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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0268.PDF
282 FLIGHT, 28 February 1958 PAKISTAN AIR FORCE Part By HUMPHREY WYNN The Commonwealth's Youngest Air Arm AN invitation was recently extended by the Pakistan Air Force to"Flight" to see its facilities and study its operations. Fart I of this article was published last week and the staff member to whom theassignment was given concludes his impressions in these pages. OUR first flight—one of 3£ hours from Mauripur to MiramShah—took us over the magnificent Sukkur Barrage,which controls the waters of the great Indus on its long journey from Kashmir to the Sind desert. At Miram Shah, wewere in a world totally different from the humid metropolitan atmosphere of Karachi: here the air was clear and sweet, in aworld of dry brown mountains lifting towards the Afghanistan border which at its nearest point is only 12 miles away. As soon as we landed, five Furies of No. 9 Squadron took offto give a rocket-firing demonstration against a target on the airfield, which is 3,070ft above sea level. They rounded off their groundattacks with two formation loops, the aircraft looking magnificently picturesque against the high white clouds and tawny mountains.No. 9 Sqn. is based at Kohat and keeps only two aircraft on detachment at Miram Shah, where at night they are housed insidethe fort in small hangars once used to take the R.A.F.'s Harts and Audaxes and now slightly enlarged for their present-day occupants. The fort itself, with its_ square mud walls and lookout posts,is a fascinating and historic place. Built in 1905, it is still—as in those more troubled pre-war times—completely self-contained,water wells and all domestic buildings being within the compass of its walls. The only exception to this fortified enclosure is asports stadium built in 1957 by the Tochi Scouts, who as part of the Frontier Corps (whose headquarters is at Peshawar) man thefort. They are Pathans, and one of the excitements of a visit to Miram Shah is to watch them perform some of their infinitelyvaried and potentially endless tribal dances in the stadium. In pre-war days, the R.A.F. used to keep a squadron at MiramShah; as did the P.A.F. until recently it reduced its force to a detachment from No. 9 Squadron, whose chief function is toundertake police actions on the border if help is asked for by police or civil authorities. The last one was carried out abouttwo years ago. Over a door of the squadron crew room at Kohat is a notice which would ring familiarly in the ears of pre-warR.A.F. pilots once stationed there, for it says: "Our aim is to defend the North-West Frontier." The squadron, which is commanded by S/L. Zulifiqar and has ared dragon as its badge, is one of the oldest in the P.A.F. since with Nos. 5 and 6 it was one of the three units to come over fromthe I.A.F. in 1947 as the nucleus of the new air force. It is now the only P.A.F. fighter squadron to be equipped with piston-engined aircraft, and had the honour in 1951 of forming the first P.A.F. formation aerobatic team. The precision with which theformation loops were performed at Miram Shah (and, the follow- ing day, at Kohat) seemed to prove that the squadron's new mem-bers have inherited their predecessors' skill. Kohat is a blending of the former R.A.F. station with newP.A.F. buildings, for as well as being a squadron base and storing Bristol Freighters in its hangars, its chief ground function is tohouse the P.A.F. Recruits' Training School. At the station there is also a non-technical training school (as opposed to the technicalcentres like the Apprentices' School at Korangi Creek and the School of Electronics at Malir) and an M.T. training school; acourse in administration for officers is run there; and the Inter- Services selection board for officers is also at the station. There are about 1,100 airmen in the recruits' training school,some of whom must have had long journeys from distant parts of the country to reach there. For example it is about 700 milesfrom Karachi, and recruits coming from East Pakistan have had over a thousand miles to travel. (All P.A.F. journeys betweenEast and West wings of the country are made by air.) The recruits' training contains a large amount of drill and P.T., with plenty oforganized games; and in the healthy atmosphere of Kohat—which is removed from any metropolitan distractions—they get a goodintroduction to P.A.F. life. There are up to 150 students in the non-technical