I Learnt more than Flying from them: “Randy” Cowasjee

Author: Harish Masand (Retd)

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I learnt more than flying from them: “Randy” Cowasjee by Air Marshal Harish Masand
06 Dec 2021

HT-2s of the IAF in formation flight

A little background of how I joined the Air Force and the environment I came from is essential to understanding how Flight Lieutenant Ransford “Randy” Cowasjee had a positive effect on my career in the Air Force and my life. In early September 1965, while the Indo-Pak War was in full swing, I appeared for selection for the Air Force as a pilot at the No. 1 Air Force Selection Board, Dehradun having applied for the 99th GD (P) Course through the NCC Air Wing. At that time, I was pursuing my third year in the Engineering College in Indore. While I was doing well in academics, I imagined myself as becoming a nerd in the future with thick glasses, good in academics but nothing much else. Due to this fear, I was grabbing every opportunity to do something more adventurous through the NCC as well as other venues. Becoming a fighter pilot seemed a natural choice, in the absence of huge funding required for car racing those days. Having been selected, as one of two candidates from an all-India NCC Air Wing competition, and having just returned from the NCC Commonwealth Camp in Singapore in August 1965, I was supremely confident of getting through the Air Force selection particularly with some Tiger-Moth flying under my belt. I still recall the question posed by the President of the Selection Board, Group Captain George if my memory serves me right after all these years, after all the tests were over when he asked me why I wanted to join the Air Force and what I would do if I was not selected. The first was easy to answer since I had dreamt of flying fighters for a long time. However, for the second, I replied with a straight face that while I would be disappointed, I would continue with my engineering course to become an aeronautical engineer and try get into NASA. I don’t really know if that answer convinced the Board but I was sent on for medicals at CME and which also I fortunately cleared.

(L-R) Self , “Randy” Cowasjee and Flt Cdt “Rocky” Bhatia in 1966 (Photo: Author)

Unfortunately, thereafter nothing was heard from the Air Force for months and I thought that my opportunity had slipped by. Of course, my father was very happy with this long silence from the Air Force since he never wanted me to leave my engineering career and I continued with my college. Suddenly, in early March 1966, I was asked to report to Pilot Training Establishment (PTE) at Bamrauli, Allahabad for training with the 98th GD (P) Course at short notice. Excited as I was at finally getting an opportunity to realise my dreams, I hadn’t really bargained for what I initially got on the way. We reported for training at PTE Bamrauli around the 21st of March, 1966. The course trainees comprised of almost 200 direct entry cadets who had already done over a year of training at Air Force Administrative College (AFAC) in Coimbatore and various Elementary Flying Training Units (EFTUs) which were essentially based on civil Flying Clubs at various places to give some flying to the Air Force Flight Cadets. The other lot were about 50 ex-NDA cadets who had done three whole years of rigorous training at Kharagvasla. I was in the minuscule remaining lot of eight, four of which were ex-NCC and four ex-airmen. Quite obviously, these 250 odd cadets were very upset that eight of us joined them directly at PTE through a shortcut which made many of them pick on us whenever they could. For ease of administration, the eight of us were put along with the ex-NDA cadets who on the very first day defied the air force Sergeant, who was our drill instructor, perhaps because he was not as imposing or commandeering like the NDA drill Havildars/Saabs. For such misbehaviour, we were all immediately put on three days of CC or confinement to camp which meant a lot of punitive drills and parades along with reporting to the guard room every one hour after working hours. I still recall that this was the hottest March in the history of Allahabad for about 50 years and we were front-rolling on the hot tarmac for hours at end at a temperature of around 48 degrees Celsius on 23 March 1966. At the same time, exhausted as I was, I was also picked on by the ex-NDA and some direct entry cadets in the evening hours leading to a lot of fisticuffs and bruised faces. Concurrently, we also had to go through the technical lessons on the HT-2, the aircraft we had to start flying on soon. Later, when we started flying, the same heat also restricted our flying to early morning hours giving us a lot of time later in the day to do our studies, sometimes disrupted by such confrontations.

NCC and Singapore 1965 (Photo: Author)

I think my instructor, “Randy” Cowasjee, watched all this unobtrusively and developed a soft corner for me perhaps sympathising with what I was going through without ever talking about it. His attitude towards me was further reinforced when I started flying with him towards the end of March and all that Homi Mistry had taught me on the Tiger-Moth earlier in Indore came to the fore. I guess I did not do too badly since Randy was pretty rough on my other co-pupils, like “Rocky” Bhatia and Chhatwal, but never laid a hand on me or even yelled at me during flying. Remember this was the time when we had surplus pilots in the Air Force and the instructors had the luxury of throwing out anybody who showed the slightest sign of inability to cope or did not progress as expected in flying during training. The HT-2 was also a different animal compared to the docile and pleasurable Tiger-Moth, very demanding and with a vicious tendency to swing or ground loop during take-off and even more so during the landing run. I closely watched Randy’s use of rudders and ailerons in the initial sorties and demos and quickly imitated his technique and control movements in these two critical phases of flight due to which I was able to do my entire flying on the HT-2 in PTE, Allahabad without ever swinging or ground-looping the aircraft. Though we only did about 45 hours on the HT-2 in this initial training at PTE, what I had learnt through Randy came in very handy even eight years later during the Flying Instructors’ Course in Tambaram. For some minor reason not important enough to be mentioned here, I had to do my flying trophy check in FIS, Tambaram with then Group Captain PD Dogra on the HT-2, a propeller aircraft that I hadn’t flown since our training days, having moved on to jets and fighters.

The clean, and unpretentious, lines of the HT-2 are clearly seen

Perhaps realising that I was doing alright in flying, as well as ground subjects, and would make an acceptable pilot in the Air Force, after a couple of months, Randy also took care of my isolation and lack of friends during the course by inviting me and taking me along for jam sessions and socials in town on weekends where I could make civilian friends and get introduced to the civil society. Generally, Randy Cowasjee was accompanied by Squadron Leaders M Sadanand, HM “Herbie” David and Flight Lieutenant “Ronnie” Mitra accompanied with their spouses and all of them were very friendly and hospitable without ever treating me like a cadet in such outings. This exposure did a lot to boost my self-confidence while polishing up a village/ small town boy like me apart from taking care of my initial loneliness and lack of friends. With this renewed self-confidence, I could focus on my training better and started doing pretty well and soon, even my course-mates, who earlier used to gang up on me, pick fights with me and sometimes plastered me pretty badly, started making friends with me. On my part, I forgot about all the initial ragging and animosity displayed by my course-mates and developed lasting friendships with a large number of such course-mates which have stood the test of times, as experienced by me in the course reunion during the Golden Jubilee of our commissioning in 2017/2018 despite not having met many of them for decades and even recently during my travels. Randy showed me and taught me how to treat pupils differently based on their abilities, temperament and individual needs. In the circumstances that I did my initial training, having come from an academic background from a small town, not truly confident of making the cut as a fighter pilot and being picked on and ragged by my own course-mates, if Randy had behaved aggressively or had been abusive with me, I think I would have just not been able to survive and make a confident pilot later.

Sohrab Choksey and me with RM Y.B. Chavan just before departure for Singapore in August 1965 (Photo: Author)

Randy seems to have seamlessly taken over from my first flying instructor, Homi Mistry in Indore, who had taught me flying in an easy friendly manner while also permitting all of us to socialise with the Mistrys in after hours, as described in my previous article. His quiet guidance and grooming also held me in good stead later in my early years in the Air Force by accepting the hardships with equanimity and also responding correctly to the demands placed on me by my seniors. I still recall some similar occasions later in OTU, Jamnagar when I was converting on the Hunter, “Herbie” David was there too and asked me if I could drive them for a night outing in a 3-tonner since he had arranged the vehicle but had not been able to get hold of a service driver or an MTD, as they were called in the Air Force, or perhaps because he did not want an MTD around in such personal and private outings. Though I did not have a driving licence for heavy vehicles, I was somewhat familiar with the requirements with a little exposure to the truck drivers who used to work for my father. I not only drove them around in the 3-tonner but also knew my place in the outing and the socialising those evenings. Herbie later asked for me whenever he needed a driver for such outings earning me the sobriquet of “Corporal Masand”. The example set by Randy also helped me treat my own pupils and subordinates later in the correct manner which helped me create the right environment for them to develop to their full potential as pilots and officers without breeding contempt through familiarity. Some of my own pupils still remind me of those times that I look back on with great fondness. Thank you Randy Sir for all that you taught me.