Ready to take flight

Spruced up and ready to participate in the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of civil aviation in India in December 2012 is the Bombay Flying Club’s (BFC) Piper Super Cub, which has been painstakingly restored for the occasion. The 70-year-old two-seater has in its day been piloted by many of India’s top aviators, including the father of civil aviation in India, the inimitable J. R. D. Tata. Mumbai Mirror (MM) reported on May 16, 2012 that the single engine aircraft has now been certified airworthy. The BFC wanted Ratan Tata to take it up on its founding day, May 9, 2012, but he was not available. In fact, MM mentioned that though Tata is "thrilled to pieces” that a plane his relative and mentor flew is airworthy again, he refused to pilot its first flight.

A Piper Super Cub: "one of the best flying machines”

Historical value fuelled the restoration project, claimed the BFC, as reported by MM on February 6, 2012. Restoring the plane (it had been grounded for five years) involved tedious work done with precision. The aircraft has a metal frame and with fabric wings, said BFC president Mihir Bhagwati. "We are putting polyfiber, which is four times stronger than fabric. It’s not an easy job... but we have men capable of pulling it off. The engine is in perfect condition, though,” he explained.

Dr Firdaus Bativala, flying enthusiast and senior member of BFC, commended the work done by foreman Eric Lobo, 75, referring to him as "the only trained personnel in Bombay who can put the wings together.” Lobo and his team of around a dozen students of aircraft maintenance engineering have now completed this task, "making it the first such” in the country’s aviation history, notes MM. Despite encountering interference from the Airports Authority of India and Directorate of Civil Aviation, the BFC has made the Cub airborne, as its single engine is certified air worthy.

Imported in the 1940s, the plane was registered with the BFC only in 1951. Until the late 1990s it was used frequently by trainee pilots. In its new avatar senior members of BFC will join the list of users. BFC’s chief flying officer C. Kumar acknowledged to MM that everyone is thrilled with the restoration. "I have such fond memories of this plane. It is one of the best flying machines we have had,” he said.