She has not been there before. May be that’s why she was more excited to see the metal birds fly. As I told her that there will also be stalls to visit, she imagined that they are FOOD stalls. Ha ha…
I planned to ride along
with my daughter (Smriti) on the final day of the Aero India-2019 edition as my
wife was out to Chennai for an official commitment. My wife & daughter were
worried about the fire that gutted 100s of cars the previous day. My view –
Whatever may be the reason, RIDE IS ON.
We started by 6:30 in
the morning from home to beat the heavy rush as it was the last day & open
for public. After a tea break in between, we reached the parking around 7:45.
At a distance, we saw the cars that were destroyed the previous day.
We boarded the bus
that dropped us till the gate, we walked inside the AF station and after
security checks, and finally we were there.
After a light
breakfast in a cafeteria, I took her to our HAL stall. We met some of my
colleagues and she was excited to see a full scale version of ALH-Navy Version.
We took some snaps around the stall & headed to the Air Show area by 9:00.
One of my friend with
her family was already seated comfortably in a shade & I sent Smriti to sit
with them. I wanted to be in the open area to take some pics of the “birds”
flying.
The air-show started
and to our surprise it was the Hawk-Surya Kiran team that performed first.
They
did not perform the previous 5 days because of the crash during rehearsal. I
too was glad to see them fly.
The show continued
with other aircraft such as:
our own ALH,
LCH,
LUH,
LCA-Tejas,
the mighty Sukhoi-30,
the vintage Dakota,
F-16,
and the Yaks'.
Finally came the ALH-Sarang
Team with their brilliant performance.
I was a happy man to
see my girl enjoying the air-show. As she had read about LCA-Tejas in her
school GK book, she wanted to take a snap with a Tejas pilot. I took her to
our HAL stall & introduced her to Gp Capt. HV Thakur. I told her that we had worked
together for the Jaguar Upgrade project in the early 2000s and also that he has
flown all aircrafts (Jaguar, LCA, Mirage, HAWK, etc) & still flying.
She was surprised to know that I know a pilot so personally. Thanks to Gp Capt.
HV Thakur for the pic for my little girl.
After having lunch in
a cafeteria there, we slowly walked out to the gate watching the birds fly
again. The noon show has started. We reached the parking by 15:15 and rode back
home around 16:30.
Bottom-line: My girl enjoyed the air-show &the ride. And I got a pillion-rider for my future rides.
Photography through iPhone & Nikon D5600.
