Amritsar aviation club gets new lease of life with Cessna 172R

Punjab’s oldest aviation club established in 1962 in Amritsar has got a fresh lease of life with securing ultra-modern four-seater Cessna 172R aircraft.
For the past one and half year practical flying sessions were not taking place in the absence of aircraft. Around half a dozen old aircrafts have been lying dysfunctional from the past several years. As the new aircraft has arrived, the flying club is aiming at inducting 20 students more by October. Aero Club of India had given two Cessna 172R aircrafts of worth Rs 2 crore to the Civil aviation department of Punjab and one has been kept at Patiala flying club while other one has gone to Amritsar club.
Talking to FE, chief flying instructor of Amritsar Aviation Club, Rachhpal Singh said, “Currently 13 students are registered with the club but these were getting ground coaching only under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved chief ground instructor. We have got the aircraft for free to conduct flying training for issuance of pilot licence.
This Cessna 172R is a modern aircraft having all gadets such as glass cockpit with ILS (instrument landing system), VOR (very high frequency omni range), NDB (non directional beacon) and Garmin GPS…”.
The club is also mulling over to increase the fee and to get flying lessons students will have to shell to out Rs 7,000-8,000 per hour. To get the commercial pilot license the students required to get flying training for 200 hours.
24/07/08 Swarleen Kaur/Financial Express