NAGPUR: After prodding from the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, Nagpur Flying Club (NFC) restarted flying activities from Thursday by successfully flying its three of the four aircraft.
The British Era club was closed for the last three-and-a-half years due to the Maharashtra government’s apathy. It was reopened in 2008 again after HC’s directives after being defunct for over 14 years.
On Thursday, three NFC’s refurbished aircraft were towed out of its hangar for flying from the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Airport after a long gap and were successfully test flown. The fourth one would be tested soon.
The team from Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will now inspect the facilities and test all aircraft before granting approval for restarting its full-fledged operations, including training aspirants for Private Pilot License (PPL) and Commercial Private License (CPL).
“Our entire team has worked very hard for restarting flying activities. Since all four were old aircraft, it was hard to make them ready for flying and seek permissions from the DGCA in this regard. Now, after today’s successful flying, we can restart all activities at the prestigious club shortly. We’re waiting for the DGCA panel’s visit,” said an elated divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar, NFC’s ex-officio chairman.
NFC’s maintenance-cum-accountable manager Pragnesh Sisodia said all three aircraft were flown for one hour each and everything was perfect. “We had taken help from Capt Sunil Singh, who’s a freelance pilot, as we’re yet to get DGCA’s approval for flying by our pilots, including the newly appointed deputy chief flying instructor (CFI) Capt Azil. Singh checked all instruments of three aircraft on whether they’re properly working. Now, DGCA team would check their air-worthiness, along with NFC’s documentation,” he told TOI.
On January 30, Kumar filed a detailed affidavit in HC informing about efforts being made to resume training from May 8. It was filed in response to a PIL (No13/2016) originally filed by Flt Lt Shridhar Ghatate through counsel Shriniwas Deshpande and now pursued by his wife Sumedha after the club stopped operating.
The commissioner clarified that NFC would be needing approvals from the DGCA offices in Mumbai and Delhi, Aero-Club of India, Wireless and Telecommunication (Wireless Planning and Coordination) Authority in New Delhi and Mumbai, and Airport Authority of India (AAI) here for restarting its operations.