Drama over the Karakurams

Sac

I am sorry to hear about your friend. That is a tragedy one sees often enough in any Air Force.

In fact your final drill story reminds me of another incident related to me by an officer who switched from Logisitcs to Navigation. A certain rather well known (and well hated) Air Marshal had ordered a flying drill in which they were supposed to fly AN 32s at 3000 feet at night time...and get this..the flight was from Gorakhpur to Jamnagar (Gulf of Kachh, Gujarat) Luckily, no crashes but a lot of sweaty palms.

Fuzair: The most wilds I was exposed too was the charming hill town of Mussoorie in the Sivalik range which are the foothills before the actual Himalaya range starts. Small town, great school and enough wildlife and rambling in the Khuds to keep an 8 year old happy.

fuzair,

Yes, this has brought back a lot of good memories. You were extremely lucky to make it as far as the khunjerab. Landslides wreaked havoc with many of our excursions.

You Alouette remark reminded me of a very dear friend of mine(stuka, you might enjoy this one too!) who transferred from the Corps. of Engrs to Aviation. He went to the US in the late 80s to ferry back the Cobras. I think they trained in the Mojave desert with a bunch of pilots from various countries. The final drills involved flying as low as possible at night time on the assigned trail. My friend came in second....behind an Israeli pilot who allegedly flew only 10 inches above the ground!

Sadly my friend died in an air crash in Siachen a couple of years later. At least he died with his boots on.

later
-sac

Sac,

This brings back many memories, mostly good/happy ones, about my time in Gilgit; including having my jeep get stuck in a slide when the mud started flowing again and having to be winched/towed out by an obliging FWO tractor, driving a jeep across some really exciting looking bridges and stupidly trying to see how far I could run at Khunjerab Pass (about 20 yards before collapsing!). We spent some time up at Kalam Darchi (KD) fort, then the home of the Army`s Mountain Warfare School, and marvelling at the intrepidity and courage of the long gone Gora Saabs who built it in the 1920s, three weeks walk from Gilgit! We were going to try going up to Mintaka Pass but discretion got the better part of stupidity.

Stuka:

Sorry to bore you and sorry also that your experience in the ``wilds`` weren`t as fun as ours!

I was in Air Force station Gorakhpur (Indo-Nepal border) in 1977-78. I wasn`t close to Polo grounds but I used to see Canberras and Dakotas flying there. Oh yeah, that was also the year I saw Sanjay Gandhi and Indira Gandhi for the first time. Their juloos passed in front of our house. We were staying in civil area at the time waiting for house to be available on the base itself. That was the year they lost power.

I know it is a complete digression from the article itself but I thought it would add color to the discussion.

re fuzair #45:

I was there in the summers of 77-78. Our house was a couple of blocks from the polo grounds. And I can very well undertand your reluctance to take part in the festivities :)

Naltar was definitely a gem. It had skiing and Markhors. I think they are near extinction now. We had to stay in the aptly named survival school for a couple of days because of landslides. I wonder how much things have changed since then.

later
-sac

NHK #41: ``No. This is Shahid Javaid. He is an Air adviser in Qatar these days.``

Would this be the same guy who was the first Pakistani F-16 pilot.

``I did not know that Shahid Zulifqar was into politics these days.``

I think he is now one of the key members of Imran Khan`s PTI.

re: #43

Yes, saw quite a few polo matches at the Aga Khan Polo Grounds in Gilgit, even knocked the ball about a couple of times on the NLI ponies but you couldn`t pay me to take part in one of their matches, though!

We went up to Naltar a few times (by road and hitched a ride in a heli a couple of times as well) and that is a scarily spectacular drive! Whats even scarier is when the Alouette pilot gets down to about 20 feet above tree level and roars down the valley with his nose down! The Naltar area is absolutely stunning and does indeed look just like Switzerland. Some of the cottages the Brits built there also look a bit like Swiss chalets; and the cherries are excellent. The PAF really does itself well up there; I think they have their winter survival school there IIRC. There is a little ski slope they have there as well but never tried the skiing.

I was there in 1990-91 (been there a couple of times before and after that but for short vists). When were you there?

Regards.

Ref rahul_capri #40

[I just came to know it is a book ;on an impulse I looked it up on the Internet. Seems interesting to me.]

Yes, it is. And it has been a best selling book in England and has crossed the Atlantic over to the US.

[P.S. I know I came off as a pedant. I hope I was not disrespectful.]

Not at all. It just gave me the opportunity to post that joke about the panda!

re fuzair #37,

I was not even in my teens at the time, so many earthly delights escaped my attention! I do remember meat being a rarity. Trout was plentiful though and so were pomegranates. Naltar and Hunza were gorgeous but the food left a lot to be desired and electricity was a luxury. Did you get to watch the polo games in Gilgit?

later
-sac

nazarhayatkhan #41

He has joined Tehreek e Insaf of Imran Khan.

Banjara # 39

No. This is Shahid Javaid. He is an Air adviser in Qatar these days.

I did not know that Shahid Zulifqar was into politics these days.

Harimou #31
I just came to know it is a book ;on an impulse I looked it up on the Internet. Seems interesting to me.
P.S. I know I came off as a pedant. I hope I was not disrespectful.

NazarHayatKhan.
Nice narration. Would Shahid be AM Shahid Zulfiqar, who retired a couple of years ago and is now a budding(?) politician?

aslam #35 no disrespect, but you were obviously sleeping in class when your english teacher was discussing when to put commas.

But seriously, you make a very good point. This article is written in clear, simple words and therefore the reader`s attention is focussed on the story itself.

veeresh: i agree with aslam and hope you will take aslam`s advice for your next episode. I found myself skipping over your lengthy prologues which I couldnt relate to the subject anyway. There was some very interesting material in your write-ups, but it tended to get smothered under excess verbiage.

As our famous muslim scholar Sheikh Pir wrote: Brevity is the Soul of Wit. (And I admit to forgetting Sheikh sahib`s advice myself).

Re: Sac #10

Did you ever try the Kashgari Pilau at the Kashgar Inn in Gilgit? Excellent although I would always ask for mine ``baghair ghost`` (was cheaper that way but that wasn`t why I asked for it like that; the meat used to be truly bad in Gilgit). Mantus were also excellent. If you were the tippling type you could also get pretty good Chinese brandy for a very reasonable price.

Aslam644 # 35, Yogiraj # 33, Asad_k # 32

Thanx. Folks. An encouragement always helps.

Veeresh # 30

French & American fighters use Pounds as measure of fuel and the Chinese use Litres.
The Civil Commercial aircraft use KGs and tons.