Air Marshal (R) Harish Masand says…I learnt more than flying from them: PRATAP RAO

09 Dec 2022

Perhaps a little late in life and my service career, I first met Pratap Rao when he was a Squadron Leader and serving as an Air Force Examiner in the prestigious Aircrew Examining Board (AEB) based at Hindan outside Delhi. I had just finished my flight instructors’ training in the School by that name in Tambaram, Madras (now Chennai) in June 1974 and had been posted as a lowly and raw Category C instructor to the Air Force Academy (AFA) at Dindigul off Secunderabad. The Officers’ Mess in AFA had not been commissioned till then and all of us single officers had been billeted in the Cadets’ Mess. Within a few weeks of arrival at AFA, suddenly the Mess staff was abuzz with the news of an Air Force Examiner who had just arrived and was also accommodated in the Cadets’ Mess along with all of us. Some of the senior unmarried instructors in the Mess also spoke in hushed tones about this examiner who had come, perhaps to evaluate their instructional abilities and categories, which concerned them more than a bit. While we, Category C instructors, were not truly affected unless we were picked at random to fly with him for standardisation purposes, we were still mindful of our behaviour in the Mess so as not to give any wrong impression to this senior officer. As a natural courtesy, we avoided using the community toilets and bath of the Cadets’ Mess when he was around and till he had finished. Fortunately, I think our timings were different so we had no major problems on that issue. Popularly known as “Mickey” Rao, as I learned from others, for reasons which I got to confirm much alter as to why he had acquired the pet name of Mickey, I soon bumped into him in the corridor of the quarters one early evening. Totally contrary to the mental image of an instructoreating examiner, I found “Mickey Sir” to be very easy-going with a very soft voice and a perpetual hint of a smile. For some inexplicable reason, my mind immediately went to Paul Newman in the movie, Cool Hand Luke, even though Mickey Sir had little resemblance to Paul Newman or his role as a convict in that movie. Certainly, there were no blue eyes but the inner strength and calmness came out clearly to me in that short meeting. My pet name, thereafter, for Mickey Sir was “Cool Hand Luke” or CHL for short which many others picked up and used particularly when he was commanding 101 Squadron. After a brief conversation in the corridor that evening in which CHL spoke little and in very soft tones, he invited me to his room where I spent a few more minutes essentially doing most of the talking by way of introducing myself, apart from a brief mention of Squadron Leader Bhadkamkar, who was obviously a friend of CHL, and with whom I had the pleasure of flying in Hasimara just after the 1971 War when he had visited the squadron as an inspector from the Directorate of Air Staff Inspection (DASI). Our paths were fated to cross again soon and in July 1975, I landed up in 17 Squadron at Halwara on MiG-21Ms. Sqn Leader Mickety Rao was the senior flight commander of the Squadron under command of Wing Commander Jasjit Singh and I now had the opportunity to see CHL in action at close quarters for a longer period even though he was marking time to take over command of a squadron on promotion. I also had the good fortune of meeting Mrs Suman Rao at that time, though briefly since they soon moved next door to Adampur to command 101 Squadron. CHL Sir was imperturbable as ever while the entire Rao family seemed to carry the trait. Even Mrs Suman Rao always had a bigger smile than CHL and was ready to laugh at the slightest in everything in life or to make fun of something in a subtle way with tongue in cheek. Before they left 17 Squadron, I finally got the opportunity to fly with CHL Sir in a trainer for an Instrument profile which was the 13th, lucky though for me, exercise in the conversion syllabus. Before the sortie, CHL coolly just asked me if I knew what the profile was and when I said yes, he just said, “Let’s go do it then”. The tricky part in that profile, which I was doing for the first time, was an accelerating climbing turn through 180 degrees where you had to achieve the Mach number, the height and the turn precisely. If I remember correctly now, it was from 7 or 9 km to 11 km altitude through 180 degrees achieving a Mach number of 1.1 as you levelled out at 11 km while finishing the turn. CHL kept absolutely quiet throughout the sortie and when we landed, all he said in his typical laconic fashion was, “Get your flying hours and I will give you an MG”. I see from my log book that this sortie was on 3 October 1975 and Mickey Sir left for 101 Sqn soon after that.

