Mumbai 2000, Shubham Aptms Juhu, & Jet Airways Staff

My Manager, Ops Engineering - K S Ramakrishnan. A wonderful and brilliant Performance and Navigation Engineer. Together we acheived a lot. He retired just before I did and is currently either in the USA or Coimbitore. Amazingly fit for a 76 year old.

Renita and Premila D'souza.

Charming Secretaries.

Part of my team, from left:

Capt Cedric - now flies for Spice

3rd from left Capt Malkani and Capt Moghe the Chief Pilot Line.

Below:- 401, Shubham Aptms, Juhu. Our cozy 2,600 sq ft Apartment. It was Dato Guru who managed to obtain this location just by Juhu Beach. Most of the other expats were housed elsewhere.

Juhu however had many cows around roaming around - very much like Buntong, Perak, from where Guru hails, Ha!Ha!

Monsoon in Mubai.

Our home was 50 m from the beach and these two shots were taken from our balcony.

Mumbaites love the rain and the monsoon. It was our 6th monsoon and we had had enough of it.

The winds could be as much as 30 - 40 kts gusting and the waves were vicious.

Regina Hanif, Jet Airways, Sec to VP Ops

Photo taken - 2003

Regina, My loyal and faithful Secretary for the 6 years I was in Jet Airways - 1997 -2003.

An East Indian, married to Mark Hanif with 2 beautiful children, Keagan & Roxanne.

To date she has never forgotton mine or Meriam's birthday (my children have!) nor our Anniversary.

I have had many secretaries but she beats them all.

Kudos to you Reggie, and may God Bless you and the family always.

North East India during summer Monsoon -2003

BAGDOGRA - Jun 2003

Main access town to the hill stations of and Darjeeling,Kalimpong, and to Pelling and Gangtok in Sikkim. The area in which Bagdogra is situated is commonly called the Dooars at the foothills of the eastern Himalayas. It is rich in natural beauty and abounds in exotic flora and fauna. There are several tea gardens and fruit orchards too in the region. Tourists can go for extremely interesting heritage tea tours in the plantations here. The Teesta is the main river flowing through here, and is the base of whitewater rafting and angling.

The approach into Bagdogra is not easy as it is surrounded by restricted areas and hilly terrain to the north. It is surrounded by four countries, namely, Nepal to the west, Sikkim to the North, Bhutan to the North East, and Bangladesh to the South East.
During the rainy season and low clouds extreme caution on the part of the pilot is required with specific procedures to be followed.
Below: Our aircraft in transit at the apron in Bagdogra (IXB). Awaiting passenger boarding for return flight to Calcutta.

Late lunch after return from Bagdogra

Guwahati
Guwahati is the largest city in the NE region of India.

It was raining and turbulent all the way from Calcutta (CCU) to Guwahati, located in Assam.

 Below: Aircraft is making a low visibilty approach into Guwahati. Just about make out the Brahmaputra River in background left.

Quite  big terminal for Guwahati.

Jorhat- Assam.
 Know for its tea industry and sprawling tea gardens. Assam Tea anyone?

Another low vis approach in rain to Guwahati Airport. Shorter strip and restricted apron and taxiway.

Miserable looking Terminal. Hope they have modernised it by now, 6 years hence!

All dressed up to operate flight back Calcutta - Mumbai.

Calcutta is not as bad a place as I thought it was.

Always equated it with squalor and lepers.

In fact I feel its is cleaner than suburban Mumbai.

Meriam in the lobby of the Oberoi Grand in Calcutta

Just prior to departing for the Airport for flight back to Mumbai.

Jet Airways Jun 2003. My Farewell Luncheon

Resigned from Jet Airways, w.e.f 30 Jun 2003, after serving them for 5 1/2 years as VP Filght Operations.
Capt Mohan (ex- DFO Air India) is standing to my right below.
Photos were taken at a farewell luncheon held in SM Centre, Mumbai.
On my left is Cmdr Baal & Gr Capt G R Reddy (Simulator Engineering Manager).
Back to the camera is Regina my secretary.































Capt 'Slim' Mohan saying a few words of farewell.

Also present were Peter Leuthi, the new COO and Wolfgang the CEO.
The brains behind the Airline are Saroj, Vic Dungca and ofcourse the man himself Naresh Goyal its Chairman.
Well done guys!!!!









My words of response were: "There's a tide in the affairs of men which when taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitten........"
I have taken the tide, and now, as all tides do ebb, so to, I have to ebb away into retirement."
S.K Datta ( with the beard) smiles at this statement and so does Capt Malkani on his left and Jennifer D'silva (Exec PA to Chairman, Naresh Goyal).
Thanks Jenifer for organising the farewell luncheon.
Quite a sad day on the whole.
On reflection Jet Airways was a very good employer and deserves the No 1 status it has acquired in India and maybe very soon, in the world.
I am glad that I have, in a small way, laid some foundation in Flt Ops, and now pass on for better things in life.

My loyal Develoment Captains

With Capt Mohd Shain my Development Captain in charge of the B737 NG intro together with Capt Sudhir below. Friends to this day and we keep in regular touch.

With young Capt Sudhir Guar in my office. Sudhir was also my Development Capt handling other Technical matters.

Both of them were bright young Captains, intelligent and eaisly moulded.

They are current A330/340 Captains with Jet.

2003- In my Jet Airways office at SM Centre Andheri-Kurla road. An overload desk!

