Jain (left), Prakash (middle) and Shekhar inspect the glider at Bagdogra on Friday. (Kundan Yolmo)

Bagdogra, Nov. 7: Inter-service camaraderie soared to new heights when an air force officer and an army cadet decided to tell the world about the National Defence Academy during a 15-day journey from Pune to Singapore in a single-piston engine glider that touched down here today.

Pilot instructor Wing Commander Om Prakash and army Cadet R. Shekhar of the NDA’s Flying Club left Pune on November 3. They have been to Kathmandu and Patna before landing the air force base here.

“We have taken up this trip after the IAF’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations to tell the youth, especially in foreign countries, about the NDA,” said the instructor. “NDA, set up in 1945 in Pune, is the first and largest institution in the world which provides tri-service (army, navy and air force) training under one umbrella.”

So far, 1,600 cadets from outside India have passed out of the academy. Among them is General Katwal, Nepal’s army chief who gave the duo a warm reception at Kathmandu airport on November 5. “He was happy to see two individuals from his alma mater,” said Cadet Shekhar.

That an army cadet has joined the air force officer on the trip has surprised Air Commodore A.K. Jain, the air-officer-commanding of the Bagdogra air base. “It’s an example of inter-service cooperation and camaraderie,” he said.

The glider, made in Austria, has a 79-litre fuel tank capacity that allows it to fly about 5 hours and 55 minutes. “We shall be flying between 7,000 and 8,000 feet above sea level, though this machine can go up to 16,000 feet. Our cruising speed will be about 250kmph and we shall be covering on an average about 300 nautical miles or around 500km every leg of the journey,” Prakash said.

From Bagdogra, the glider will fly to Guwahati, Silchar, Mandalay, Yangon, Phitsanlok (Thailand), Bangkok, Surathani, Lankavi (Malaysia), Kuala Lumpur and touch down at Singapore on November 18. Another team will replace the duo on the return flight.