Its been 2 months since my last flight. I swear had i not had this blog on I would have killed myself. To those who don’t know what it feels like to push that throttle and pull that stick I am telling you its soo god damn addictive. There is not a day that goes by that I dont think about it.

I took out my log book after soo many days just to look at it for old times sake and the best part is I can remember each flight almost completely just by looking at 1 line. There have been some really great memories and some not so good ones but thats flying. Truth be told its the bad flights that made me the pilot that I am today. Yes I should have been ashes in that hot Arizona desert if it werent for the training I had got. Its not how I recovered that I remember but how stupid I was to have been in that position.

There is a saying “when you are up in the air, you are dead until you do something.” Well you will be dead if you do something stupid don’t mistake that. I don’t know why I am soo synical cause there were a hundred of us and no deaths though there were 3 prop strikes when I was around. Thats not soo serious its just that the nose came down really hard and struck the prop. Luckily no one got hurt and everyone who had it turned out to be very responsible pilots. No I am not saying that you go strike the prop. Its just that pilots do make mistakes and can only take hard lessons from them. The more you fly the more scars you get I guess and the wiser you become.

Anyways each time I see anyone who flies whether or not I know them or not, I always do a silent prayer. I am sure I am not the only one but each time a pilot goes out he is risking his life and the lives of lots more people if he is not careful. So if you know its just not your day please don’t fly no matter what happens. I remember even cancelling a checkride once because I knew the time wasn’t right. Its not that I am superstitious but there is a time where you develope a sixth sense for these things.

I never believed in this bullshit before but gradually as I flew I kinda knew the bad flights before it happened and I would fly anyways. Not such a great experience trust me. I regret each of those flights. All and all there were 4 such flights which I can never forget cause I should have been dead on all those 4 flights. The worst one being the one in Sin City. I was on final with 30kts of cross wind experience a sudden drop in airspeed and immediately put full power and almost no lift. Luckily nothing was around except the runway but I came in very fast and banked about 15 degrees. Seconds before touchdown my instructor yells get level while I was struggling with the wind. All that commotion made me blank out and if my instructor didnt lift that wing I would have died in Viva Las Vegas.

Its something that will haunt me for the rest of my life and the funny part is even though I am losing touch flying and its been 8 months since that happened I can recall each and every second of that approach. It was just not my day and I had signs it was bad way before it even started. Like how the fuel looked kinda suspicious though nothing was wrong, preflight briefing didnt sound all that convincing and the weather was not right. I was lucky to live that day to write this today. So superstition or not I pray the minute I see a plane in the air or a pilot taking a plane to fly. Its great fun but then when you get “Thatay Shot” (hindi or punjabi slang basically means getting the shit scared outta you) shit can happen. Be safe and dont kill youself.

I never wanted to start a quote to start my blog but then again never had I wanted to touch this subject. Well a wise man once said “Wisdom is what’s left after we’ve run out of personal opinions”. Well here is my wisdom after a year and a half in this industry. The sad truth about this industry.

Fact of the matter is fuel prices have hit its highest point right now and there seems to be no recovering from that. Also inflation is at its highest in a very very long time thanks to 8 miserable years of the bush administration.(god knows how America can elect a guy like him.).Well basically the whole world is in an economic recession and that has caused a huge problem for the airline industry. It happens almost every 17 years and usually lasts a year or 2 but this is basically when airlines scramble to cut loses every which way they can and usually the most popular way is to cut expansion.

Which leads to the question why the hell will a pilot be talking about soo much economic bullshit instead of the fun of flying? Well thats because there are not many jobs in the industry as there used to be and because the damn economis shit that I learnt in engineering finally paid off I guess. Airlines are slowly but surely not recruiting and this is going to impact all those who are training right now and all those who want to train now. So people unless you have pull in the airline or in a cadet pilot program don’t even think of being a commercial pilot for any airline. Its gonna cost like crazy thanks to the fuel and the crazily high interest rates and the chances of you nailing a job is not that slim.

However there is always going to be a plus point in every recession. The rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. How is that going to help??? Well with every filthy rich guy comes a lovely thing called a chopper and the best part about choppers is there aren’t that many pilots because idiots like me want the thrill of speed. Well i flew once on a chopper and believe me its amazing fun. Its like the kama sutra of flying to be more precise. You can twist and turn that baby however you want and she will do it. The best part is you can land her anywhere any time and you will be flying soo low and thats 10 times better than sitting for hours in a cockpit for hours together only to do 3 landings in 8-9 hours.

