June 2012 - Indian Airforce

Flt Lt AA Mahale
I
was a young flying officer full of spirit and
aspiration just posted to a Sqn. After lot of
studies, ground training and spending hours in
the cockpit (the ac being on ground), we started
flying the MiG-21. It was my third solo sortie
wherein I was supposed to fly a handling profile
in sector. The sortie was uneventful till rejoin on
downwind, when after lowering u/c, my main
hydraulic failure warning came on. I declared the
emergency, then took a moment to ascertain the
situation and went over the actions. I reported
dead side again, completed my actions and landed
off a flapless approach in the next circuit which
is considered quite tricky on the MiG-21. I was
debriefed the following day, in fact I was praised
and my actions at such limited experience were
appreciated. I was quite happy with myself and
continued flying with a newly gained confidence.
I even got a commendation through the flight
safety channel for my emergency handling.
But about six months down the line when
I gained sufficient experience on the MiG-21,
I realised that my actions had not been very
correct, in fact they were wrong. When I realised
that I had an emergency on downwind, all I had
to do was continue in the circuit and land. But
I elected to go around and carry out one more
circuit which could have led to an aircraft fire as I
already had a hydraulic leak.
All is well that ends well. But the point to
ponder is that why was this point not brought
out to give a lesson to other youngsters in the
Sqn. In the interest of Flt Safety, I write this and
implore those young pilots flying this aircraft
to apply system knowledge to the emergency
encountered so that they do not land up
complicating the emergencies encountered.
-Flt Lt AA Mahale
INDIAN AIR FORCE 2 0 1 2 J u n e Aerospace Safety 27