By Air Marshal Harish Masand (R)
Even though I was doing engineering in the lone engineering college of Indore, Govindram Seksaria Technical Institute or GSTI as it was known those days, I had joined the NCC Air Wing, then 16 (MP) Air Squadron, in Indore even before admissions to the College had been announced and the session commenced in July 1963 after I had completed Higher Secondary in April 1963. This was the unit that my elder brother, MG “Sonny” Masand, had left the year before as a Senior Under Officer. Because of this, the then CO of the NCC unit, Squadron leader AN Todd, had no reservations in letting me join the unit particularly after he saw my academic reports of the previous years. In that summer break, being keen on aeroplanes and flying, I got involved in aero-modelling with the help of JWO Karunakaran and Sergeant Ghoshal who let me have free access to the aero-modelling section and flying the ones I had built in the adjacent Holkar College grounds that the unit used for its aero-modelling activities. By the time summer ended and the academic session started, Squadron leader MS Rane took over the NCC Air Wing Unit from Todd. Sometime in 1964, the unit nomenclature also changed to 1 (MP) Air squadron NCC from 16 (MP). NCC those days was mandatory for all college-going students so all colleges had an appropriate NCC unit attached to them. The GSTI had its own Engineers NCC unit that I was required to join. However, due to the fact that I had already enrolled in the Air Wing, the Principal of the college, Mr Dasgupta, gave me a special dispensation, after an interview and looking at my grades, by letting me continue with the Air Wing unit on the proviso that if I missed any classes or assignments in the college due to different timings for the NCC activities, I would submit the required assignments the very next morning. I never missed out on that commitment and looking at my grades in the engineering college, Mr Dasgupta never had an issue with my NCC and other activities. What he said to me when I left the course halfway through in early 1966 to join the Air Force through the NCC after getting my “C Certificate” is another matter. When I went to say Good Bye, he was quite surprised, told me I was making a mistake and ended by saying, “I always thought you were a smart kid, Now I know you are an a—h—“. Anyhow, coming back to my flying activities, those days NCC Air Wing sponsored a few selected cadets for 50 hours of flying through the nearest flying club after they had cleared the requisite ground subjects and “B Certificate” with two years training. In our case, the Flying Club was at Indore itself with Mr Bhojwani as the Chief Pilot Instructor (CPI). However, the man who really taught me the initial bits of flying and laid a solid foundation for my future career was the Assistant Pilot Instructor (API), Homi Mistry. So come early July 1965, Sqn Ldr Rane took a few of us across to the flying club and handed us over to our instructors. I was very fortunate to land up with Homi Mistry since he did not just teach me the basics of flying on the iconic Tiger Moth but even the art of dealing with pupils and subordinates.
Homi in the mid-1960s
Homi and Alma in the 1960s
Homi himself was not very old, just about 10 years older than all of us and had been an instructor in Indore for about five years by then. He looked like a twin of Omar Sharif with a similar style, charm and smile. That made him extremely popular with the younger cadets and students, both from the NCC and the civilians trying to make a career in aviation and, perhaps, even with the opposite sex. However, by the time I reached the aviation scene and met him, he was already happily married to Alma, who everyone considered their “ally” in the Mistry household, as I would describe later. Civilian instructors were not known for their pre-flight briefings or much time spent with the students on what was expected of them that day or in that particular flight. However, in our very first meeting, Homi spent a few minutes explaining the Tiger Moth to us and what he would demonstrate in the very first air experience flight. He also asked a few questions on aerodynamics and piston engines just to satisfy himself that we knew our theory. When he realised that I was an engineering student in the third year of my course, he did not bother much with the theory any further but told me specifics of the propeller torque on the Tiger Moth and things like the use of rudder on take-off when the nose was lowered while building up speed. After explaining the basic controls and our means of communications through just the voice-tube, he told me that if I knew how to drive a car smoothly, which ran in two dimensions on the surface, I would have little problem in learning to control the aircraft in three dimensions. My very first ride in the Tiger was an exhilarating experience in July 1965 which I have not forgotten till date. Homi made sure I was correctly strapped up in the rear cockpit, got into the front cockpit, carried out a voice check and started the engine with the help of a technician cranking the engine through a flip to the propeller. The smell of smoke and avgas once the engine caught on was also unforgettable. Those days, and rightly for the Tiger, we operated from a grass strip and dispersal because of the tail skid which tended to break on hard concrete surfaces. The small concrete dispersal was generally used for parking of a few Pushpak aircraft of the Flying Club. The feeling when we taxied out was almost like being in a First World War movie with our leather helmets and goggles. Perhaps, the only thing missing was Snoopy’s scarf flying in the wind out of the cockpit. However, to have something like that in my clothing may have been too presumptuous or arrogant at that stage of training. We rolled down the runway for take-off on a green flag signal from the tower and were soon airborne with me lightly following Homi on the controls and correlating his control movements with the attitude of the aircraft in the stages of climb and level flight to about 1000 feet. Homi demonstrated a turn to each side shouting out the coordinated movement of stick and rudder required for a balanced smooth turn and then suddenly asked me to try some turns. I think I did okay since soon Homi was showing me and asking me to do a climb and descent with some turns. Unfortunately, the most enjoyable experience of this flight came to a very rapid end since we were soon on circuit where Homi displayed a circuit and landing with a roller and then asked me to do some while gently guiding and correcting me through the circuit. I don’t really know whether he actually did the landing but he certainly made me feel that I was doing it on my own with him monitoring it. Soon, in the next few flights, Homi was letting me perform most of these manoeuvres myself with some gentle instructions and nudging to perform them well and kept building up my confidence. Even on the ground after the morning’s flying or when he got out after two or three instructional trips for the aircraft to be refuelled, he spent a little more time than expected debriefing me on the errors I had made and corrective measures. Sqn Ldr Rane was also always on hand on the ground after our flying to collectively check with us on what we had learned that day and steps to improve our control of the aircraft before we broke up for the day. Homi is the one who built my foundations in aviation correctly. For example, he showed and told me to hold an attitude that felt correct with the chosen engine setting for that particular condition of flight without worrying about the speed or the height, trim and wait to see whether the aircraft would settle down at the correct speed/height. All this while, I could look around and do other things. Once the aircraft settled down, he taught me to change the attitude just a bit, if required, hold, trim and wait again.