If I had known much about choppers believe me I would have been a chopper pilot instead of a commercial pilot. But then again that lifestlye is different and mine is different so the choice is yours. If you want a challenging job which will make you land on some billionaire’s building or some oil rig in the middle of the ocean and land back home then no questions asked be a chopper pilot. If however you need the speed and the travelling and not sleeping on the same bed for more than 2 nights in a row and the glamour about being a commercial pilot even though you dont really do much but sit around and pray that the captain lets you land then of course you gotta be an airline pilot. Just dont train for the next 2 years of you will be riped off. They both pay pretty much the same so dont go there.This is not an opinion anymore as I have ran out of them. Good luck and hope you gained from my wisdom.

It was Jan 2007 when I was inducted in spicejet. Our induction program was the coolest thing ever. There were I guess 30 of us that day. People from all the test centers were there. It was the first time we all met. Little did we know how close we would become. There we were standing in front of spicejet office, the dream of becoming an airline pilot ever so closer. To our surprise it wasn’t just us who spicejet were inducting that day.

We entered a hall filled woth air hostresses and no this is not a playboy fantasy story I cooked up. There stood another 30 girls and a couple of guys. Just like us they too had excitement written all over their faces for they too were being inducted the same time we were.

The induction went great. Siddhanta Sharma the then CEO of Spicejet welcomed us. It was probably the coolest welcome anyone ever gave to us. Gradually  the heads of each and every department came up an spoke about what their role in the company and they too welcomed us with all smiles. They made us feel like family and in the months to come even though we never were in touch with the company per say we always felt a belonging in that company.

Of course their was Ajay tarapally who was the idiot of the day as usual. ( He is an amazing pilot and a great guy who just opens his mouth at the wrong time and the wrong place and says the wrongest thing on earth.) Well the problem was he sorta expected the air hostresses to clean up his lunch plate after he was done and of course he said it out loud. He got the blasting of a life time and not only from the spicejet guys but from us too. Well truth be told he was I guess 18 or 19 and well thats how every idiot his age are anyways. He has grown a lot since then.

Well the same feeling of belonging finally came 6 months later when I finally was able to fly my first flight. It was at 5 in the morning but then again no one sleeps before their first flight. The excitement was in each and everyone’s faces. Our entire batch were getting to fly our 1st flights that very same day. It was the most anticipated day of our entire lives and one we will never forget. I took the first van ride at 3:30 in the morning and got there searching for my instructor. He was my age a little shorter than me named Shaun Brown. I was his first student. We got introduced and he showed me how to check the weather out and do the weight and balance. Then it was off to the plane. N4153W was her name. I cannot forget that name for the rest of my life. Well I even got it tattooed on my arm. Shaun showed me how the preflight was done and then it was finally the time I always waited for. I got to sit in the left seat atlast after soo many days.

Starting a plane is not as easy as I thought it would be. Even for a small plane like the DA20 its quite crazy. Shaun showed me what all I needed to do and finally i cranked that engine. The roar of the continental engine is still in my mind. He told me what to say on the radio and I was finally cleared to taxi. At first it was crazy to steer simple because you are not used to steering with your feet. You will gradually get it but at first its quite irritating.

We did the runup and finally we got the clearance to takeoff and that was it.  Me along with my instructor push the throttle to full and off we went accelerating to 55 kts before I was told to pull the stick back. There it was. My first takeoff. You could actually feel the wheels lift off the ground and push you through the air. The power was enormous and the feeling was amazing. I still get goosebumps remembering that day. At first I felt petrified as it was soo unnatural but then I finally felt the joy. I was finally flying after soo long and that joy will never leave me.

Shaun basically did touch and goes that day and showed me how to land. Of course I had the controls under his watchful eye. Incase anyone tells you they landed on their first flight I am telling you it wasn’t them but their instructor who landed. No instructor will have the brains or the balls to do that on their first flight. No one was born with wings so don’t believe people when they tell you this.

I finally landed back and still figuring out how to taxi but that was a great day I will never ever forget for the rest of my life.

P.S- No I didnt take any air hostress’s numbers that day cause these damn companies have very strict policies and didn’t really want to screw up on the first day now do I.

Sorry I was missing the past few days. I was busy studying for the DGCA papers. Well I will be honest with you guys when I say I dont have the slightest clue as to how I did so dont ask. I will either pass in the 70s or fail in the 60s so either way i am hopeful.

