U 769

In case you are wondering, U 769 was not a German U boat of the hunter killer type. But it had the potential to kill. 

U 769 was the tail number of one of the Kiran jet trainer aircraft at the Air Force Academy Hyderabad. 

I was a young, hot blooded flying instructor those days, ready to take on the world. Any aircraft was like a toy in my hands, I could do anything with it and get away. Or so I thought. Freshly out of the Flying Instructors' School, it was my first year of teaching flying to young, starry eyed, gullible Flight Cadets, for whom the instructor was God and every word he spoke gospel.

U 769 was a product of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Like most  Indian Air Force pilots, I had a healthy dislike for that organization.  Every product of theirs was shoddy and suspect, except the food in the heavily subsidized canteen.

I was a bachelor and there was nothing else to do except flying and more flying. The training setup was divided into two squadrons, both used to alternate on a weekly half day shift. I, being  free from domestic encumbrances, used to fly for both. My own cadets' training flying for my own squadron and fun sorties like air tests etc for the other.

Back to U 769.

It looked like any other regular aircraft, standing quietly on the apron for someone to take it up flying. But it had a deadly secret. U 769 had a serious problem recovering from a right hand spin. A spin is a maneuver which is a result of a deliberate death wish or gross mishandling of controls. The aircraft does a wild,  crazy dance and if not recovered, would  continue with it till mother Earth put a stop to it,  abruptly. Nevertheless, spin and recovery was a fun thing to do and I loved it. Like they say, pilots are daft, and I was no different. 

Every aircraft had its unique spin characteristics but they all used to recover if proper procedure was followed. But not U769. It would just not recover from a right hand spin ( a right hand spin means the aircraft is spinning clockwise). 

About a month ago before this happened, this aircraft had  refused to recover from a right hand spin. The instructor and the trainee nearly ejected before the aircraft took mercy on them and recovered on its own. The engineering guys went to work to sort out the problem while the two pilots took their rather smelly clothes to the laundry.

After a month of 'snag rectification' the aircraft was offered for an air test. Our squadron was in the afternoon shift. I had just returned from a morning swim when 'a ring came to my phone’, as Sherlock Holmes would say. The Chief Flying Instructor of the other  squadron called to ask if I was free to fly an air test as they were a little tight that day. As always, my answer was yes. I changed, gunned my bike and reached office. On entering the crew room I didn’t see any of the instructors around.    Aha !! The penny dropped. U 769 is up for an air test !!

'Hi Chopy !! Chaliye?’ I heard Babs call out from behind me. I turned around and saw the short sikh gentleman walking towards me, as always with a radiant smile, a buttered toast in his right hand, a cup of tea in the left and an extremely dirty joke at the tip of his tongue. Babs was 3 years my senior and a walking, talking contradiction. Short, unkempt, professionally brilliant and behaviourally uncouth. He had a large heart, and even larger collection of bad words and dirty jokes. He would do anything for you, you had to just ask. And always do what you told him not to, like actually shutting the engine off for a practice force landing. We were very good friends.

‘ So we are taking U 769 for an air test.’ he said. 

‘Have the spanners done something ?’ I asked. ‘Spanners’ was a loose IAF term for engineers. 

‘ 'Yes. They have adjusted the ailerons and some tabs. They say the rigging is perfect now' Babs said.

‘ Ok then, let’s do it sir'. I said. 

The take off, climb etc and the rest of the checks were fine. Everything looked good. We climbed to 26000 feet, did a left spin. All good.

‘ Looks ok to me Chops. Shall we do the right spin now? Let’s do 6 turns' 

Babs was being Babs again. The standard test was recovery after three turns. More the number of turns, more difficult is the recovery. And this was U 769 for God’s sake !!! We should try three first !!! 

Anyway, I grunted in affirmative. No pilot worth his salt would show he’s chicken. 

We climbed higher to 28000 feet, just in case U 769 decided to be nasty and took longer to recover. 

Babs had the controls. 

Close throttle, drop speed, progressive right rudder, stick moving fully back……aaaaand she flicked into the spin!!

One, two three, four, five, six turns…….. something was not right, the spin was too tight and steep.

'Recover!!’ I shouted.

Babs, applied full left rudder and pushed the stick all the way forward for recovery. Nothing happened. The spin continued to tighten, becoming more violent. 

“Recover !!! “ I yelled again. 

“I’m trying !! She’s not recovering!!!” Babs shouted.

“In spin aileron !! “ I shouted. That was an emergency recovery procedure.

He complied, nothing happened. We were descending at 8000 feet per minute. My limbs were now flailing about, helmet hitting the canopy, things were flying about in the cockpit, dirt, paper pieces, screws…..I saw the white zebra marking of 10000 feet flash by on the altimeter. At 6000 feet we would have to eject. Things had become extremely violent inside the cockpit. Both of us were bouncing about, Babs barely managing to hold on to the stick. The altimeter was unwinding so fast I could barely make out the altitude. But I estimated we should be hearing 6000 feet now.

“Sir we have to eject !!” I screamed.

“ “Jettisoning canopy!!” shouted Babs. And left the control stick to reach for the canopy jettisoning lever right above. The moment he did that U 769 stopped spinning……

 Still in a steep dive, the speed started increasing, indicating a recovery from the spin. I caught hold of the stick and hauled the aircraft out of the dive. We must have recovered at just about 1000 feet.

We didn’t speak a word till we landed. Both of us were drenched in sweat, our throats parched, limbs shaky.

 Babs had a lot of words to say to the engineering staff, mostly in Punjabi, while signing off the tech log. 

We both got drunk in the bar that evening. Bacchus is a good friend, philosopher and guide in times like this. People around were congratulating us. I wonder for what. We didn’t do anything, literally.

They banned right spin on U 769 after our 'adventure’. 

U 769 had won, again.

Babs lost his life in a flying accident some years later. God bless his soul.

I wonder where U 769 is now? Decommissioned I hope. Unless HAL has taken it in for one of its 'upgrades'.

Gp Capt Pankaj Chopra