Flight simulator institute to take-off

Pune: On the eve of the formal launch of the state-of-the-art flight simulator at the Jeet Aerospace Foundation (JAF), Wing Commander (retd) Anil Gadgil and his wife Kavita have lamented lack of civic infrastructure, including rampant power failures, as reasons for worry.
Six years after their son Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil lost his life in a MiG crash at Suratgarh in Rajasthan, Anil and Kavita Gadgil’s long struggle to set up a simulator training school will see the light of the day with the formal launch of the JAF on November 3.
Union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel is scheduled to fly in to Pune to inaugurate the Rs 60 lakh twin-jet, generic, two-pilot cockpit flight simulator, which will mark the first phase of the JAF.
The simulator is fitted with a three-circuit 10 KV battery and independent power-control units. “However, most of the time due to low voltage only one circuit is running. Not a single day passes without at least one instance of complete power breakdown,” said Anil Gadgil, a trained pilot himself with decades of experience in both the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the national carrier Air India.
The Gadgils are apprehensive that once classes for the simulation flights begin, the institute will have to use their LMX generator .
Admissions for the flight simulation course will start from November 7, and Classes will commence from December 30.
03/11/07 Times of India