The papers werent exactly tough nor were dey easy. I gave the nav composite which went quite well. It had loads of problems n the tricky part was the pnr question which had no distance and endurance and you kinda had to figure it out. So I finshed those questions 1st and then went backwards not marking any of the answers on the answer sheet. Instead i wrote da answer in the paper (you are not supposed to mark the answers but I guess you can write it as rough). Anyways the met questions were not soo bad and i nailed the problems but I am only scared of the theory but overall I feel I have a 80% chance of nailing it.

Regs was the tough one. I didn’t really concentrate soo much on regs but the thing about regs is its more hear say than study. Well it was 50 questions in 90 mins and the problem is if you get 15 wrong you flunk. Don’t ask me how many I got wrong because I wasn’t counting. Overall I can’t say how much I will be getting but I know it is going to be close and I just hope to pass.

Its finally great to start blogging again. Start getting those thoughts flowing and remebering flying like it was yesterday. Hopefully the day is sooner rather than later.

I have been asked a million times this question “How is sabena airline training center? I believe its one of the best schools in the world and every airline in india have sent their cadets there.” Well I am going to set the record straight.

Sabena is a great school with very very high standards. They are expected to bring out the best pilots and they deliver really good pilots. The instructors well they gradually improve. In the early stages you will get rookie instructors but as you advance to instruments they get more experienced and once you are in multi engine you have the best instructors of the school teaching you. There is absolutely no doubts about the quality that you get. 

The planes aren’t that bad either. You start with the DA20 and you gradually go to the DA40 and finally do your multi on the DA42. The planes are very well maintained and undergo 50 hr inspections instead of 100 hr inspections as per regulation. The accomadation is not bad at all and over all it is a great school.

However there are lots of problems. Firstly in the beginning Sabena had got lots of students in the school. This created a huge overcrowding issue. There were more people coming in than going out. Due to this people would sit at home for days even weeks without flying.Sabena however has corrected that by bringing in smaller batches however this problem was soo severe that it will take them a good couple of months before things settle down. Secondly the DA42s have a major problem. Earlier this year Thielert, the engine manufacturer for this aircraft went bankrupt causing a huge problem for parts for this aircraft. This caused lots of planes to be grounded for weeks before they could get parts from some other source. Sabena however has been working round the clock to get this issue solved. I am not taking the credit away from sabena because it was absolutely not their fault. They are planning to make the multi engine part done on the seneca but its in the FAAs hands and until then there will be a problem.

That isn’t the problem in Sabena. The problem is the way Indians are treated in Sabena. Here however I must point the finger at the Indians themselves. The school trains students from Holland, Germany, Belgium and India and when you compare the Indians with the Europeans I feel sad to say this but Indians are without doubt horribly horribly unprofessional. Let me give you examples everyday there are atleast 2-3 Indians who either show up late or unprepared or untidy or unshaven. There have been students who cancelled checkrides because instead of preparing and sleeping the previous night they partied all night long despite being underage (Drinking age is 21 and there should not be anyone underage in a party but us desis don’t really care now do we).They listen to Ipods on the taxiway instead of focusing on flying and there have been cases where people do dangerous things like formation flying (which by the way is illegal in India). In the home front all the Indians frankly never cleaned their rooms and some places things have gone really out of hand.Students have made a mockery of us Indians there.

When I joined sabena (I was in the 5th batch by the way) things were absolutely great. The students even though they were all below 20 acted really mature. They would come home for dinner and take us out to play soccer and life was really fun. We were like a family back then. Then as batches became bigger and bigger came bigger problems. Everyone played loud music till 3 in the morning on a weekday and everyone became unruly and gradually Sabena had no other choice and started enforcing strict rules and later started kicking out people. I dont blame them at all for doing this. However my only regret was that everyone including the guys who were decent got the brunt of the punishment. Instead of individuals getting their butts kicked everyone got their butts kicked and that was where it was depressing.

Not only that the overcrowding caused a rat race for passing checks. You would have to sit at home for days before they would put you on a check and if god forbid you flunked it or cancelled it there was no guarantee that you would fly the next day. I was stuck for close to a month just for my PPL check. The days of sitting at home and not flying is horrible because you have nothing to do all day after sometime you will just not want to fly and that happened a lot of times to me. Just be positive and do something creative like I dunno write a blog.

Having said all this however I feel Sabena is a really great school. I learnt a lot and frankly I am proud to be a Sabena passout. Its just that if you go there you got to be professional. I have never seen a European come to school unshaven or untidy or unprepared. They never yell across corridors or speak loudly. They even party much more civilised unlike us who hardly work but have absolutely crazy parties. Sabena is very unforgiving to people who have come there to party and not study. If you dont perform dont expect to stay long in Sabena.

Bottomline if you want to be a professional then Sabena is the place to be but if you want to be in a frat house and party everyday then you should never even think about Sabena and frankly speaking there is nothing wrong about that but there are lots of other schools where you can do that. By the way the course in Sabena is tailormade for DGCA so chill cause you will fly the cessna and seneca.

Who can be a pilot? Thats the wrong question because even a monkey can learn to fly if you spend time training it. The correct question is who can be a COMMERCIAL PILOT? That was the question which haunted me for a good couple of months of my training before I finally figured out the answer. Before I go any further I want to say that I write this blog to try to inspire people to fly and I am very glad I am doing that with my stories but at the same time I want people to know what flying is all about cause its not always the fairytale I make it seem to be and what you are about to read maybe painful or controversial but this is the truth as I see it.

I always wanted to fly. It was in my blood and the truth is I dont care if I am paid 10000$ or 10000 rs I just want to fly. Its not about the money, its not about the air hostresses with their really cute short skirts nor is it about travelling the world. I dont care at all if i am flying a brand new 777 or a 1960 cessna 150. All I want to do is fly. The truth is not everyone in this industry think that way. There are people who are doing it for everything else but flying. True all these things matter in life but that doesnt mean you do it for the sake of money or glamour. A true pilot is not a person who flies for that. But that doesn’t make him a commercial pilot.

Lets start with my first few flights. I was always and have always been more than an hour early for each and every flight I ever flew. Never hurried and did whatever I needed to do. But no matter what I did I lacked confidence in the beginning atleast. I would not know the flows completely well and I would always buckle under the pressure. The truth was that I was a good pilot. I could do all the manuevers within what I was supposed to do and I never got lost. Yet I used to flunk checks.

Coming to checks let me talk about Sabena and it policies regarding this issue. If you failed a check in the same phase twice you would have a hearing board and 3 hearing boards and you are out. It looks harsh but the truth is it is absolutely correct. In the airline industry if you flunk a check twice you are out. This is a fact. I am fortunate to say that I finished my course without ever having a hearing board.And to be honest with you if you fluck a check twice or more than something is really wrong. This is a huge topic amongst us but to be honest with you I support Sabena. If you flunk a check it was mostly due to lack of skill or lack of knowledge or lack of confidence and to be honest with you I would not dare fly with a person who lacked any one of these as these are absolutely important to be a commercial pilot.

Flunking a check is not a bad thing. In fact you should be thankful for the guy who flunked you cause that person just in fact SAVED YOUR LIFE. I know it sounds ridiculus but had you done that same mistake you did in a real life situation you could have lost your licence, went to jail or killed some people or worst be dead yourself. I noticed that people including me take it very personal to an extent of saying ” I did everything well but he still flunked me”. That is absolutely wrong and quite frankly the most disgusting and disgraceful thing you can every say as a pilot. Admitting a mistake is the most important thing. So what if you couldnt make your short field landing on the numbers or couldnt maintain + or – 100 feet in a steep turn. A mistake is a mistake and what if you had to do it in a real life situation? You would be dead and the honest truth is the ashes of your ashes will be the only thing left of you. So please stop kidding youself and move forward instead of lingering in the past. Make absolutely sure you get it right the next time.

Another reason why I used to flunk or have lousy flights was because I was not prepared or was way too casual. There is absolutely no room for being casual in the airline industry. Its very serious business and if you are casual about it then I am sorry but you got to go. I am not saying you dont have fun but if want to go fly when the weather is bad or do stuff that is too risky then thats a problem. Dont get me wrong cause I was one of those fools who was very casual and did crazy things and honestly I should have been dead by now. I have landed when winds were gusting to 20 knots on a solo and I did a crosswind landing when it was gusting at 30 knots crosswind with an instructor but to be honest with you that is not something I am proud of and infact regret it for being so complacent.

I may have had the skills to land that plane even at 40 knots of winds but that is not the point. The point is that I unnecessarily put both mine and my passengers lives at unnecessary risk. Had something gone wrong there I would have not survived at such conditions for sure and I beg of you to never do the same mistake I made.

