An Oral History
Air Vice Marshal Sanjeev Narayan Deshpande

AVM Sanjeev Narayan Deshpande

Indian Air Force · Fighter pilot · commissioned 11 December 1981
Recording
Audio interview
Service
Rashtriya Indian Military College → Indian Air Force, F(P) branch
Selected service
  • Fighter pilot — HT-2, HJT-16 Kiran, Hunter, MiG-21
  • Ejected twice from the MiG-21 — the first in April 1985, at Sirsa
  • Commanding Officer, MiG-21 squadron, Pathankot — two and a half years to 2002
  • Operation Parakram, 2001–02, deployed north in winter
  • Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Inspections)
The Story

The Cheel

A kite went into the engine at a hundred and fifty metres. There was no runway left to reach.

The Living Epics Project

April 1985, Sirsa. A young Flying Officer on final approach. Eat, sleep and fly — nothing else to do in that place.

A thud from the front. Thrust gone, a burning smell, the nose dropping, the cockpit suddenly quiet.

The handle sits between your knees as you sit. He pulled it.

A bang, a kick in the back like a mule in a cartoon, and a few seconds gone. Then the ground, and the parachute around him.

His squadron mates looked at him strangely. Someone fetched a mirror from the ambulance.

“By the way, my eyebrows grew back!!”

Seconds, and a bird

How much of a life turns on training you hope never to use?

livingepicsproject.com
In Her Words

The full story, as I was told it

From the testimony of AVM Sanjeev Narayan Deshpande — Indian Air Force

I began by asking him about coffee pudding. We were at the same school, four decades apart, and it seemed the fastest way past the formality of a first call with a two-star officer. He remembered it instantly. He misses it, he said. Lots.

Then, for the next hour, he taught me what it costs to be allowed to fly. Before you are permitted into the cockpit there is a three-hour written examination: ninety-five per cent to pass on procedures and technical detail, a hundred per cent on emergencies. He was careful to correct an assumption I had not realised I was making — that flying is a skill you acquire and keep.

“Flying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle.”

He talked about navigation, and this is the part of the conversation I keep returning to. When he was flying they used what he called a moving thumb display — which is to say a paper map. You drew your lines on it and marked the time at each waypoint, and a waypoint might be a bridge, or a town, or a small smattering of huts in the desert. You memorised them. By the end of his career the aircraft took coordinates accurate to the metre and worked out the wind, the ballistics and the throw for itself. He is the first person in this archive whose central craft was superseded, inside his own working life, by a computer, and he described it without a trace of grievance. He seemed to find it interesting.

At the very end I asked for the one story he would not want lost. He said: Story? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.

Some days later it arrived, written out. It is set below exactly as he sent it, and I have not touched a word of it, because the way he tells it is half of what it is.

It is April 1985. He is a young Flying Officer at Sirsa, in Haryana — eat, sleep and fly, nothing better to do in that Godforsaken place anyway — and he is on final approach at a hundred and fifty metres when a kite goes into the engine. There is a thud, the thrust dies, there is a burning smell, and the cockpit goes quiet. He pulls the handle between his knees.

What follows is the detail I did not expect. He comes round on the ground, dazed, with the parachute around him, and his squadron mates arrive, and they are relieved — but they are looking at him strangely. Someone goes to the ambulance and comes back with a small mirror. He had landed close to the burning wreck. The smoke had painted a black mask across his face from the nose up, and taken his eyebrows with it. The oxygen mask had saved the rest. Not lowering his visor had cost him the eyebrows.

He was in the base hospital at Delhi Cantt for a week and back in the cockpit a month later.

“The poor engine had no chance. It screamed in agony and gave up.”

What he chose to draw from it is not the escape. He gives the credit to the training — he says his seniors praised his emergency reaction despite his limited experience, and that he attributes it to what they had taught him. It closes the loop on the whole interview: the three-hour examination, the hundred per cent pass mark on emergencies, rehearsing the sortie the day before. All of it exists for about four seconds in April 1985.

