And the sky became the limit for Indians

Soaring through the skies is the stuff dreams are made of. And the Bombay Flying Club (BFC) is fulfilling that dream of hundreds of aspiring pilots. With the goal of acquiring a private pilot licence (PPL), every weekend, a number of students take classroom lessons at the oldest flying club in India.
Established 85 years ago, BFC is the birthplace of aviation in the country. It came into existence on May 9, 1928, at Juhu, where a piece of muddy land served as the aerodrome.
The club received the first two De Havilland Moth aircraft — Puss Moth and Leopard Moth, presented by the Government of India — in 1929. BFC won the third aircraft, an ADH Moth, as a prize offered by Sir Charles Wakefield, the mayor of London.
J.R.D. Tata, who on October 15, 1932, flew the pioneering airmail flight aircraft, the Puss Moth, from the Drigh Road airport in Karachi (now in Pakistan) to Bombay (now Mumbai), became the first pilot to acquire a licence from BFC.
Chief instructor and principal of BFC, Flying Officer Chandra Kumar says, “Tata took to flying on being inspired by aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot of France. He obtained the first pilot licence issued in India on February 10, 1929. And in 1932, he founded Tata Airlines, the country’s first domestic commercial airline, which, in 1946, became India’s first international airline Air India. Though Tata went on to become an industrialist, his fondness for BFC and his passion for flying remained intact.”
BFC, which is now affiliated to the 155-year-old Mumbai University, in 1930, became the only club in the world to conduct the cross-country international flight from Bombay to London and back, with four Tiger Moth aircraft participating in it.
06/12/13 Nilima Pathak/Gulf News