A commercial pilot has absolutely no room for error and is the one who is always prepared for anything and everything and at the same time keep safety the first thing in his mind. He who is self disciplined and calm and composed when the shit hits the roof is a commercial pilot. Unless you are a complete professional you cannot and will not be a commercial pilot. As the CEO of Sabena said “I should be confident enough with your flying that I can trust my daughter’s life be in your hands.” Well I can see how this sentence can be twisted but the point is can you let your daughter’s life be in your hands?

P.S- I make a couple of spelling mistakes onlu cause I write at nights and at the end I really dont care so kindly understand.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I entered this red room in the middle of the night. Filled with buttons and lights it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. There were 3 men chatting there who all of a sudden paused as if something out of the ordinary just happened. There I stood there awestruck. staring at each and every inch of that mystic place trying to figure out what in god’s name was all this. In the midst of it all I heard a voice. It was the Captain welcoming me to his office at the belly of the beast with the brightest smile I ever saw from a man. Of course back in those days I was quite the looker. I was barely 3 feet tall with soft chubby cheeks and a devilish smile and more often than not always ended up getting my ass whipped for doing something naughty or crazy.I walked slowly controlling myself not to touch anything. And then at that very moment I saw what it felt like. The feeling of flying, the power of those engines and the lives of the hundreds of passengers all were in the control of the 2 strong hands this man on the left seat of this monster of a plane. A man who I wished to become someday.

That trip was a special trip for me. I was 4 years old with all the energy and madness any 4 year old boy would have multiplied by 10. This trip however was unlike any other trip I did before. For the first time in my life I would be flying alone without my parents or any guardian. Yeah it was a crazy time. Saddam was all crazy and my folks who were working in Abu Dhabi (the capital of UAE) feared something bad was going to happen so they sent me alone to India to stay with my grand parents. I don’t know whether it was me being brave or just plain old crazy but here I was, a kid who didn’t even know his nursery rhymes in the airport hugging my parents not knowing where or when I was going to see them again and I didnt even cry and just waved good bye and walked away like it was just another one of those flights. Then again I dont know if it was me having balls of steel or the cute looking airhostress who couldnt get her hands off of me or my cheeks but what ever it was it was the flight that changed my life forever.

Well time went by and I started wearing glasses after seeing Top Gun and Swat Kats one too many times and I thought I couldnt be a pilot any more and figured hey it was just a childhood thing and moved on with my life. It was not until the final semester of my engineering when out of no where I met a pilot working for Deccan Aviation in my apartment lift. It took us 30 sec from the 4th floor to the ground floor and that was all it took to convince me that all I had to do was to see if I was medically fit. Weeks later I met a doctor and guess what I was fit to be a pilot after all. Then it was no looking back.

Like it was faith next thing you know Spicejet comes out with a cadet programme and were selecting cadets. And as luck had it I was one of the select few who got to be one of the first cadet pilots of an Indian Airline carrier. Words could not express the joy I felt after I got that call. It was spectacular. Finally I was out to make my childhood dream a reality. Ground school in Delhi went off great and I got my visa and the dreaded class 1 medical. I was all set to take my wings and it would all happen in the middle of summer Mesa, Arizona, USA. A summer I would never forget.

Sabena Airline Training Center was where the action was all going to happen. Known to be one of the best flying schools in Europe and for training every pilot for KLM which is one of the largest airlines in the world its reputation for creating world class professional pilots precided it. There were 7 of us in our batch of which 3 of us flew together. Sid, a 26 year old software engineer and Aravind who like me just graduated. We were all set to go for the most memorable time of our lives. Well memorable it was but for what reasons we would find out later.

We should have got the picture when we landed. It was 7 in the evening but it was bright as hell. And to top it off it was a burning 45 degrees. Well we were stunned because well its hot in India but not hot as hell like this place plus there was absolutely no humidity in the air whatsoever which worsened it even more cause the breeze would just hit you with even more heat. The best part was beat this we would not sweat in that heat because it was soo hot that even our sweat would evaporate before it got a chance to actually be sweat.

Having said that however we were greeted by this amazing gentleman. His name was Bob and unlike most people he could actually know the names of each and every Indian and would try to get it pronounced right. Even if he couldn’t he would never make any american name for anyone but just call us by name the best way he could. He is one man who everyone loved. Well he took us to our apartment and on the way drove past our airport Falcon Field and our school.

