AVM Ajit Lamba (retd) can’t keep hands off aircraft given a chance

Bengaluru, March 2

“There are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old-bold pilots.” Try telling this to 81-year-old Air Vice Marshal Ajit Lamba (retd) and he’ll laugh in your face.“At the moment I am not flying very regularly because of non-availability of aircraft. I have been flying off and on any time I can get hold of an aircraft,” Lamba said on the sidelines of the just-concluded Aero India defence exposition, where he made quite a splash when, dressed in blue overalls, he flew an indigenous Hansa single-engined trainer aircraft, swankily painted in grey and blue.Having flown in some seven to eight editions of Aero India, Lamba had to keep away from the last couple of editions as the Hansa was grounded — and almost didn’t make it this time around too.“Now, at my age, I can only fly these small airplanes. I have been doing that whenever there has been an opportunity. My principle has been, I don’t want to pay for flying to flying clubs. I don’t mind not getting paid,” he said with a wicked smile. He once owned his own flying machine — a Pegasus microlight gifted to him by his wife on his 70th birthday. However, he had to sell it off because of lack of parking space.“I used to fly it regularly. I kept it at the HAL airport in one of the defence hangers. But unfortunately it was getting filled up with their own equipment and one day I was told to vacate. I had to dispose it of because there was no other place in Bangalore. I had to sell it to a colleague of mine,” Lamba rued.Apart from the Aero India, he has also flown Hansa at the Australia International Airshow in Melbourne. His fitness routine involves a lot of walking, occasional visits to the gymnasium, golf and squash. — IANS