PAZZAGE OCT 2021

When the insurance company continued to
pester him, in order to shake them off, he
quoted an exorbitant figure, almost eight
times the normal. To Gopi’s surprise, the
Insurance company accepted his terms.
Cairn was requested to spare the helicopter
for a day, placing a small chopper for
contingencies. I was asked to take the Bell
212 single pilot to Bhubaneswar and wait. A
copilot coming from Bangalore by civil air
would join- takeoff directly to the ship, land
on the moving deck, pick up the patient and
land at Calcutta.
The patient was transferred to a waiting
ambulance and the mission was
accomplished. A huge sum in Deccan’s
pocket!
WING CMDR HEMU MOHAN
deflated ego
After flying with MHS (Malaysian
Helicopters) for over
A
four
Pilot's
years, I
returned to India and joined Deccan
Aviation. Capt. Gopinath, the founder
and MD of Deccan, an ex-Army Captain
(not a pilot) was a businessman par
excellence. One day, he received
ego
a
deflated
call
from an Insurance company,
requesting for medical evacuation of
an injured crew member, from a ship in
Bay of Bengal heading towards
Calcutta. Capt. Gopi, knowing that he
neither had a helicopter nor pilots
qualified to undertake such a task
(other than the one engaged in
offshore operations with Cairn energy
at Yanam off the coast of Rajamundry),
expressed his inability.
We went to the ATC, filed return clearance,
attended met. briefing (overcast sky with
thundershowers was the forecast) and
started the helicopter. At the lineup point
came the bad news -Airfield rated, visual
flying not permitted, return to dispersal and
switch off. It was imperative that I returned
the same day lest Cairn take a huge chunk of
what we earned, by applying penalty clause. I
requested the tower to change my plan to
IFR (flying solely by reference to Instrument),
from VFR (visual flying). Tower asked if I was
rated as well as the helicopter. I answered
both in the affirmative and was allowed to
takeoff. I punched in the coordinates of the
exit point as given in the jepperson chart.
After takeoff, I was given a radial and height
to maintain and report over Lagos. I was
flummoxed by this instruction. The only
Lagos I know is in Nigeria. Handed control to
copilot and started searching for Lagos on
the map but couldn’t find it. When I told the
tower that the exit point according to the
chart was somewhere else, the tower
shouted back saying “Don’t you read notams
(notices to airmen); it was changed a
fortnight ago”. I sheepishly requested for the
coordinates of Lagos. Even as I was taking
down the coordinates, Calcutta radar told us
that we were 20 degrees off track and asked
us to get back to the given radial ASAP. My
copilot looked at me blankly. I told him to
regain the radial (the direction from Calcutta)
and maintain. We were totally in the cloud
with a disoriented copilot, who looked at me
as if I was speaking some alien language. I
had to take back control, regain radial, punch
in coordinates of Lagos and get there all by
myself. By then, the radar took pity on us and
guided us to Lagos. On reaching Lagos, the
radar asked us to resume normal navigation
and wished us good day. Was I relieved? The
whole lot of international and domestic
flights were listening to the pathetic plight of
a chopper in bad weather. Without any more
trouble we got back to Yana, in time to avoid
the penalty clause.
I learned a few lessons from that episode.
Firstly, I failed to notice that the chart kept in
the navigation bag of the helicopter was
outdated. Secondly, I should have got the
navigational briefing when I went to the
tower, knowing that the weather was
deteriorating. Thirdly, I took it for granted
that my co- pilot, an ex-Navy Sea-king pilot
with vast experience, would know the
rudiments of instrument flying. He didn’t. I
was culpable on all three counts. In aviation,
nothing should be taken for granted. My
professional ego took a huge hit, but it made
me a humbler person. That was a positive
takeaway.