The first few days were crazy. We were lost in the time zones and for 2 days we slept all day and be up all night. We never were able to get a hold of ourselves. Finally on the 3rd day we were able to get all dressed and go to our school. The school was unlike any thing we imagined it to be. It began with the admin desk and then came the corridor of class rooms which led to the instructors room and the briefing room and then the huge dispatch. We were amazed to see soo many chairs and tables filled with students from belgium, Holland and India. There we were greeted by Melody, our ground instuctor. She was a tall blond with big shoulders and beautiful eyes. She was the ground instructor there and she gave us the newbie tour which was basically  showing everyone who the new kids were. She took us downstairs to the ramp where for the first time we saw what we were here for. There were 8 diamond 20s for the vfr phase and 3 diamond 40s for the instrument phase. Just then we were able to grab Doc, one of our closest buddy who came a month before us and was all set to go for his 1st flight. Together he along with his instructor showed us what it was all about. That was the day where I felt the absolute power and absolute freedom I always dreamt of. That was the day I finally sat on that left seat. Even though it was for just a moment and even though nothing was on and even though that plane was like a mosquito compared to the plane that captain I saw flew. It was the first time I got to sit inside the cockpit and touch the controls. I was finally sitting in the room I always dreamt I would be.

Well now that you are all set for leaving comes the fun part. Firstly before you go to the states or wherever you are going to go get your DGCA class 1 medical simply because it would be the lousiest thing to spend 15-20 lakhs and find out that you have an irregular heart beat (believe me thats a grounds of dismissal)… The initial is the most irritating one simply because its your 1st and they are very strict on the first one.

I got mine done in Jorhat, Assam. Personally I would love to do my renewals there every year simply because they are the sweetest people around who don’t give you crap.(Hate to say this being a proud Bangalorean but IAM is the last place on earth you want to do your medical simply because they treat even 777 capts like shit.Been there never wanna go back again). Well the medical is not that bad. You go there of course in an empty stomach with your EEG and hearing exam. First they will take a blood and urine sample. Then comes the eye,ENT and the chest X-ray which is pretty much the same as what you did in the class 2. However girls have some extra tests. They have to go through a gynecologist (hey I am not the one setting the rules here). If you are excess weight also you have some extra exams.Then comes the dreaded physicals.

This is the sick part you will have to bend over and cough. (I know tell me about it) But once thats done you can pull your pants up (Unless of course you are SOL(shit outta luck)*favorite term used by american instructors). He will tell you to stand tip toed on one leg to see if you can balance yourself. Then you will have to streach your hands completely with you fingers and make sure it doesnt shiver(mine did and i had to get an extra blood test done). And thats it you are done.

Well the stay in Jorhat is quite nice. There is this amazing hotel near the railway station which is really good. The food is great and the service is pretty good and its very cheap. Best part is the people there are really friendly. True there were all these soldiers roaming around hunting for some ultras but it wasn’t like you could hear shootings or anything like that. If you have time they have a beautiful wildlife sanctuary not far away which you could check out. I however had to run back and pack my bags for the states.Jet and Indian fly there from Kolkatta. I dont know if they still do it now though. These days you can do your medicals in all these private places but if you have a chance to go to Jorhat just go there cause thats one hell of a place.

Speaking of packing there is only 2 things you have pack. Pack a lot of food and medicines. Get loads of crocin, cough syrups, cold medicines, band aid, dettol, allegra(get lots of these), stuff for constipation (believe me once you get there thats gonna be your no1 problem till you get used to the food there), skin creme and balms like moov, vicks. This is pretty much all you need for a year.

Food well the most important rule of them all NO READY TO EAT STUFF.  They are heavy and just lasts a meal thats it. Instead take lots and lots of rajma and channa masala (both come in cans). That will be your staple diet cause its the easiest and quickest to make so LEARN TO MAKE THESE BEFORE YOU LEAVE. Well if you love maggi take only the masala and not the noodles. You get the noodles there and you dont need to waste space. If you are going in a group just get only 1 big cooker. Ya I know you can make rice in the micro wave but for south indians its impossible. Take the idly trays too. Speaking of which take all the Rava idly & rava dosa mixes that you can cause they are worth carrying.

Apart from this take the usual spices. Chilli, haldi, jeera, dhania powder,garam masala, chicken masala,meat masala, tandoori chicken masala (vegetarians these masalas have no meat in it and are the closest thing to maggi that you will get there so buy them).No need for salt and sugar. Take dried chillis and dried curry leaves and dals. South Indians the extra stuff is sambar and rasam powder, hing and other powders (like chutney powder, malga powder you know your local stuff). All mixtures and other stuff would get over in seconds so thats your call.

