PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU (DEFENCE WING)

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Decade and Two lakh hours Pilatus PC-7MkII Aircraft

Secunderabad, 20 Feb 2023

Pilatus PC-7MkII is the basic trainer aircraft in which all aspiring pilots of the Indian Armed Forces are trained. Since it’s induction in the Indian Air Force over a decade ago in Feb 2013, the fleet comprising of 75 aircraft and presently operating from Air Force Academy, Dundigal, Hyderabad as well as Flying Instructors’ School, Tambaram, Chennai have clocked a major milestone of two lakh accident-free flying hours on 20 Feb 2023. The fleet has facilitated a transformative evolution of training flying from the erstwhile HPT-32 aircraft. The accident-free record of the fleet since its inception is a noteworthy testimony of the professionalism and dedication of the operational and maintenance crew.

Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar, AVSM, Commandant, Air Force Academy and Group Captain Atul Anand, Chief Flying Instructor (CFI), flew the two lakh hour sortie on 20 Feb 2023 at Air Force Academy. The milestone event was attended by Deputy Commandant - Air Vice Marshal DS Joshi, Chief Instructor (Flying) - Air Commodore Anish Aggarwal, VSM, Chief Engineering Officer – Group Captain D Santusht and senior maintenance crew of the Academy. The Commandant acknowledged the role of past Commandants, aircrew, maintenance engineers, technicians and administrative personnel, without whose contribution, this feat could not have been achieved. The Air Force Academy has the largest flying task as compared to any other Station in the IAF and a total of about 25,000 hrs are flown at Air Force Academy every year.

The PC-7MkII fleet has set a new benchmark in training flying and the platform has to-date trained more than 2500 cadets, many of whom are themselves Qualified Flying Instructors today. The fleet has also trained pilots of the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard, apart from trainee cadets from friendly foreign countries.

The PC-7MkII fleet continues to be the bedrock of the IAF’s mission of producing the best Military Aviators in the world.

KBT/BSK/AFA/20022023