Staff crunch grounds Rajasthan State Flying Club

Jaipur: The US-made aircraft model C-172, equipped with latest technology for trainee pilots, is gathering dust at the Rajasthan State Flying Club since it landed in early April last year. The club, once a place bustling with a range of activities like landing and take-off of aircraft by upcoming pilots and engineers and long queues of hobby fliers, has now become defunct in the absence of qualified staff.
The state’s only flying club is facing a near-closure situation. Since August, the club has become “non-operational” putting the future of 25 students in a fix.
Sunit Swami, 21, a student of the flying club said, “I was scheduled to receive my Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) this year with 200 hours of flying experience. Now I am very uncertain as I have completed just three hours of flying in a year.”
Like, Swami there are 24 other students who are disheartened due to the state government’s apathy towards the flying club. Pawan Arora, secretary, flying club said, “The club is non-operational due to unavailability of an aeronautical engineer. The engineer’s approval is mandatory for flying under aviation norms.”
The club, once a most-preferred training ground for pilots and engineers from across the country, is desperately fighting for its survival,” he added. The flying club had issued CPL to more then 200 pilots since 1991.
“The condition of the flying club began to deteriorate with the inception of private flying academies in India. Most of the instructors and engineers have been taken by these private players,” said a former aeronautical engineer.
The club administration is worried that if the situation continues to remain the same then soon the parent body of flying club, Aero Club of India, would transfer the logistics to another flying club.
13/01/09 Shoeb Khan/Times of India