27 officers get Army ‘aviation wings’ from CATS          

Twenty seven officers of the 28th batch of combat aviation corpse graduated from the Combat Army Aviation Training School (CATS) here on Saturday.

The aviators were given the coveted ‘aviation wings’ on the successful completion of their 18-week training programme. They are now certified to be army aviation pilots.

During the course, they were put through rigorous training and were tested progressively in flying and aviation subjects, a CATS release said.

Those officers, who were outstanding in various disciplines, were awarded medals. Captain Gagandeep Singh, who stood first in overall order of merit, was awarded The ‘Silver Cheetah’ trophy, the release added.

The passing out parade ceremony was attended by senior army officials, members of the family of the passing out aviators. The student officers were presented the aviation wings by Commandant of CATS, Brig Vinod Kumar Bahree, who presided over the function.

The ceremony was marked by an integrated training exercise by the mainstay aircraft of army aviation. The spectacular exercise displayed by the aviators was the high point of the event.

CATS, located at Gandhinagar airfield, 3 kilometres from Nashik is a premier training institution of the army aviation corpse, is the only institute that provides combat orient training to helicopter pilots, the release said.

Established on September 1, 2003, this institute conducts approximately 10 courses every year.