They can..as they think they can...fly !!!

05 July 2007.

One of the first lessons of life… I learnt, was to not to fear, fear.
Overcoming fear is an accomplishment.
It comes with constant training and application.
Practice plays a very important role here…so does close supervision, by the experts.
The best way is to do what you fear and are not wanting to do so, due fear of doing that.
Try it.
Get trained first… by persevering with it.
Be mentored by the best…nothing less.
Then…see for yourself… how you feel?


In fighter, flying the fear of death was/is always lingering, so we learnt to embrace that fear.
Once the engine would start, that fear would disappear.
Your own skills, confidence got you into the commanding position required and fear of death dissapeared, like low clouds disappear, with wind.
As the wheels start to role, its you, your machine and your God,out there.

In addition, with God as co pilot, fear would never linger close.
The sequence of events once you role, are so integral, that you get very engrossed and there is no time for any external thinking.
One action leads to another.
One procedure to another…till you land and switch off!

So there you are…you use your skills…hone them by repetitive rendition…to perfection.
That builds up confidence.
Confidence is the stepping-stone to competency.
Competency and peer pressure keep you going.
As you want to be nothing short of the best, too.
If he could do a task and reach a particular level, so can you.
So you push yourself…your conscience does that too.

The day begins very early…as a matter of fact it begins just before you go to sleep.
The previous night.
You go over the next day’s routine, do a mental mapping, as you get to sleep.
Eight hours of sleep is a mandatory requirement so you are disciplined and go to sleep accordingly.
You turn in as early as 7 pm (IST).
You get up with a kind of a bounce in your feet as there is a new, fresh challenge waiting out there.

Like the olden days…when a Neanderthal man would get up with the larks, to go and hunt, at sunrise!
He had to.
He had no refrigerators. No well stocked food malls.
All charged up.
Weapons sharpened. Tensions taught. Hunger within.

Most of the days, we, as fighter pilots feel that way, excessively.
As we get ready very early in the morning.
As every moment is a challenge and… so different, from the past ones.
The meteorological briefing and the pre medical check up are invariably timed and held one to two hours before take off.
Take off is planned as a default, at the same time as about the sun rise time.
Just like the birds, our machines and we, love to fly early in the morning.
Why Not?
The early bird gets the worm doesn’t it?
That is why.
Especially low flying.
Low flying at speeds as high as 800 km per hour just above the treetops is an awesome experience.
I was very lucky I was posted to the J n K valley.
Here, we did not have the menace of bird hits, as the valley was scarcely populated unlike the main land.
Most of ‘first details’ would be ‘low-level tactical flying’ or ‘low strikes’.

Low flying is always done in pairs.
Initially, as a junior fighter pilot, you tag along as a wingman.
Until you get used to the feel of the ground rushing past…then you get to lead too.
Low flying is done between sunrise to 09 am and between 4 pm to dusk in the evening.
These periods are termed “ green periods”
As… the birds prefer to ground themselves during these periods.
The sky is relatively safe for manned flying.

Low flying happens… like that…you do not know how time flies as 80 % of the time you are looking outside.
Enjoying.
Very thrilling experience.
Very dangerous too.
One wrong move and in a macro second you have dug up a huge crater, as a grave, for you.
No time to eject, too.

Words cannot express that thrill and a reader cannot experience it...if he is/has not himself been a fighter pilot.

Why fly low?
As technology developed anti aircraft weapons, it was easy to ‘ not paint ’ the enemies radar with your blip, by flying beneath the radar transmission heights.
Radars can point skywards and transmit in any direction at any level.
Nevertheless, laterally speaking, as radar transmission antenna are also displaced from the ground level up,at a certain height, they cannot transmit below a certain level.
In addition, the transmission is subjected to ground clutter, absorption, etc.

This shortcoming is obviously a safe haven for fighter pilots.
Hence, we practice low flying and all strikes happen at very low levels.
At tree top heights.

The ingress mode, just short of delivery of weapons, we go even lower… as the airfield approaches, the chances of obstructions get reduced too.

So there we are, deck skimming…. across the runway.
Like sharks.
Wings level.
Zuuuuupppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp.
Whooooooooooooossssssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh….the people on the ground can invariably hear the swirling wing tip vortices,after we fly past.

Fear …is nowhere near.
Adrenalin is pumping extra potent.
Sweat trickling from the fore head.
Full of concentration.
Eyes alert. Ears too…for… warning signals…from the aircraft…from the controllers, for birds, for the enemy aircraft etc.

Silence.
Invariably we have radio silence too.
As radio, transmission would be a big give away. The stealth advantage would be lost.
Within a few seconds, the raid would be done with…in case the radar gets a lock on.
Else…
We would get away…regroup, come back and land, or repeat the exercise time and fuel permitting.
Provided it was also covered in the pre flight briefing.


I must have done this exercise 100’s of times but every time we would get an opportunity to repeat this exercise, … we would go for it.
Complain vehemently, if you were dropped for a no good reason.
Without a trace of fear.
Why?

Can you please tell me?
Now that you have read this, write up.

Let me give you a hint though.
“There are old pilots, there are bold pilots, but there are No, if not few, old and bold pilots.’’


Axee
Alias
Arun Pilot