They left their prosperous careers in engineering to pursue their hobby of soaring in the skies, but the state government's apathy coupled with high cost of training has left them grounded. The Nagpur Flying Club (NFC), which is training many budding pilots, has not been able to make a mark after its resurrection three years back. Only one student has been able to earn a commercial pilots license (CPL) since 2007.
Sagar Borkar, a student of the first batch, will get his CPL in a month, on successful completion of training. He, however, rues the fact that the British-era club lacks many important facilities, like simulators, which are necessary for training pilots. "I had to complete the simulator training in cities like Indore, which increased my training cost. Moreover, there is no library, so we've to depend on the Internet and other libraries, which are far away from the NFC," he lamented.
Borkar says, "So far, I've incurred an expenditure of over Rs 18 lakh. I took a loan from the bank while my parents contributed to some of the expenses." Sagar was an engineering student before switching to this line.
Another student, Sunny Shende, also left his engineering course to take admission at NFC. "The course is definitely costly. I had taken a loan from Syndicate Bank as my father works there. I've directly applied for CPL instead of going through private pilot license ( PPL), to save money."
Another NFC student Pranech Choure has just started his course. He has completed five hours of flying. His father is a Buddhist monk while his mother runs a business. "We fly on alternate days since the airstrip at the main airport, from where our aircraft take off, remains busy most of the time," he said.
Deputy commissioner Arun Dongre, who looks after the club operations, however sounded optimistic regarding the simulator facility. "We're in touch with a Swiss company for this. The machine costs Rs 10 lakh and tenders have been already floated," he said.
He added that the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had inspected the club in December last week. "DGCA director (training) Arun Mann had offered us some equipment lying idle with them. We had written a letter to them in this regard and we expect the DGCA to respond shortly," he informs.
On NFC's failure to attract students, Dongre said they had undertaken an awareness exercise and distributed leaflets to engineering colleges. "The basic cost of the course is very high. Moreover, many students came to finish their flying hours and not for the license. Presently, we're training 18 students," he said.
Sagar Borkar, a student of the first batch, will get his CPL in a month, on successful completion of training. He, however, rues the fact that the British-era club lacks many important facilities, like simulators, which are necessary for training pilots. "I had to complete the simulator training in cities like Indore, which increased my training cost. Moreover, there is no library, so we've to depend on the Internet and other libraries, which are far away from the NFC," he lamented.
Borkar says, "So far, I've incurred an expenditure of over Rs 18 lakh. I took a loan from the bank while my parents contributed to some of the expenses." Sagar was an engineering student before switching to this line.
Another student, Sunny Shende, also left his engineering course to take admission at NFC. "The course is definitely costly. I had taken a loan from Syndicate Bank as my father works there. I've directly applied for CPL instead of going through private pilot license ( PPL), to save money."
Another NFC student Pranech Choure has just started his course. He has completed five hours of flying. His father is a Buddhist monk while his mother runs a business. "We fly on alternate days since the airstrip at the main airport, from where our aircraft take off, remains busy most of the time," he said.
Deputy commissioner Arun Dongre, who looks after the club operations, however sounded optimistic regarding the simulator facility. "We're in touch with a Swiss company for this. The machine costs Rs 10 lakh and tenders have been already floated," he said.
He added that the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had inspected the club in December last week. "DGCA director (training) Arun Mann had offered us some equipment lying idle with them. We had written a letter to them in this regard and we expect the DGCA to respond shortly," he informs.
On NFC's failure to attract students, Dongre said they had undertaken an awareness exercise and distributed leaflets to engineering colleges. "The basic cost of the course is very high. Moreover, many students came to finish their flying hours and not for the license. Presently, we're training 18 students," he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment