Established on March 10, 1947, the Nagpur Flying Club (NFC) has churned out several pilots, some served the Indian Air Force, while the others flew commercial planes in India as well as abroad. Due to government apathy, the British-era club is now lying defunct. The prestigious club, started by the city’s flying enthusiasts, was operating smoothly for over four decades until the government took charge in 1990. Four years down the line, the NFC was shut in 1994, escalating cost of aviation turbo fuel and staff shortage were cited as the reasons. Since 2003, Shriniwas Deshpande, who practices in the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court, is fighting for the club’s revival with the help of the other alumni and that too without charging a penny. The HC had even asked the government to grant Rs1 lakh to Deshpande towards cost of litigation for single-handedly pursuing the case. In a freewheeling interview, Deshpande, himself an alumnus, tells TOI that revival of the NFC will help many aspirants from the region to realize their dreams of flying, either with a private pilot licence (PPL) or a commercial pilot licence (CPL).
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Q. How did this British era club take-off?
A. The NFC was started in 1947 after a person named Eduljee, an elite of the city, who gifted an aircraft to his wife Peroja. He travelled all over northern India without proper navigation facilities. The Eduljees made many memorable trips with this World War-II aircraft. Eduljee, an automobile distributor, had varied interests, right from boxing to mountaineering to flying. He had purchased this German make Luscombe Silvaere-8F aircraft for Rs25,000 in 1945 from the British government which sold many such planes after the end of World War-II. This two-seater plane had a maximum speed of 145 kms and the Eduljees even flew all the way to Shimla. The NFC started out as a limited company and was run privately by a managing committee during the British era. After independence, the government started providing free of cost training to National Cadet Corps (NCC) air wing cadets and reserve category students. The club’s full-fledged operations started around 1960 and even IAF pilots used to undertake training during the emergency period and the Sino-India conflict. Its decline started when the government appointed an advisory committee comprising representatives from the aviation sector, private partners and NFC members. Till its closure, it was one of the cheapest clubs offering CPL and PPL to aspirants in the entire country.
Q. How are you associated with the NFC?
A. In those days, with the NCC ‘C’ certificate, we used to get free flying lessons at NFC. I was among the privileged lot who got a rare chance to fly the aircraft which was a dream come true. After this, we used to get direct recruitment in the Indian Air Force. In the 1970s, we flew aircraft like the Pushpak which was one of its kind in the Vidarbha region. The NFC’s unfortunate closure due to absolute apathy pained all of us (the alumni). During our time, many, who were chosen to serve the country, reached the air commodore level. Many of us even tried the Suryakiran and other planes. Till date, many NFC veterans are still flying commercial planes and all of them admit that Nagpur is a gold mine for producing pilots.
Q. Why did you approach the judiciary?
A. For a common man, fighting the system is very difficult. Judiciary is the only hope and therefore, we decided to file a PIL in HC in 2003. When other similar clubs, like the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club and Telangana Flying Academy can function, then why not the NFC? It would have survived if the government had sincere and serious intentions. Initially, our PIL was regarding privatization of the club as everyone is aware of the bureaucracy and red-tapism in any government set up. At that time, the NFC had received many proposals from almost all flying academies of the country, including the MP Flying Club, for a takeover. However, all the plans fizzled out. The late wing commander Shridhar Ghatate, who was on the NFC advisory board along with his wife Sumedha (secretary), fully supported me in my fight. Our efforts briefly bore fruit as the NFC was restarted after a long hiatus of 14 years in 2008. Many students benefited. However, it was once again closed in 2017 due to neglect of the government.
Q. The club was restarted in 2008 and ran smoothly for nine years.
A. In 2006-07, the then divisional commissioner Anand Limaye had evinced interest in reviving the club. He helped us by arranging a meeting with former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. It was a privilege to meet the dynamic CM, who instantly agreed to restart the club in just 15 minutes. He assured us that funds would be made available as and when required. He kept his promise and released Rs3 crore that helped in restarting NFC. Without Deshmukh and Limaye, the club could never have seen the light of day. A man from Latur instantly realized NFC’s importance while those from Vidarbha never made efforts to revive it despite being at the helm of affairs for five years.
Q. Do you see any chances of NFC’s revival in the near future?
A. The judiciary is the only hope as the current dispensation is not keen on reviving NFC. Though they recently informed the HC that all the formalities would be completed and operations would resume from May 8, it’s highly unlikely that they would fulfil their promises made in the affidavit. In the past too, they came up with similar assurances, but the outcome was nothing concrete. Ultimately, aspirants from this backward region are the real losers. The club has the capacity to train about 50 students in one batch. In three years, hundreds of aspirants could have got PPL or CPL and become pilots. When NFC was operational, airstrips of Amravati, Chandrapur and Yavatmal were used for training. As a result, youngsters from those cities too got attracted to flying and joined the club. Flying is no more an elitist activity. Nowadays, students from middle class families are taking it up as a career. Hence, the NFC should act as an educational institution with a full-time director, who can directly report to the principal secretary of the general administration department (GAD).
Q. What was the reason for its closure in 2017?
A. When Capt Shiv Jaiswal was appointed as the chief flying instructor (CFI), the club was running smoothly and he was very popular. Former divisional commissioner Anoop Kumar had made efforts for additional multi-engine aircraft and the flying stimulator from the Aero Club of India. However, Jaiswal received a good offer from a private airlines and left the job. Since then, the government didn’t appoint a CFI which led to NFC’s closure. When the post of the CFI was re-advertised, Jaiswal wanted to come back to his hometown to be with his family and was reappointed by the government’s high power committee (HPC) on September 27, 2018. However, the current administration didn’t give him an appointment letter citing some excuse or the other for over three years. Fed up with their attitude, Jaiswal finally decided to take up another job.
He’s now flying the MP CM’s aircraft. It’s a big loss to NFC as he’s currently one of the best CFIs in the industry. I’ve now filed a contempt plea against the government in this regard.