As I had described in one of my earlier articles on Jasjit Singh, I was to leave 17 Sqn as soon as I got my Ops status, an issue that Jasjit Sir was upset about. I am not certain but, perhaps, Mickey Sir had something to do with it since 101 those days was a training sqn for young pilots on MiG-21Ms (Type 96) and I was a Cat B instructor. So, in early December 1976 as soon as I got my operational status on the aircraft, I was transferred to 101 Sqn in Adampur. This was my second tenure in that squadron and base where I had spent a year in 1973 on Su-7s. This posting gave me the opportunity to work under Mickey Sir, and for Malini to properly meet both Mickey Sir and Mrs Suman Rao even though we had just visited 101 for the Squadron anniversary party in late November and had met them briefly. In Halwara, Malini had joined me much later after the Raos had moved on because of non-availability of married accommodation for almost a year till mid-1976. In between, I had also done a short temporary duty in Adampur as a member for a court martial earlier and had called on the Raos on my own. Without any formal checks or delays, Mickey Sir immediately put me in charge of the training for young pilot officers converting on MiG-21Ms in the squadron with Flight Lieutenant “Charlie” Verma to assist me in this effort. He never interfered in the training programme that I formulated. This first included a revision of the technical information and Pilots Notes of the aircraft on the ground for a week or so before we commenced the conversion training for these pilots. All Mickey Sir did was fly with one of the younger pilots at random to see for himself what we taught these people. All this was done in a very easy and nonintrusive manner with never a frown on his face or any adverse comments. As a matter of fact, he was quite amused and laughed when he heard how Charlie had tried to install some financial discipline in the pupils by exhorting them to save more by putting more money in the provident fund than the minimum required. I had stayed away from this kind of talk since I was myself putting in the minimum and living hand to mouth while trying to live life to the fullest. That was hardly a financial management example for the younger folks. When Charlie asked the pupils what they were contributing, they shocked all of us with amounts that were many times more than any of us was contributing for a rainy day. Hearing their amounts after a long lecture by Charlie on this subject, all of us were actually in splits. He was also very patient with the trainee officers, who, like me in the earlier days, questioned the need for some patterns or training restrictions for them. I recall one trainee pilot who questioned the need for a standard circuit pattern for landing. When all explanations for the need, especially at the early stages, failed to convince him, CHL Sir told me to take him up for a trainer ride and let him come in for a landing from various non-standard points or timings. Sure enough, after messing up a few of these approaches, the trainee pilot never spoke on this issue again.

A similar and serene atmosphere seemed to prevail in the whole squadron, on the tarmac or dispersal as well as the Airmen’s Mess and billets due to the calm and fatherly way Mickey Sir handled people under him. I never heard him raise his voice on anyone, much less shout, regardless of the issue or the mistake the person may have made. As a matter of fact, the way he treated everyone in the squadron, down to the lascars, everyone did their best to please the “CO Sahib” lest he ever lost his smile or cool. It never ever got to that stage, impurtable as he was. The men worked in a similar fashion willingly and happily to meet the tasks regardless of the hours with a smile on their faces and I never saw a grumpy face or heard a complaining voice. I thus learned that such equanimity comes from self-confidence and there were certainly no doubts on Mickey Sir’s professional capabilities. The squadron flew well, meeting all its tasks as also serviceability targets, without any major problems or incidents that I ever heard of. Mickey Sir put his trust in his subordinates and nobody ever betrayed his trust or let him down. He just had innate faith that we would check everything very carefully on our own and perform while exercising due caution. Mickey Sir had also put me in charge of the Airmen’s Mess for a few months and I used to be a regular in the Mess to check the rations, quality of food as also their finances. Dining with the men and sharing some time with them, all I heard were some jokes and light banter with never a complaint. Of course, there were suggestions for improvement in the facilities available and CHL Sir did whatever he could within the resources of the squadron and the base, through his great relations with the Commander, to address these issues. As I observed, even the AOC, Air Commodore Dennis LaFontaine, treated Mickey Sir and 101 Sqn well.