Once all this is in your suitcase then comes your toileteries. Things that are cheap here are blades, soaps and shampoos. Apart from these get shaving cream, scissors, nail cutters, moisturiser (very very important if you are going to arizona), sun screen, deos combs and get a mug (you will never know when you need one).

Then shoes. Carry the bare essentials and buy some good stuff there. And finally your clothes. Dont pack formals. Only uniform pants. You will not have any occasion for formals so dont carry. Uniform shirts you buy there.Take only casuals and lots of T-shirts and shorts. Socks, underwear, handkerchiefs,belts and night wear. Well I am an absolute couch potato (hey I am proud of my 6-pack beer belly which got even bigger once i went there sadly)so I am not into running around. But if you those fitness freaks pack for that. I swam alot but the trunks there are much better. (Guys whatever you do DONT BUY SPEEDO CHADIS(I love calling them that) AND EVEN WORST THONGS). They wear really long funky looking shorts and I swear you will drive away all the chicks if you wear those and trust me none of you friends will want that.

That I guess is pretty much all there is to pack for your trip. Before I left I ate all the chat and Indian sweets I could eat. Little did I know that that would be the last Pani puri I would have for more than a year. Well Bon Voyage and send me a post card.

P.S-Insane Buddha that thong was meant for you.

I almost forgot…Where to go and what to fly??? Well I trained in the states and I can tell you about schools there. Lets see the myths that surround the flight training.

Firstly does flying happen as quickly as they promised??? Well in most parts the answer is no. When you see the plan that the school put forward you got to be prepared to spend double the time. Why??? Well you are flying a plane with a million parts working together and not a glider. So there are a million ways something can go wrong. ( Yes shit happens duhhh). So maintenance will be a huge part of the delay. Also weather. Weather in the states can chage from really awesome to really horrible in a matter of hours. ( Believe me I got stranded in a couple of places cause I would have landed there but by the time I fueled up it would turn so windy that wind sock would look like a durex ad that went horribly wrong).

So like my real estate agent says it all about location, location, location. Nothing else. East coast gets really horrible during the winters. Florida gets hit by hurricanes during the summers. South west states are ideal. States like Texas, New mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Southern california are all really good places.(Southern california get bush fires every year in the summers). As you go up North well winters get horrible. Espeacially Seattle cause the front startes from there and gradually goes around America.However summers are absolutely awesome. Sunsets are like at 10 at night and rises at 3 in the morning.(belive me my 2nd flight was at 4 in the morning). Best time to go there is after feb, march.it starts clearing up and spring there is amazing for flying.

Secondly, should my training be completely done on a cessna and seneca (planes registered in India)? Well not necessarily. All you need is an endorsement stating that you can fly those planes so you can fly diamonds or pipers or cirrus. The choice is yours as long as you have 5-10 hrs on the cessna and seneca you are absolutely fine.

Thirdly, Can I go and tell the school I want to fly this, this and this and thats it and they will give it to me. Well they will say go to hell cause most of the reputed schools run what is called a part 141 programme which is pre approved by the FAA. It takes a lot of time and money to get a program approved so unless the program is designed for your needs already they will not do any changes. Of course there are schools which are part 61 schools who will fly what you ask them to fly.then again they have some min no of hrs that you will have to comply with. However these schools are of less repute and I would personally advise you not to go there and get stranded cause believe me its a horrible feeling to get stuck there.

 So now comes the question. Which is the best school for Indians??? Well I dont know why but I would have absolutely loved to fly in Wings aloft in Seattle. Ya I know the place is horrible in winters but its an absolutely beautiful place. I had the privledge to check out the place.Lots of Indian students and amazing atmosphere. If I have to do my recency thats the place I ld like to do it in.

I did my flying in Arizona which is a perfect place for flying simply cause the weather is great when compared to other states. Air safety in glendale is pretty good. Have a couple of friends there. I would go out and ask students to go to ATP which is based off Mesa Gateway. They have a program which has 190 hrs of multi and you will fly all around America in this.My instructor flew from phoenix to florida which is 3 time zones. Ya its going to come to 60,000 $ but its soo worth it if you have the money plus you will be done fast and you can get a cfi rating as well in case you cant get a job in india its always a backup. not only that the companies will choose you over any guy who has just 40 hrs multi which is bull shit.