He mentions, almost in passing, that he ejected again ten years later, and that this is another story. I have asked.

The Keystone below is Air Vice Marshal Deshpande's own written account, sent to the archive by email after the interview and reproduced without alteration.

The Full Interview

The Shape of Memory

I.Coffee Pudding

InterviewerBefore the questionnaire — do you remember coffee pudding from College?
OfficerOf course.
InterviewerAnd do you miss it?
OfficerLots. Coffee pudding, of course. Why not? They served it at the reception dinner.

II.The First Cockpit

InterviewerYou joined the flying branch in the 1980s. When you first entered the cockpit, what were your thoughts? What did you imagine a fighter pilot's career would be, and what did it turn out to be?
OfficerTo be very frank, when you first get into a cockpit you are so — I won't say dazzled, but so engrossed in doing your checks and procedures — that you forget the rest.
OfficerBefore entering the cockpit you first have to pass something known as a gen test1. The pass percentage for the checks, the procedures and the technical details of the aeroplane is ninety-five per cent. And emergency procedures, a hundred per cent. It's a three-hour written thing. And before that you go through a maintenance conversion, which teaches you every nut and bolt of the aeroplane you are supposed to fly.
InterviewerWhat did it turn out to be? You flew several aircraft, and you've said the MiG was your favourite.
OfficerEvery aeroplane is a stepping stone. First you fly a piston-engine aeroplane, which is slow — but fully aerobatic. Aerobatics are part of the syllabus; they teach you to handle the aeroplane to the limits of its performance. We started on the Hindustan Trainer-22, which really took the juice out of you.
OfficerThen you graduate to jet trainers — the HJT-163 for us, and incidentally it is still flying. Then you graduate to Hunters4, and then the MiG-21s5, and then you carry on. Each aeroplane is a stepping stone: better performance, greater challenges, better hand-eye coordination, anticipation, situational awareness. But your instructors train you to do that.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · The gen test
A written general-knowledge examination on a specific aircraft type, covering systems, procedures and limitations, which a pilot must pass before flying it.
2 · HT-2
The Hindustan Trainer-2, a piston-engine basic trainer built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — the first indigenous aircraft to enter series production in India, and the type on which generations of IAF pilots began.
3 · HJT-16 Kiran
The Hindustan Jet Trainer-16, HAL's intermediate jet trainer, in IAF service from the late 1960s and still flying with the Surya Kiran aerobatic team into the 2020s.
4 · The Hunter
The Hawker Hunter, a British ground-attack fighter widely flown by the IAF from 1957 and used extensively in the 1965 and 1971 wars.
5 · MiG-21
The Soviet-designed supersonic fighter that formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force from the 1960s; more Indian pilots have flown it than any other combat type.

III.Split Seconds

InterviewerWhat does flying a fighter teach you about judgment that is difficult to learn anywhere else?
OfficerThe judgment in a fighter cockpit has to come in split seconds. You are flying around at eight hundred-odd kilometres an hour; any action you take, or any reaction to a situation, has to be in seconds. For that you have to prepare yourself on the ground.
OfficerThere is something known as going through your sortie the day before you fly it. You prepare for the particular exercise or mission — you go through the entire procedure from the time you get airborne to the time you carry out the exercise, and you rehearse at what stage emergencies could occur. So judgment becomes second nature. I'm not saying it doesn't happen for transport or helicopters.
OfficerFlying is something that is not natural to a human being. You have to learn it. It's not like riding a bicycle — once you've learnt it, you never forget. If you have learnt to ride a bicycle and you don't ride for fifty years, you will still be able to ride. It's not like that with flying. You have to be in constant touch and practice.
OfficerThese days you have simulators — 3D, 4D simulators which behave exactly as the aeroplane does. You can do everything the aeroplane does without ever leaving the ground. So that also teaches you judgment.
OfficerJudgment, as I said, is a split-second decision — particularly close to the ground. Do you know the most critical phases of flight? Takeoff and landing. Once you are at height you have a little time to react. But a fighter coming in to land at three hundred or three hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, everything has to be precise. By the book.
OfficerAt each phase of the approach there are height-and-speed combinations you have to adhere to. And there is the perspective of the runway as you see it — am I coming in too high, am I coming in too low. Being on the correct glide path1. If you are too high the runway looks like two parallel lines: imagine drawing two parallel lines and standing over them. If you are on the correct slope, the near part looks wide and the far part looks narrow. If you are too low, it just looks like something lying on the ground.
OfficerSo we have a joke in the Air Force. Don't be a frog. To a frog, it looks like a straight line on the horizon.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Glide path
The correct descent angle to a runway, conventionally about three degrees. Judging it visually, by how the runway's shape changes, was a core airmanship skill before instrument and satellite-based approach aids became standard.

