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This was the start of a highly educative and
joyful day-plus stay at IGRUA, which, as it turned
out, could rightfully merit the sobriquet of being
called the ‘Crown Jewel’ of civil aviation
training in India.
Background
To redux, in April 1983, a high level committee
under the aegis of the then Ministry of Tourism
and Civil Aviation was constituted to examine
how to bridge the yawning gap between what was
required and what was available in pilot and allied
training in the civil aviation arena. The committee,
after due deliberations recommended setting up
of a civil aviation academy which would cater
to not just flying but all other industry requirements
pertaining to pilots (for fixed and rotary wings),
aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs), aircraft
radio maintenance engineers, and so on. As usual,
bureaucratic lethargy and financial crunch ensured
the recommendations remained in cold storage till
1985 when the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi,
himself an airline pilot with considerable experience,
transformed this need into reality.
Named after his mother Indira Gandhi –
the previous Prime Minister of India, assassinated
in 1984 – IGRUA came into being in September
1986 at Fursat Ganj near Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh)
to bring about a quantum improvement in the standards
of flying and ground training of commercial pilots
in the country.
Since March 1, 2008, IGRUA is being managed
by CAE, Canada to scale up the standards further,
at par with international norms in pursuance to
the management contract between the Ministry of
Civil Aviation (MoCA) and CAE. Immediately after
taking over the management responsibilities CAE
started to scout for a new Director to take over
the reins of the Academy. Air Marshal (Retd) VK
Verma, an ex-Commandant of the Air Force Academy
at Dundigal, near Hyderabad, who had just retired
from the IAF as the Director General (Flight Safety
& Inspection), was chosen in 2009 to lead
IGRUA into a new and better avatar to achieve
the following objectives set by the institution:-
- Ab-initio to CPL Course on fixed wing aircraft
- Three years Graduation programme leading
to award of B.Sc. (Aviation) degree through
Chhattrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur.
- Multi-crew Co-operation Course in a twin-engine,
DA-42 aircraft.
- Multi-engine Endorsement Course.
- Instrument Rating Course.
- Refresher Course for Certified Flying Instructors
and Pilot instructors of Flying Training Institutes.
- Courses for Assistant Flying Instructor Rating
(A) and Flight Instructor Rating (A)
- Skill tests for renewal of Licence for ex-students
of IGRUA on as required basis.
- To provide Simulator training and checks
and other facilities to outside aviation agencies
to assist them in their Pilot Selection programmes.
- To provide practical training on aircraft
to Diploma Holders in Aeronautical Engineering.
It goes to the credit of Air Marshal Verma,
also known as ‘Charly’ to his friends
and colleagues in the IAF that in an unbroken
stint of close to five years since 2009, using
his abundant experience accumulated in the IAF;
he has metamorphosed IGRUA – by not only
optimally using its existing facilities, but,
also, by continuous improvement in all areas of
infrastructure and flying operations. The result:
A world-class flying institution, unmatched by
any other in India’s civil aviation sector.
Present Status
Today, IGRUA boasts of a sizable fleet of 24
aircraft comprising 13 Diamond DA-40, 2 Diamond
DA-42, 4 Zlin 242-L and 5 Socata TB-20 aircraft.
It has a totally independent and dedicated runway
of 6,200 ft length with own airfield, ATC, fire
fighting facilities and a full-fledged refueling
station. The Academy has two sites: a technical-cum-operational
area (199 acres) and a domestic-cum-admin campus
sprawled on 40 acres of land. The airfield is
equipped with modern navigational aids such as
VOR DME and ILS, etc. There are three fully covered
hangars for the aircraft with up-to-date workshops
to facilitate maintenance activities.
The Academy has two most modern Diamond DA-40
and one Diamond DA-42 simulators, apart from two
Socata TB-20 ‘Cockpit Procedure Trainers’,
acquired earlier. For ground training, there are
well equipped air-conditioned class rooms with
all electronic training aids. There are two libraries,
one in the Institutional Block and the other at
the Flight Operations, equipped with up-to-date
aviation publications.
In the recent years, the Academy has made remarkable
expansion of its existing infrastructure, viz.
doubling the capacity of hostel accommodation
from 72 fully furnished rooms to 144 including
a 20-room girls’ hostel. In addition, renovation/repair
work to all existing buildings and roads has been
done on a large scale to make the Institutional
area look like a well laid out Indian Air Force
(IAF) campus. In the airport side, runway and
taxi-track recarpeting, installation of new runway
lights, renovation of the old hangars plus building
a brand new third hangar, expansion of apron,
installation of high mast lighting have been carried
out. The runway, apart from the nav/approach aids
already mentioned also sports a PAPI (Precision
Approach Path Indicator), being the hallmark of
a flying training institution that matches contemporary
international standards.
What Makes IGRUA Different
 The
sheer scale of facilities at IGRUA differentiates
it from other flying schools/clubs. Verma has
tried and succeeded in bringing about true professionalism
in the conduct of training – be it on the
ground or in the air – to go much beyond
what is specified by DGCA. How does IGRUA achieve
it?
To begin with, IGRUA conducts a national entrance
examination at five major Indian cities every
year. This examination has three steps –
a written exam, an interview and a go/no go pilot
aptitude test. While the first two are self-explanatory,
the pilot aptitude test also ensures that only
those who are endowed with the bodily motor-skills
necessary for piloting an aircraft are enrolled
into its campus.
As far as flying staff is concerned, IGRUA has
a large number of flying instructors on its rolls
with a mix of ex-IAF and civil instructors. For
ground training too, IGRUA has adequate strength
of ground instructors who take the students up
to ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot Licence) levels.