During the squadron anniversary functions, including the “Pagal Gymkhana”, the spirit and enthusiasm to participate and do well in everyone was so evident. I carried this impression of the approach with its results, in terms of the output along with bonhomie, through my later career. Of course, it was difficult to emulate CHL in every aspect since that is something that came from within him and his inner resolve and strength. Not every individual is blessed with those qualities. Mrs Rao, in a very similar fashion, kept all the wives in fine spirits and got them to participate in every activity where they could contribute. I still recall how she convinced Malini to do a Charleston while also teaching one of the daughters, Amanda Daniels, to accompany her in the station party. The Rao’s treated all of us with clear affection and the response with respect was natural and automatic. After meeting Malini and learning that she was a Bengali, CHL Sir started calling me “Harish Babu” in his inimical manner, something that he has carried till date even after Malini left us. Due to all this and their treatment, our relations have remained strong and continued even after Mickey Sir handed over command to “Rondy” Raina in July/August 1977 despite the long breaks in between meetings due to the different assignments and different paths we went on. Many years later, I had the proud privilege of flying CHL Sir in a MiG-29 in Poona on 22 March 1989 when I was commanding 28 Squadron and he visited the station as Director Intelligence. As usual, he kept absolutely cool when I displayed a couple of my crazy manoeuvres and enjoyed the ride in that wonderful aircraft. During the customary tea party on Air Force Day in the Chief’s house on 8 October1989, we had a sombre evening due to the loss of Joe Bakshi in a Mirage-2000 that morning during the display. Malini and I were standing under a tree, far from the crowd, when Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister, walked across to us and spent over 30 minutes chatting, generally about flying but also the recent crash of Anatoly Kvotchur’s MiG-29 at the Paris Air Show and Joe Bakshi’s accident that morning. Nobody really disturbed us, not daring to barge in on the PM, but photographers had a field day, I think. Mickey Sir sent me a couple of those photographs with a note in his fine handwriting. I am attaching these with the note to show what an amazing hand he had, like everything he did. In mid-1990, while he was still D Int, he broke the news to me about having been selected as the next Military Naval & Air Attache (MN&AA) in Turkey just when I had finished over a year as Chief Operations Officer in Adampur as a Group Captain. Unfortunately, he moved on soon as the ACAS Inspections and while I was attached to Directorate of Intelligence at Air HQ for briefings and preparations for Turkey in early 1991, that was not to be and, finally, I didn’t make it to Turkey. Anyway, that is another story unconnected to Mickey Sir though I did miss him as the D Int then. I did meet the Rao’s frequently though when he became the AOC-in-C Western Air Command and then the Vice Chief, when I was handling the MiG-21Bis upgrade programme as the Director Aircraft Upgrade in Air HQ on the 4th Floor, a floor below him. Unfortunately, he retired in mid-1995 and was not around when I finally managed to have all the contracts signed on 1 March 1996. Soon, however, I caught up with the Rao’s in Poona, where they had settled down after retirement, when I took over the station in January 1997. In that tenure, we spent a lot of time with the Rao’s as well as the Palamkots, Macky and Naushad, since they got along well and were generally together. Since then, somehow, fate brought us together on many occasions and we have always cherished the time they take out for us and we spend together. Generally, that meant a meal whenever we were in Poona even after I retired. Once, we had a chance meeting in De Gaulle airport when all of us were returning from the US and catching the same Air France flight back to India after a break in France for sightseeing. In that encounter, we were also fortunate to see ONJ, my favourite female vocalist, or someone who looked uncannily like her, in person at the airport while she was also waiting for her flight, perhaps back to the US. Air Marshal Pratap Rao and Mrs Suman Rao have always been wonderful hosts and Malini, later even Amrita, and I have always had fun times while visiting them. He still calls me “Harish Babu” in jest which keeps us reminded of our past association and, of course, of Malini without even mentioning her passing. I personally have had a great time with a commander, mentor and guide like Mickey Sir though I suspect I did give him some anxious moments at times. But, then Mickey Sir has always been unflappable enough to handle those moments like the Cool Hand Luke he is.

Pratap and Suman Rao