Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Aviators Society (HAS) will have its annual meet here to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the society which has 200 pilots as its members. A 90-year old member of this society and a Parsi captain from Pune will attend the event this year.
Capt S.P. Anil Kumar, the founder of the society has an experience of 35 years as a pilot.
Hyderabad has always been a hotbed for aviation since 1911 when the Nizam had set up an airport at Begumpet. Some of the prominent pilots who were members of the society were Capt. P.M. Reddy, Capt. Babar Mirza, Capt. Dastoor, and P.K. Ghosh.
Talking about the society, Capt Kumar, who flew about 22,000 hours, said, “it was the last week of July 2007 when I was reading the autobiography of JRD, ‘Beyond the Last Blue Mountain’, I realised how important it is to record history for the new generation. If not well preserved and documented, there will be nothing left for our future generations.”
“I made a quick visit to Andhra Pradesh Flying Club and got a bunch of contacts from 1970s. The telephone numbers were six or five digits. I along with a few friends at APFC decided to have a get-together and this is how ‘Hyderabad Aviators Meet’ was born. This was later rechristened as Hyderabad Aviators Society,” he said.
Sharing his vision for the future of aviation, Capt. Kumar said, he would continue his advocacy for aviators’ welfare and safety and readiness for future drones which would be single pilot airliners or pilotless taxis. Promoting eco-friendly practices in aviation by using alternative fuels, or may be electric jets for safe skies are his other dreams.
When asked about the recent collapse of the roof canopy of Terminal 1 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, he said it was unfortunate but such accidents occur everywhere. There was a collapse of roofs at Terminal 2 of Paris Airport in 2004, Manila airport in 2011, Kuala Lumpur airport in 2013, Seattle airport in 2020. However, there should be regular inspections and enforcement of building codes and proactive maintenance to prevent preventing such incidents.
He said that the world was looking at India as an aviation hub. For the future generation, this is going to be a threshold to new opportunities.
