Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 18: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, senior Army, Air Force and other police officers, were among a large number of people who witnessed the performance of ‘Sarang’ helicopters display at Air Force Station (AFS) here today. Peacock is called Sarang in Sanskrit. Apart from being the national bird, Sarang is the epitome of beauty and grace.
Sarang helicopter display team enthralled the audience by the performance for about an hour.
An IAF spokesman said dancing peacock is legendary and that is just the reason why the founders of the Hlicopter Display team of IAF named was named Sarang.
Even the colour scheme of the helicopters is the one in which a peacock is etched all over the Advance Light Helicopter (ALH) that the team flies.
On January 31, 2003 for the first time two ALH ac of the then ALH Evaluation flight took off and performed in unison. That day the Sarang team was born, ALH evaluation Flt was converted into 151 Helicopter Unit in December 2003. Today, Sarang is the only four ac, military helicopter display team in the world.
Year this year marks the 10th year of the displaying flying by this first ALH unit.
IAFs ‘Operation ‘Rahat’ has been the world’s largest heliborn rescue operation carried out by any Air Force.
During the Uttarakhand and Himachal floods of June 2013, the Helicopters rescued more than 21,000 civilians apart from dropping food and relief material amounting to about 400 tonnes.
Sarang team was also summoned to contribute its bit and was entrusted with operationalising and operating from a discussed Advance Landing Ground at Gauchar Airfield in Dehradun.
About 1000 civilians were rescued and 11600 kg of relief material was dropped by our team in the Kedarnath valley.
Advance Light Helicopter or Dhruv, as its is called, is first indigenous helicopter manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautic Ltd.
Commissioned into service in 2002, Dhruv is designed to meet the requirement of both military and civil operators.
Helicopter flying is associated with its own kinds of advantages and challenges.
The agility and versatility of this rotary wing ac makes it capable of carrying out a wide range of operations in varied terrains and climatic conditions of our vast country in its wartime role the helicopter carries out operations like Air Defence against aerial targets, ac and UAVs, counter surface Force Operations, destruction of enemy air defence operations and special heliborn operations which include slithering, para drops, quick insertion and extraction of the troops from enemy areas.
Display flying on the other hand is all about grace and beauty.
In this the pilots have to be deliberate and they operate at relatively low speeds, stretching the ac to their limits.
This deliberate attempt to remain in the visual bubble can be well understood by the fact that team flies within the boundary of just three sq km and in the height band of 50 mtrs to 140 mmtrs above ground level, operating within the speed limit of 100 to 240 KMPh.
Teams maiden display at Singapore in February 2004 was a resouding success. The unit also performed during Air show at Chile in June 2004.
It won rave reviews from the audience and the aviation industry alike.
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