Plane built on terrace cleared for test
Mumbai, Oct. 18: The citybased aviator Amol Yadav on Friday said that he has managed to obtain a “special” flying permit from the regulator DGCA for his sixseater plane-all built on his terrace—paving the way for its test- flight soon.
A former pilot with the now defunct Jet Airways and now flying a Boeing 737 for a budget carrier, Yadav has relentlessly been working for a fully “made-inIndia” plane for the past two decades.
It took almost six years for Yadav to build his selffinanced aircraft, which was for practical purposes built solely on the terrace of his apartment in the western suburb of Kandivili. “The DGCA has issued a special permit to my plane — VT-NMD — to ascertain its flying capability,” Yadav told PTI over phone from New Delhi shortly after receiving the permit from the DGCA headquarters on Friday.
According to the civil aviation requirement, the plane will have to fly 40 hours to demonstrate its flying capability but before that Yadav will undergo a 14-day test-pilot training under DGCA his invention.
Powered by a 350HP Pratt & Whitney single-engine, the plane is fully conceptualised, designed and built right here in the city itself.
The VT-NMD can attain a maximum altitude of 13,500 feet with its 100-kg-fuel tank and six landing gears. It will, however, fly only up to 9,000 feet only as it has an unpressurised cabin, he said, adding the calculated speed of the aircraft is 180 knots but the real speed will be assessed only during the actual flying.
He got the aircraft registered officials on with the DGCA in November 2017 as VT-NMD — which represents Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis — for their “wholehearted support.”
To complete the 40-hours mandatory test-flight, the plane will require some 120 takeoffs over a period of time with the first few sorties not expected to last more than 10-15 minutes, Yadav said. In 2016, the aircraft was exhibited in a government — sponsored trade show, where it was a huge draw.