In other words, IGRUA has the requisite infrastructure
and expertise to conduct all the training required
to make a truly professional pilot. Not only that,
IGRUA even has the capability to train the trainers
– akin to FIS (Flying Instructors’ School)
of the IAF. It always has a few instructors on
its rolls, who have done their training in IGRUA
and then joined it to become instructors, which
entails further training before certifying them
to be instructors. Interestingly, one of them
– a young lady – took me through the
paces in both DA-40 as well as DA- 42 simulators
before my getting into the cockpits of the real
aircraft later.
At IGRUA, there is no incentive for anybody to
compromise on quality and quantum of training
– both aspects meticulously monitored by the Directing
Staff – who ensure that short cuts and complacency
do not creep in at any level; on the ground as
well as in the air. As Verma puts it, “At our
ground school, conscious efforts are made to discourage
students from trying to learn by rote. The emphasis
is on gaining knowledge. The subjects are dealt
with in great depth so that the students understand
the subjects and think for themselves, rather
than to be able to give answers from their memory.
It is because of the depth of knowledge our students
are able to clear the ATPL exams as soon as they
become eligible”. He goes on, “But ground subjects
are just to lay the foundation for further learning
which is by flying and learning from every hour
of flying done”.
After every stage of flying, a student has to
undergo an in-house test. If he clears the test
only then he is taken to the next stage, otherwise
he has to wait till the time his weak areas are
addressed. If one enters the office of a flying
instructor, one might find him staring intently
at the computer screen in front of him, giving
the impression that he could be watching a video,
but a close look would reveal that he is actually
watching the landing of his pupil live. I commented
on this to the Director in his office where he
laughingly told me he watched my first landing,
coming in from Lucknow equally keenly and gave
me a ‘Thumbs Up’. He explained that he had had
cameras installed near the runway and the video
is streamed live on LAN. All, who can access the
IGRUA LAN, can watch it. Therefore, during the
debrief after a sortie, the pupil can see his/her
own landing frame by frame without any confusion.
Can there be any better or more transparent way
of learning?
But, while monitoring of landings through cameras
and circuit flying visually is fine, what about
the sorties being flown in the sectors or x-country
flights? With a robust flight safety programme
in place, I was shown how this problem has been
overcome. IGRUA innovated here too and made provisions
in the aircraft such that the whole profile of
the sortie flown is recorded and can be reviewed.
As a standard operating procedure (SOP), the entire
profile of a solo sortie is checked viz height,
attitude, position of the aircraft and all other
relevant aircraft parameters. This not only ensures
that even solo sorties are fully supervised but
also discourages any errant pupil from indulging
in mistakenly adventurous but unauthorised flying.
In other words, while it reinforces learning and
teaches the trainees not only what is required
to be done but, more importantly, what ought not
to be done.
At the end of 200 hours of productive flying,
IGRUA does not sit back by handing over just a
CPL (Commercial Pilot Licence) to the trainees.
Each trainee also goes through a MCC (Multi- Crew
Conversion) under the guidance of an ex-airline
pilot to learn all about ‘Crew Resource Management’
(CRM). And what the airlines expect from him.
I was indeed privileged to not only see the
action in IGRUA from the fringes alone but to
experience it ‘hands on’. In the afternoon of
my arrival on March 2, I flew a dual sortie in
a Zlin 242-L aircraft and after doing some general
handling in the sector, came back to shoot a few
‘Touch and Goes’ before the final landing. Next
morning, after a productive hour in the simulator,
I was once again given an opportunity to fly the
twin- engine Diamond DA-42 to get the feel of
the multi-engine cockpit and experience its flying
characteristics. Both models of Diamond aircraft
at IGRUA are supplied by PCI Group in India through
their tie-up with the Canadian manufacturer. My
log book entry says it all!
Future Plans
So what are the future plans for IGRUA? In the
current 5-year Plan Period, MoCA has planned to
establish an ‘Air University’ at Fursat Ganj –
only one of its kind in India. During a tour of
the two sites, the Director showed me the construction
work that has already commenced. The VOR DME site
was also in the process of being shifted to make
room for the Administration Building of the proposed
University. In the meantime, the work of additional
land acquisition for the University is also being
progressed. MoCA also has plans to establish MRO
and Cargo hubs at Fursat Ganj, besides reintroduction
of CHPL (Commercial Helicopter Pilot Licence)
courses in IGRUA.
What about the financial aspects of running such
an establishment, which calls for heavy investment
in infrastructure and training aids? IGRUA gets
an annual grant/subsidy from MoCA to complement
what it earns as training fees from the enrolled
students to meet its overall financial needs.
“Self-reliance in financial terms is contingent
on the volume of output”, explains Verma. According
to him enhancement of Pilot Trainee intake from
100 to 200 per year is on the anvil, while establishment
of an AME School is also on the cards.
But, the trainee intake can only increase if
the present policy quagmire with regard to the
civil aviation in India is sorted out in its entirety
– Airlines, General aviation, MRO, tax regimes,
et al. It is hoped the new government at the Centre
will take necessary steps to pull out the sector
from the deep abyss of losses and debts it has
sunk into, and make it realise its true potential
in the coming decades. Simultaneously, it would
need to look at the HRD aspects to ensure availability
of adequate quality manpower that the civil aviation
sector will need after the policy reforms have
been put in place to spur the inevitable growth
in the civil aviation sector. Even though another
flying training facility had been set up at Gondia
in Maharashtra by the previous government, it
may become necessary to open two more civil flying
academies to cater to the eastern and southern
zones of the country in tune with the rising demands.
IGRUA on its part – while remaining the ‘Crown
Jewel’ of civil aviation training in India – could
play the role of a ‘Torch Bearer’ for the new
facilities.
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