Captain Zafar Shah, Station Commander of Palam Air Force Station. Unfortunately both these outstanding officers were killed in tragic air crashes. Zafar Shah collided with a Gnat while returning from a Republic Day Flypast in a Vampire. The Gnat had been given permission to land at the same time as the Vampires. AVM Pinto was killed in a Mil Mi-4 that hit a cable across a valley in Kashmir. A sad loss for the Air Force - my father is of the opinion that the very character of the Air Force changed with the death of these officers. The officer shaking hands with AVM Pinto is the Flt Lt "Marshal" Dhar. He was the squadron commander of 45 Squadron which launched the very first attack on the armored columns of Pakistani tanks in 1965 - 3 out of the 8 Vampires sent in were shot down by F-86 Sabres. Dhar was later killed in a MiG-21 crash.
Note the snazzy black overalls the air crew are wearing. 10 Squadron thought of themselves as an elite squadron - most pilots and navs thought that a more advanced type would be introduced as a nightfighter (like the Javelin or a two seat nightfighter Hunter). I think of all the postings he had, my father enjoyed this one the most. He got to fly the Vampire quite a bit and literally had his own executive transport - he was given complete freedom (as a Flying Officer, unthinkable today!) to schedule the aircraft as he saw fit.
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http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1950s/10/10-Dakota_Small.jpg
-----
My father was posted in as second pilot (as a Flying Officer) to fly it with 10 Squadron when it came back from the Uk after retrofitting with the AI Mk 10 radar (identical to that of the Vampire NF 34s operated by the squadron) in 1959. Earlier all navs were trained in the UK (some on Beaufighters). Sqn Ldr Mitra was to be the captain - but he got posted out on promotion soon after qualifying my father as captain. Before this dad had been flying Dakota's in the North East (on the border with China) from Barrackpore/Jorhat/Chabua with 11 Squadron. He was one of a group of pilots who had been passed out a year early from the National Defence Academy to start pilot training. He as still a Flight Cadet when he got his captain rating on Dakotas at Transport Training Wing Begumpet (!) - this AFTER the Prentice/Harvard wings stage! His date of commissioning remained the same. No free lunches in the Indian Air Force!
Almost all the Navs to be trained as nightfighter navs were trained by my father - he had no second pilot assigned to him and took along fighter pilots or navigators as co-pilots. He was awarded an AOC-in-Cs commendation for handling an engine failure on take off (on this very aircraft) from Santa Cruz airport Bombay at very low level. The navigator in the co-pilots seat (who was a Wing Commander) never even realized that there was an engine failure until my father turned to downwind! The Dakota had navigator consoles in the cabin, in which QNIs could train the navigators in the black arts of night radar interception. A Harvard II B was used as a target aircraft. Since the navigators could not see much from the cabin, the training could be done during daytime.
The aircraft used to be flown for air tests or other activity by other pilots, but the only other pilots assigned to fly it were Flt Lt Bassi and Flt Lt Augier.
Bassi, my fathers replacement in the squadron was killed later in a T-6 crash in Tambaram. Augier, later an An-12 pilot, is now retired in Australia. But by that time (late 1961-1962) the Vampire night fighter was pretty obsolete so no new navigators were being trained - the Dakota being used to do continuation training and for transport tasks.
The photograph was taken at Palam in 1960. His squadron commander was then Sqn Ldr Sikand who is the Sikh introducing the AOC Ops Group Air Vice-Marshal Erlich Pinto to a pilot-navigator crew. You can see my father standing below the Dakota, having been inspected a few moments before (I have a picture of him talking to AVM Pinto during the same inspection). The tall gentleman in the back is Group Captain Zafar Shah, Station Commander of Palam Air Force Station. Unfortunately both these outstanding officers were killed in tragic air crashes. Zafar Shah collided with a Gnat while returning from a Republic Day Flypast in a Vampire. The Gnat had been given permission to land at the same time as the Vampires. AVM Pinto was killed in a Mil Mi-4 that hit a cable across a valley in Kashmir. A sad loss for the Air Force - my father is of the opinion that the very character of the Air Force changed with the death of these officers. The officer shaking hands with AVM Pinto is the Flt Lt "Marshal" Dhar. He was the squadron commander of 45 Squadron which launched the very first attack on the armored columns of Pakistani tanks in 1965 - 3 out of the 8 Vampires sent in were shot down by F-86 Sabres. Dhar was later killed in a MiG-21 crash.
Note the snazzy black overalls the air crew are wearing. 10 Squadron thought of themselves as an elite squadron - most pilots and navs thought that a more advanced type would be introduced as a nightfighter (like the Javelin or a two seat nightfighter Hunter). I think of all the postings he had, my father enjoyed this one the most. He got to fly the Vampire quite a bit and literally had his own executive transport - he was given complete freedom (as a Flying Officer, unthinkable today!) to schedule the aircraft as he saw fit.