IV.Analog to Digital

InterviewerYou spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. What changed most dramatically in that time?
OfficerThe Air Force is always a technology-intensive force. Always has been, always will be. In our time we were analog. The digital part of aviation, and of military aviation in particular, was coming in — but most of it was analog.
OfficerI'll give you an example. These days you have navigational systems. You've heard of GPS — you have it on your phone, like Google Maps. You punch in a place and Google Auntie tells you turn right, turn left, your destination is on your right. Similarly in the air, you have navigational systems.
OfficerIn our days these were what we called a moving thumb display1. We used to draw lines on a map and mark the time at each waypoint — which could be a bridge, could be a town, could be a village, could be a small smattering of huts in the desert. We marked those on the map and we memorised them, and of course we carried the map. It was all analog, it was all manual. Now that entire thing is done by the computers on board.
OfficerEven the attack systems. We had to aim our aiming index on the target visually. These days it is beyond visual range — the system on board tells you exactly where your target is, and the autopilot is interlinked with it. You feed in the coordinates of the target. And these are nine-figure coordinates, not four-figure — precise down to a metre. You have sub-metric resolutions these days.
OfficerYou feed those coordinates into your navigation and attack system, get airborne, let the autopilot take over, and you tell the system that this is the target and to release when appropriate. The system calculates everything — your speed, your altitude, the wind direction, the wind speed, the ballistics of the weapon you are dropping, and the forward throw. Forward throw is how far a bomb travels once you release it. It follows a parabola; anything thrown does. And at the appropriate distance, it releases.
OfficerTechnology has advanced so much that the pilot has now become a systems manager. Not entirely — he still has to take off and land. On some aeroplanes the landing can be done automatically. But not the takeoff. Takeoff is still manual.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Moving thumb display
Aircrew slang for navigating by paper map: the pilot's thumb moves along the pencilled track as the aircraft flies it, marking present position by elapsed time. The name survives as a joke against the moving map displays that replaced it.

V.Command

InterviewerOf all the appointments you held, which changed you most as a person?
OfficerAs a commanding officer. Because there you are responsible for your squadron — operations, the maintenance of the aeroplanes and the weapons and the systems, the administration, the welfare. You also have to look at the families. You have to look at all these aspects in totality, and you have to devote a lot of time to it, and you really have to get into the nitty-gritties.
OfficerAs a commanding officer your time in the cockpit is more or less the same, but at the same time you become responsible for everything else, and you have to interact with your higher-ups. If it does well, yes, you get the credit. But if something goes wrong, you get the boot.
InterviewerIs there a posting particularly close to your heart?
OfficerAll my postings are close to my heart. But once again — commanding officer. I commanded a MiG-21 squadron at Pathankot, for two and a half years. We did well.
OfficerWe were also involved in Operation Parakram1. The Parliament attack happened and we were all mobilised. It lasted quite a few months. My squadron's operational location was in the valley up north, and it was winter. Quite a challenge. But that was quite satisfying, at the end of it all.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Operation Parakram
The Indian military mobilisation following the attack on Parliament in New Delhi, which lasted from December 2001 into late 2002 — the largest Indian deployment since 1971. The attack itself took place on 13 December 2001; Air Vice Marshal Deshpande recalled the date as 6 December, and his account is preserved here as given.