Its sad to say this but the last place I want anyone to learn flying in is in my very own Sabena Airline Training Center. Its not that the instructors are bad or anything like that. Its just that the school is run by a bunch of cash strapped belgians whose purpose in life is to make you and your friends life miserable. ( Just the Indians mind you). They treat the belgians, germans and deutch students like royalty because well they pay 3 times what we pay. (they pay close to 100-150 thousand EUROS!!!) as to us complaining to pay 40000$. So unless you are an unlucky soul from Indigo or Kingfisher, dont go there. Of course having graduated from Sabena without any yellow slips or hearing boards on my name is an achievement (thats for another story all together).

Having said that however I still believe its high standards for flying and excellence will forever be instilled in my heart. Bottom line is Sabena makes Airline Pilots who are disciplined and god damn professional. If you are a passout of Sabena without having any bad marks to your name you are without a doubt a great pilot in the Airline industry. Truth is I will sleep better if I know the plane I am flying on is in the hands of a Sabena pass out.

The choice is yours. True you are going to be an airline pilot but the fact is this is the only time you can have fun in a plane cause later all you do is program the plane and let it fly itself and wake up when its time to land. You will end up being a professional anyway so why have a lousy time now. The choice is yours to make. Hope you make the right one. peace out.

Well I did my ground school before I left to Sabena. People say it is a waste of time to do this before you fly and run to US straight to the cockpit but personally I feel doing ground school is the best decision I took in my life. 2 reasons being that it gave me an idea to what i was getting into and it taught me my fundamentals really well. No matter what you say ground school in India is 10 times better than that in the states because they dont teach you anything and they expect you to learn all the shit within a month which i m telling you is absolutely crazy. Its after all your life. I personally went to united aviation like all spice cadets and I must say they did a really amazing job. The most dedicated teachers I ever met (and i had 16 years of education in some really good institutes mind you). I would have probably ended up as ashes scattered around the arizona desert.(well that plane does carry a lot of 100 octane fuel in it in case you didnt know n believe me if you crash dats all dat remains of you).

Anyways lets get to the point.If you are planning to go to the states to fly here is what you gotta do:-

1- Get the loan- well every bank does offer loans as long as you put your property but sbi has a particular loan for pilots which is a good deal. Interest rates vary but the thing is they will charge you only after 6 months to a year once you flying is done…

2-Once that is done apply for a date-to do this you have to pay in some particular hdfc bank and once that is done you can apply for any paricular date.

3-The Interview- well i had an unfair advantage in that i had a spicejet appointment letter which really helps.(any appointment letter from any airline is really good).Well the secret is to be really prepared and organised. They only have a minute or two to make their minds so you got to rehearse the questions. Basically you got to prove that you are just going to be get your training and come back and that you have the funds to do it. The ca documents and property document photo copies will do. Be confident and give concise answers to what ever questions he has and you are good to go. When you go there firstly greet him/her.”how are you?hows your day been?”.”Man this queue is long.”something to break the ice and then go to the point.”I wanna go to the states to train in so and so school to be a commercial pilot. (give the i-20.)this is my qualifications (show your certificates and tell him your qualification & work ex if you have any) and this is how my finances look (show the ca document)”.speak slowly and CLEARLY. Make sure you have enough liquid assets. If he asks why dont you do it in India tell him its cheaper and much better in the states and tell him that the asian market is hot so i m definitely coming back to fly in india.

Thats it you are all set to go. If you fail dont get dejected just give it again. Of course I must tell this but if you dont speak english fluently or not understand it properly and want to train to be a pilot I am telling you now dont think about being a pilot. English is very very important for you to know. You dont need to be an expert just be able to have a normal conversation without getting lost for words and be a little gramatically correct. If you have a problem with english but still want to be a pilot then you got to switch off those saas bahu serials and hindi channels and start watching english movies and news channels WITHOUT SUBTITLES.

I am stressing all this because I have seen many students struggle with radio calls and basic conversations particularly with students from the north where hindi is rampant. No matter where you fly anywhere across the world the only language spoken in aviation is english so if you cannot converse in english as good as you can speak hindi or any other language then you better improve. I am stating the facts. Again I am not trying to be a racist or bring people down but you are doing a job which involves the lives of 100s of passengers and thousands on the ground. This is a very responsible job and no body will give you this responsibilty if you cant understand or comply what you want to say in English.

Well hope I helped in anyway. Let me know what you guys think and if any else has anything to add or say about this post please feel free to speak out. HAPPY LANDINGS.