Indian dgca record breaking performance
 

Indian DGCA took a month to issue my ATPL in the year 1982 after many visits for following the process. So, it was astonishing to find that my son's ATPL was issued by the same DGCA within a week without my son making a single visit to them. May God bless all the DGCA staff in general & the ATPL Issue section in particular for their dedicated & efficient service at long last.

Unfortunately, there is the other side of the coin too. The airline employing my son in India has failed to collect the ATPL from DGCA's office even after 50 days have elapsed since it was issued. It is mention worthy here that DGCA does not permit airline pilots to collect their licenses individually. It has to be collected by the airline rep (normally an operation department executive assigned the job). As a contrast, during our flying days, in the year 1982, upgraded pilots licenses were normally collected on the day of the issue itself. So that command training etc may be planned appropriately. Thank God that there were no private airlines then, who might have been interested in delaying the command training for monetary reasons or the enhanced allowances on the upgraded licenses.

Reminds me of one of our aircraft becoming unserviceable at a joint IAF/civil airport which we visited regularly.
Our aircraft could be fixed by fitting a blanking plate to a hydraulic line but it had to be manufactured locally.
The Base Commander had aircraft spares awaiting shipment from the UK which he knew would be delayed by customs procedures at a well known Western Indian airport.
The serendipity of the situation was not lost on either the IAF Base Commander or our Captain and both problems were resolved :ok: