BANGALORE: Four decades after being involved in building and flying one of India’s first indigenously developed aircrafts, Marut (HF-24), the ex-officers gathered on Friday to celebrate the 50th year of the first flight of the aircraft.Several speakers, who had been an integral part of Marut, shared their experiences, with no passion or details lost. Wing Commander (Retd) Moreshwar Waman Tilak, with more than 750 hours of flying Marut, came from Australia for the event.He shared some of his memories during his stint as the test pilot. Reminiscing one of the incidents, Chu Chu Thilak, as he is fondly known, said he was at a height of 20,000 feet for an armament testing and when he fired the gun, he heard a bang but did not know what was wrong.“There was loss of pressurisation in the cockpit but I was used to it. When I was heading back, I could actually poke my finger out of the cockpit,” he said and added that the canopy was gone. He said that the same thing happened later that year, where the canopy flew off upon firing of the gun. “Later, upon investigation, it was found that the external jettison switch was directly in the line of fire, and the ammunition could have triggered the canopy to fly out,” he said.He said when he returned to Jamnagar for more testing later that year, the station commander joked if he was back for more “canopy testing trials”.On the occasion, Air Force officers’ wives were seen mingling with their old acquaintances.The stories resonated across the venue, with young officers requesting for “one more story”.
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