VI.Becoming a Paper Tiger

InterviewerYour career took you from flying and instructing to higher headquarters. Which transition was hardest?
OfficerTransition is not difficult — you expect it, because you have seen your seniors go through it. It is a little difficult, yes. I stopped operational flying after my commanding officer's tenure, in 2002. After that you have to graduate. You get into the operational, maintenance and administrative side, to understand what exactly is happening and how you make things better. Be it procurement of weapons, procurement of new aeroplanes, or procurement of spares.
OfficerSo you have to do something known as file work. You have to become a paper tiger. It is difficult, because all your life you have been in the cockpit and insulated from this part of the job. But then you are expected to come up and do that also. And there is training at every stage. It doesn't come as a surprise.
InterviewerWhen you moved into higher headquarters, what did you begin to see about the Air Force that was difficult to see from the cockpit?
OfficerThat's a difficult question. This is when you start interacting with agencies outside the Air Force — in particular, the bureaucrats. They have their own way of working, which for a pilot is quite frustrating at times, because you have trained all your life to do things in a particular manner, and you want it done quickly and on time. Well, it doesn't happen that way.
OfficerYou have to become a little diplomatic. You have to learn how to put across your proposal in a manner that goes through the first time. But notwithstanding that, they also have a job to do. They have to look at one of the biggest aspects of the whole thing, which is finances — you want the bang for your buck, so what is the best way to do it? Well, they take their own sweet time.

VII.Learn to Inspect, Inspect to Learn

InterviewerYou became Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Inspections. After a career of being assessed as a pilot, what did you learn from being the person doing the assessing?
OfficerThere is a motto of the inspection branch of the Air Force: learn to inspect, inspect to learn. So it is always a learning process.
OfficerIt is a very structured process. There is a document laid down which tells the unit what to expect in the inspection, and we more or less strictly go by it. There are certain parameters that have to be met, and if the unit or the squadron fails to achieve them, they are not operational. They get a re-examination after about two months.
OfficerYou learn a lot, because at that stage you have to show a little empathy. You have gone through all those experiences yourself — the same ones as whoever you are inspecting. So you know exactly what to expect.
OfficerAnd there are certain things which are beyond the control of the unit. For example, certain spares for the aeroplanes are not available, so the number of aeroplanes is not there. What you record is: not available, but beyond the control of the unit. Those things have to come from the top.

VIII.No Regrets

InterviewerLooking back today, what gives you the greatest sense of fulfilment?
OfficerThe Air Force is a way of life. It's not that I joined because I was some great patriot, or desh ki seva karni hai1 — that is always there. But the sheer pleasure of flying, and that too in a fighter, is something unimaginable to others who haven't done it.
OfficerAnd it is not only the flying. It is also the family. The squadron is a family. We look after each other. The Air Force is a large family. We look after each other.
OfficerSo I have no regrets. And even if I had not made it to that rank, I would not have had any regrets. There was a time when I missed my board. I had given the examinations for the commercial pilot's licence, the airline transport pilot's licence2, and I cleared it. And I said, I'm leaving — I'll go and become a commercial pilot. And then that was not to be.
OfficerCommercial flying is totally different from Air Force flying. Whether it be fighters, transports or helicopters — military flying is different.
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Desh ki seva karni hai
Hindi: ‘one must serve the country’ — the conventional formulation of patriotic duty, which he invokes here in order to set it gently aside.
2 · Airline Transport Pilot's Licence
The highest grade of civil pilot licence, required to captain a commercial airliner. Serving military pilots sometimes qualify for it as a route to a second career.
·