Homi with the Tiger Model VT-HRM, September 2021
Later, with more experience, I developed this further on my own to tailor this technique for fighter flying by smooth movements of the controls without chasing the instruments thus getting a lot of time to do all the other things one needed to focus on for fighter flying. Without being a fighter pilot, Homi demonstrated this technique of flying by the “Seat of the pants” that many fighter pilots that I flew with later either did not know or did not follow. Later in the Air Force, I taught this technique to all my pupils and subordinates when I flew with them. By the fourth sortie, Homi was showing me dives and climbing turns over the nearest lake, Yeshwant Sagar, as if we were in an attack against some imaginary surface target or just beating up a boat. Around this time, he also told me that I was ready to go solo. Unfortunately, Indore airfield was then going under surfacing works to build it up for regular aircraft and civil flights instead of the grass strip good only for flying club activities. Concurrently, the CPI, Mr Bhojwani, did not seem too fond of NCC cadets, and particularly me perhaps, and though I was taken for a check ride with him soon after, he decided that no solos would be permitted and I just got a total of about 10 dual trips on the Tiger instead of the 50 hours before Sqn Ldr Rane decided to divide the available flying effort and give more number of cadets the experience instead of wasting 50 hours of dual flying on a limited number of cadets. Soon after, I also went out of Indore for the NCC Commonwealth Camp in Singapore in August 1965 which, with the selection and debrief process, kept me away for almost a month. This was followed by a call from the Services Section Board (SSB) at Dehradun for the Air Force. My pre-IAF flying thus ended with just those few but most enjoyable flights in the open cockpit of the Tiger Moth. Perhaps, as importantly, Homi taught me about personal relationships and the caring attitude for pupils to nurture them slowly, based on individual ability, and make them good aviators. Many of his civilian students went on to become instructors themselves with one actually opening his own flying school. Due to this friendly but firm attitude of Homi, he was easily the most popular pilot in Indore Flying Club, with his popularity further enhanced by his good looks and easygoing personality. Every other evening, most of his students would gather at his small house in New Palasia in Indore for a cup of tea and a chat with Homi wherein Homi and his equally charming wife, Alma, would play the gracious hosts despite their meagre earnings from the flying club and Alma’s nursing. Alma would also make everyone feel at home and comfortable leading to great inter-personal relations and confidence-building in the student pilots. This personal interaction was a major contributor to character-building in his pupils. Like they say, behind every successful man there is a woman and “Ally” was the one behind Homi. Soon after I joined the Air Force, my younger brother Deepak also flew with Homi for his Private Pilots Licence and Homi and Alma became family friends even with my parents. A few years later in 1969, Homi shifted to Bhopal Flying Club where I could still visit them quite frequently on my way to Indore on leave since most trains passed through Bhopal and we had to change trains there. After many years in Bhopal, Homi moved to Baroda where he flew for the flying club as the CPI as well as for an industry as their corporate pilot and I lost touch with Homi and Alma. It was one of those corporate flights that brought Homi to Poona in 1998 when I was commanding the base and we spent a great couple of hours together reviving our memories of the old days. It was my honour to host him even though it was a short trip and we got little time together before he had to fly back to Baroda. After retirement, I kept in touch with Homi and Alma and have visited them in Baroda a couple of times, always having a wonderful time with them. They remain great hosts as ever and I remain eternally grateful for having learnt so much from Homi Mistry, my very first flying instructor and a role model, with the same initials.
Representational photo of the Tiger Moth (Photo by Alec Wilson/commons)
Representational photo: Rear quarter view of De Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth at Avalon Airport, Australia, in March 2005 (Photo: Gsl-commonswiki)