Flying clubs on skid row

Of the 22 state flying clubs in the country today, 11 are virtually defunct and the rest are slowly getting there. And the reasons vary: Post 9/11 security fears, years of mismanagement and neglect and the increase in air traffic have all contributed to the steady decline of most of these clubs.
At the Delhi Flying Club, pilot training had to be suspended because of security concerns: The planes’ route goes over the PM’s residence. The Guwahati Flying Club has not been operational since the 1980s for want of a chief flying instructor (CFI) while the Nagpur Flying Club shut down after its CFI retired in the late 1980s.The Bombay Flying Club has other problems: The runway gets flooded during the monsoons. The increase in air traffic from neighbouring Santa Cruz airport in the last two years has brought pilot training at the club to a grinding halt.
Meanwhile, the aspirants have no option but to wait. The Bombay Club has a waiting list of 30 candidates — it takes five in every batch — who cannot be accommodated because of lack of infrastructure. It has only two airworthy planes, which will increase to four by year-end, and has no chief flying instructor.
However, the growing demand for trained pilots has finally spurred the Aero Club of India, the apex body of all flying clubs, into action. “The club has procured 12 Cessna aircrafts, which will be distributed among the 11 operational flying clubs in the country,” says R C Kanda, secretary of the ACI.
But there are no plans yet to make the nonfunctional ones operational.
Meanwhile, it’s party time for private schools, which have come up to fill the gap left by flying clubs. Even their high costs are not a deterrent for wannabe pilots. “ …students don’t mind paying because they can get a commercial pilot’s licence in almost half the time,” says Ragini, whose son is undergoing training at a private flying school.
14/10/07 Amrita Singh/Times of India