Dream machine: Cessna

Flying school to take wings in August

Jamshedpur, May 20: In its maiden venture to hand over joysticks to youths from remote areas, the state government has formed a co-operative society for commercial pilot training.

To realise its goal, the government has even decided to bear the costs — about Rs 15 lakh per trainee — for 30 out of the 150 students to be admitted in the two centres in Jamshedpur and Dumka. According to rules, 25 candidates from SC/ST category and five from OBC segment would benefit from the government funds.

The government has already allotted Rs 5 crore in this year’s budget to establish Jamshedpur Co-operative Flying School, which will come up on a five-acre plot at Sonari airport. The centre in Dumka is under construction.

Officials at Jamshedpur Co-operative Flying School said two aircraft from the US would be acquired for training. Having already placed orders for the consignment, they are waiting for final release of funds to get the aircraft so as to start the institute in August.

“We are buying two Cessna 172 from the US. We have two defunct Pushpak aircraft, which will be renovated soon to offer training to a large number of aspirants simultaneously,” said Prashant Singh, one of the board directors of the flying school.

Each of the four-seater Cessna would cost Rs 1.5 crore while several lakhs are necessary to bring the two-seater Pushpaks back to flying condition. Sources at the institute said that “talks are on to acquire three more aircraft from the government”. All the aircraft would shuttle between Jamshedpur and Dumka — a 40-minute one-way journey — to impart training to wannabes at both the places.

Each of the students would need 200 hours of flying experience to be eligible for getting a commercial pilot licence. With one flying hour costing about Rs 6,000-7,000 — depending on the price of aviation turbine fuel — a student would have to shell out not less than Rs 12 lakh to get licence for commercial flying.

In fact, girls aspiring to become airhostess can also join the flying school but the government would not fund them. “It will be done through independent funding,” Singh said.

Both the flying schools would have a hostel and staff quarters, with the airhostess training being confined to the steel city initially. The administrative control of the flying schools would be vested with officials in Ranchi.

An independent office will manage the day-to-day affairs. The board of directors would have representation of top-notch government officials to facilitate easy access to taking decisions at the administrative level.

The response to the two flying schools would help the co-operative society to sanction funds for setting up more such institutes across the state.