Reminiscence of Jet Airways - India's largest Domestic Airline

The good times with Jet Airways - Jan 1998 to Jun 2003

My 1st visit to BOM to meet with Jet Airways CEO Nikos Kardasis and Chairman Naresh Goyal was in Dec 1997. Jet had only 15 B737 - 400 aircraft then.
It was Dato Guru the VP Ops for Jet Airways, who invited me to join him.
Meriam who was still employed as Physiotherapist in GH KL, also accompanied me.
We were provided with a Hertz car to view the city and and assess the living conditions. Must say we ended up fascinated with the prospect of spending the next few years in India.
Below Meriam on a shopping spree in Colaba.
Jan 1998 - Employed by the Airline. A Flight Operations Christmas party, organised by Dato Guru (VP Ops) in Jan 1998 was for me, a fitting introduction to the staff of Jet Airways.

Meriam on the dance floor with Sainath, who gave us a fine display of Bollywood dancing.

Staff of mine below. Meeting Capt Hatangadi (Ops Mng) & Kumaran (Tech School Mng), for the first time.

The first of Naresh Goyal's dinner parties.

We all congregated in an apartment below his so as to make a surprised entrance, as it was Nita Goyal's birthday. It was all to confusing to me then.

Below From L: Mrs Baliga (a gentle refined lady), Meriam, Philip Crasta (VP Planning), Mr Baliga (VP Engineering) and Dato Guru (who was sick and left early).

Nita's birthday bash. Below from L: Famous South Indian Actress Sri Devi, Meriam and Naresh Goyal.

Meriam with Sri Devi & her husband below.

Gert Van de Veer, ex Chairman of South African Airways was a Board member of Jet. Here we are after a Board meeting having a discussion. Guru does not look very convinced!

After a heavy day in the office I am relaxing with Meriam on our 'love chair' in the bedroom. We had a beautiful bedroom in Shubham Apartments, Juhu.

Les Hayward and Karen having fun at a Divali party at Naresh's.

Les was an ex-Qantas Captain who was also head of the B747-400 fleet.

He joined Jet a few years later as Ops Manager. He left Jet 2001 and is currently serving on the Board of Air New Guinea.
To the left of les is CEO Steve Forte's wife.

Divali dinner at Naresh's.

Included in the picture are Steve Forte, who had joined us late 1999 as CEO replacing Nikos, and Saroj Datta ( Executive Director).

Les Hayward had decided to call it quits in 2001. We threw a farewell party for him on the 26th Feb.

Another 'do' at Naresh's. This time we have new entrants into management viz. 2 Snr VP's under Steve Forte.

Steve chatting with Saroj.

A simple impromptu gathering of Management Jet Airways on my 59th Birthday.

We had just completed a Board meeting - hence the disheveled looks on some of us.

The scene was at the Mainland China restaurant which was just down the road from SM Centre, our office

In the picture from R are: Sarberjit, Jeyakanthan, Gen Ashok Verma, the great Hariharan, ?,? .

Another section of the Chinese restaurant. Capt Naveen Malkani is seated at the rear. His wife Jeya is seated next to Meriam.

My colleagues and our Boss at gathering.

From L: Capt Sarberjit Singh, Baliga (VP), Naresh Goyal (Chairman), Rajesh Verma (VP), Nita Goyal (VP) and a smiling Premila (Naidu?)

59 years old and looking young again - without the beard.

I am ready to cut the cake. Jeya (Capt Malkani's wife) seems to be having a good laugh.

My staff in Flight Operations. Taken on the 27th Jan 2003 a few months prior to my departure. Can only recollect some of the names.

Rear L-R: Geeta, Renita, Pamela, ?, Angela, Vidiya, Vaishali, Regina (my dear secretary)

Front L-R: Savina, Gloria & Me

Dinner hosted by President of Embraer on the occasion of the signing of the LOI by Jet Airways. Our CEO Steve Forte is on the extreme right.

It was a busy night - hence the discussion with Mr Saroj Datta. And Naresh was making things easy either.

Operation to an Unknown High Altitude Airport!

Unknown Airport

Below: Just on top of clouds cruising at 31,000 ft. You could make out the mountains to the north which are part of the Himalayas.

As we get nearer destination high ground appearing just prior to descent

Descent has commenced, cloud cover is not bad, as we can perform it visually. Altitude is 30,000ft approx.

Initial descent at 30,000ft

Descending through a pass - altitude around 24,000 ft which is the minimum height at which a decision to turn back or proceed to destination is made.

We have now descended through the pass and make out the valley that leads to Leh in the distance.

Altitude is around 18,000ft. Airport is around 11,500ft !!!!!

perfect visual conditions to continue our approach. We are heading for a 'left downwind' position to the runway

Heading for downwind. Note the downwind is over the mountains so the GPWS (Ground Prox Warning System) will sound.

Notice the field below us on the left and we are high on approach to avoid the 'hills' (not really hills as they are eaisly around 16,000 raising to 24,000 ft) ahead.

The valley where you see the river run through is our missed approach path in the even of an engine failure etc.

Turning downwind. Hills ahead and Gound Proximity sounds.

Downwind turning Base  for a landing. Height is spot on and the approach path flown to exact laid out procedure.

Landed and just before turning into the apron.

 Note the high ground ahead which makes a single engine climb out not possible.

Take off is in the opposite direction and is over the valley seen earlier.

Exciting isn't it ???