trainingschool; about 85 airmen are receiving M.T. training (though their number fluctuates); and about ten officers at a time attend theadministration course. Altogether Kohat houses approximately 2,500 personnel, in addition to a large number of civilians. Com-manded by G/C. M. M. Paracha, it is a historic (started by the R.A.F. in 1924) and beautiful spot, with a fine climate and plentifulvegetation. One of the treasures of its Officers' Mess is a salt-cellar inscribed as having been presented by "F/L. B. E. Embrey." Flying from Kohat south-eastwards to Lahore, one passesquickly from the brisk dry frontier world of Yeats-Browns' Bengal "Flight" photograph P.A.F. Kohat from the airfield control tower, showing Hawker Furies (left foreground), Bristol Freighters and—in the background—the station buildings, dominated by the Training School. Lancer to the busy metropolis of Kipling's Kim, ancient seat ofthe Moghul emperors and capital of the Punjab. At Lahore air- field (the civil airport is at Walton, a few miles away) the P.A.F.has its transport aircraft headquarters. No. 6 Squadron, like No. 9 one of the "old originals" and now equipped with Mk 31 BristolFreighters, is based there and so is No. 3 (Transport Conversion) Squadron which has six Mk 21s. The organization of the station,with its flying, technical and administrative wings, is much the same as at R;A.F. stations; and the officer commanding (W/C.S. I. R. Bokhari) is directly responsible to the A.O.C. of No. 1 Group at Peshawar. Other units on the station include the CentralMedical Board, a Provost branch and a wing of the Shahin A.T.C. with three gliders—a Sedbergh, Grunau Baby and an Olympia. No. 6 Squadron, whose flying task is 800 hr per month, drawsits pilots either from the P.A.F. College at Risalpur or from the fighter squadrons, via No. 3 T.C.S. Its role was succinctly dennedby the CO., W/C. M. I. Rahman, as that of flying "anything from a V.I.P. to a flour-bag—anywhere in Pakistan or elsewhere."This rdle is fulfilled in several ways: —straightforward transport duties in West Pakistan, and between the West and East wingsof the country; supply-dropping to Army units in Kashmir (from April to October a detachment is maintained at Chaklala for opera-tions into the Gilgit area); flood relief in E. Pakistan and also (though less regularly) in W. Pakistan; runs to the U.K. andAustralia for training or supplies and when other commitments permit; and odd special duties such as transporting U.K. aviationjournalists visiting the P.A.F. During 1955, the squadron flew 146 sorties (343 hr) on W. Pakistan flood relief; and in 1956 it flew108 sorties (219 hr) on similar duties in E. Pakistan. The squadron also has its own training flight, which gives 6 or 7 hours' traininga month to "A" and "B" category crew members and 8 to 10 hours to the lower categories. (Every crew member on the squadronmust have a category: there is at present one "A" pilot—the C.O. —and one "A" signaller; there are four "B" pilots, two "B" naviga-tors and three "B" signallers. After pilots have reached "C" stan- dard it is left to them to improve their category.) The transport conversion squadron at Lahore, with an averageof eight pilots, navigators and signallers on each course and two courses a year, aims to bring incoming crews up to "D" categoryor an equivalent standard. Some pilots come to Lahore by direct entry from Risalpur and do not have sufficient flying experience fora "D" category, though they may prove to have the requisite ability. When they go on to No. 6 Squadron they must in sixmonths achieve a "D"; then within a year and in two attempts have to improve this category to "C." Categorization is thus a key word at Lahore, and the syllabusand method of tuition employed is basically the same as that in the R.A.F. Three years ago the Transport Command categorizationteam visited the station, and subsequently four crews from the squadron went to Dishforth for categorization there. The P.A.F.'sequivalent of the T.C. team—the Transport Crews Examining Unit, headed by S/L. Z. Butt—now visits Lahore twice a year andcategorizes half the squadron on each visit. The Bristol Freighter is well liked by P.A.F. transport crews,though its lack of speed is felt to be a disadvantage on long hops— especially when flying from East to West Pakistan.One of No. 6 Squadron's regular and most severe operations is the supplying of Pakistan Army units in Kashmir, and I was able
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