The Keystone

InterviewerIn the end, I would like to request you to share a story — something special, something you feel should not be lost.
OfficerStory? What story? Let me think. I think I'll post it to you. In a couple of days.
Received some days later, by email, and set here exactly as written
You may recall I mentioned my two ejections from the MiG-21. Let me narrate the first one because, like all first things, it's unforgettable. Here goes…
I was a young Flying Officer (it's a rank) in my Sqn, then located at Sirsa, Haryana1. Life was good. Eat, sleep and fly. Nothing better to do in that Godforsaken place anyway.
It was a hot summer morning in Apr 1985. I was to fly a two-aircraft formation as part of my syllabus towards operational status. We got airborne. The sortie itself was uneventful. We came overhead to the airfield for landing. The ATC informed us of some bird activity on the final approach.
I was on the final approach to land at about 150 metres high when I heard a loud thud from the front. There was a sudden loss of thrust and a burning smell inside. The nose dropped. The cockpit went quiet. Instinctively, I knew that my engine had quit. A quick glance at the instruments confirmed it. Training kicked in, and I braced myself and pulled the ejection seat handle2. It's located in between the legs as you sit in the cockpit.
There was a terrific bang and I felt a huge kick in my back. Just like they show a mule kicking a person in cartoons! I think I lost consciousness for a couple of seconds. The next thing I realised, I was on the ground with the parachute around me. I was dazed and disoriented for a while. Later, I was told that my parachute opened and I touched down just in time. A few seconds later and I wouldn't have been here to narrate this story.
Nevertheless, very soon the rescue crew along with my Sqn mates were there. They were all relieved to see me alive, but were looking at me with a strange look on their faces. When I asked what's wrong, one of them quietly brought a small mirror from the ambulance.
I looked and found that my face was black nose up and my eyebrows were gone! It was as if a black mask had been painted on me. Like the one you see on bandits. I had landed quite close to the burning wreckage of my plane. The smoke and heat accounted for the mask and missing eyebrows. The rest of my face was protected by my oxygen mask, thankfully. But not lowering my helmet visor had cost me. My back hurt a little, but otherwise I was ok.
To cut a long story short, I was then airlifted to Base Hospital in Delhi Cantt. They took X-rays of my spine. Thankfully, it was ok. I was discharged after a week and was back in the cockpit a month later.
What had happened? Well, a kite, commonly known as a ‘cheel’3, hit my aircraft and was ingested in the engine. The poor engine had no chance. It screamed in agony and gave up.
I ejected in time. Without the engine working, the aircraft would have crashed short of the runway. It would have been curtains for me. In retrospect, it all worked out. My seniors praised me for the quick emergency reaction, despite my limited experience. I attribute it to the exceptional training they had imparted.
I was to eject once again 10 years later. That's another story.
By the way, my eyebrows grew back!!
Contextual Notes and Historical References
1 · Sirsa
An Indian Air Force station in Haryana, opened in the early 1970s and long a MiG-21 base.
2 · The ejection seat
A rocket-assisted seat that blasts the pilot clear of the aircraft and deploys a parachute automatically. At low altitude the sequence must complete in a second or two, and the acceleration is violent enough to compress the spine — which is why the first thing done on landing is an X-ray.
3 · The cheel
The black kite, Milvus migrans — a large raptor common over Indian towns and airfields, and among the most persistent bird-strike hazards in Indian military aviation.
Associated Archive

Photographs & Service Record

Photographs
AVM Sanjeev Narayan Deshpande
In service dress, wearing pilot’s wings
Photograph — to come
Requested: the black-and-white group photograph of his RIMC classmates, taken after the district athletics meet — “we said we must have a photograph for posterity”
Service Record
View Service Record
Education
Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun
Commissioned
Indian Air Force, 11 December 1981 · F(P) branch
Aircraft
HT-2 · HJT-16 Kiran · Hawker Hunter · MiG-21
Early posting
MiG-21 squadron, Sirsa, Haryana
Ejections
Two, both from the MiG-21 — April 1985 at Sirsa, and again some ten years later
Command
Commanding Officer, MiG-21 squadron, Pathankot — two and a half years, to 2002
Operations
Operation Parakram, 2001–02 — deployed to a northern valley through the winter
Staff
Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Inspections)