Rajan Kanagasabai

I was born almost 4 decades ago, when Technology was a toddler - Memory was to remember, chips were crunchy wafers for snacks, Byte was what an aggressive dog did and an apple was something you ate.

Spent my early years at a town called Coimbatore. I completed my degree, did a few odd jobs around Coimbatore (Elgi & Aurelec) for almost a decade before landing a job with a MNC (Digital Equipment Corporation USA) for a few years and finally moving to India’s top IT company at Chennai for the best part of my career as of today .

I’m passionate about the things that interest me, like Photography, cars, Planes, Bikes, Golf to name a few. Being from Coimbatore, where cars, rallying and racing is a passion (if not a religion), I was no different. Dabbled with a few of those, Was a student pilot at senior school and continue to fly RC’s even today.

Wildlife has always been my fascination since college days and photography was a an added incentive. My wife (a Birder) and daughter are travel bugs like me and we enjoy travelling to holiday resorts around the world and to most of the forests within the country very frequently.

We (family) are members of most of the leading Environmental forums like MNS (Madras Naturalist Society), WWF, Greenplanet, INW (India Nature Watch) to name a few. I am the destination expert on the Trip Advisor forum apart from representing trade bodies like CII, Nasscom etc on behalf of my organization.

Look forward meeting up with all of you and sharing experiences and working together for environmental causes.

Rajan

Rajan,
Good to know about your passion for flying. I dream of shooting the amazing aerial views of our wilderness areas while strapped from the belly of a helicopter.

I am glad that you are flying those remote controlled planes and experimenting with mounting your camera abroad those planes. Guys watch out. Rajan can spy on you using his remote flying machines. :D

Catch up with you soon.

Hi Rajan,

Its great to know more about you.

You said you were a student pilot, you have SPL (Student Pilot Licence)? On which aircraft have you taken the licence?

I too am quite interested in flying.


Cheers,

Hi Mrudul

At college (NCC) we were on Neon Baby's (towline gliders) for our Solo's. Once done, we graduated to Pushpak's (senior NCC) which provided the SPL opportunities. Later, continued the same on a Cessna (see picture).

Read my first solo experience at the following link and do let me have your comments.

http://www.geocities.com/mrajank/solo.html

Rajan

Hi,

It was great to read about your first solo flight.

I have not taken it still :-( . I have given exams for Cessna 152 and Cessna 172 for PPL and CPL, but that was long time back. I have flown in Cessna but not solo.Gliding I have taken a few joy rides but not solo their either.

I want to get back to flying and complete my PPL on Cessna sometime, or atleast do gliding and take a solo there.

Dont know when that will happen.Lets see.

Hi Mrudul

Thanks for the note. By the way, as you would have read from my 'Frist Solo' it was on the glider. I've never solo'ed on Powered aircrafts.

When we start at NCC during college, we effectively have 12 months of real flying. Until then it is theory, aeromodelling, ground activities etc. These aircrafts loaned out to the NCC by the Airforce are spread / shared across multiple colleges and this reduces the chances of going solo on powered planes, after you graduate on gliders ..

Once out of college, pursuing this privately, is not a viable option for the common middle class person in the country (If you are born with a silver spoon - it is a different story). So you get to work and save up for some of your hobbies and this lets one fly a few hours every month. Maybe one weekend day every month and to solo, you will have to blow a fortune.

Today, when you are in a position where you can afford to pursue this, a completely different set of challenges now confront us. Air traffic is so high, permission from ATC (Air traffic control) for training and hobby flying is a challenge. The aircorridors in the mornig and evening are filled by commercial and international jet liners and hence permission for low flights (for the Cessna, Piper types) are impossible over the cities. Even the small slots are in the mid afternoon's for a short window. Hence this has now been pushed out to the suburbs like Pondy for real flights. Even RC flying frequencies are banned in the city and we will need to drive out to Sholavarm to fly those models. The challenge here is to drive all the way to pondy, fly for a few hours, drive back, on precious weekends when we will need to balance tiime for the family, other hobbies like RC Flying, Golf, Photograpy ....... Time can really be a sparse commodity.

Lastly, as we near the forties, the choice is a nice cold beer over a 18 hole golf during the weekends, rather than drive around to Sholavaram or to Pondy!!!!

Maybe this is life's way of balancing out priorities . . . . .

Rajan

Hi,

Yes to get solo on powered plane, you will need to have a PPL, with SPL one wont be able to fly solo on Cessna or Piper. So had thought of doing PPL, or atleast doing gliding so i can have a solo in gliders.

I am aware of the cost for a single flight in Cessana.To get a PPL I will have to complete minimum 40-60 hours, plus the exams. That will definately go in Lakhs. Doing gliding might be the only other option to enjoy the feeling of flying solo.

I had done my ground training from BFC (Bombay Flying Club, Juhu) and had given SPL,PPL and CPL exams, and had done some flying with the instructors, when I was in college.Due to some unforeseen conditions, I had to leave it and couldnt continue with it as a career.
So hoping to make atleast one solo flight sometime.Keeping in mind all the things you have mentioned, gliding seems to be the best option.Lets see when I will be able to do it.

Hey,
Good luck to you all. I hope you all are able to fly. However, I am booking my seat from now. Would love to do some photography when you people are having fun flying.

Hey Sabya Bhai one seat for me too... ;) I did have a go once on a Cessna with a trainer pilot next to me. He told me what to do when landing and I somehow managed it. :O