Time to take flight! Jakkur gets double engine plane

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Jakkur flying training school which has been closed for the past four years because of staffing and infrastructure reasons, could soon get a new lease of life with with the test flight of a double engine being successfully conducted at its premises on Wednesday. This was disclosed by Minister for Sericulture, Youth Empowerment and Sports, C. Narayanagowda.

The minister has been trying to revive the flying school with the intention of imparting pilot training to hundreds of youth. After several rounds of discussion, the repair of the runaway has been completed.

The testing of the double engine was done by Captain Kamal Kishore, chief instructor, Jakkur Flying School and Captain Ejilrasan, Deputy Chief Instructor, Nagpur Aviation.

As per Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rules, a person who wishes to obtain a commercial pilot license from the Government Flying Training School must have completed 200 hours of flying of which 185 hours must be in a single engine and 15 hours in a twin engine plane. Hitherto, due to the absence of twin engine flights, the candidates at Jakkur School had been getting 185 hours of training in single engine planes and had gone to other states for 15 hours training in the double engine planes. This had led to a lot of burden on Karnataka candidates.

Realising this, the government purchased a double engine plane at a cost of Rs 5 crore exclusively for training purposes. Now candidates need not go to other states for training in double engine planes.

The minister said the Jakkur School has five single engine planes and now a double engine plane has been added. With the testing of the twin engine plane, preparations for the inauguration of the flying school would get into full gear after obtaining flying Training Organisation Approval from DGCA.