![]() We are all glad and emotional as Meghana graduates from AFA. I also wanted my daughter to do something extraordinary,” says Ramesh. ![]() The way her mind worked was very different from others. Meghana was very adventurous from the time she was in Class I. ![]() Meghana’s father M K Ramesh, an advocate, had sent her to Delhi for IAS coaching after engineering. We are very inclusive in all our activities,” says Air Marshal Nair. And they did not want anything different from the men. We also took informal feedback from women pilots. “Breaking the glass ceiling was important and we did it. He says the IAF always looks for higher standards and has done nothing different to accommodate women fighter pilots. ![]() We look at their determination,” says Air Marshal Nair, who is retiring next month, after 42 years of service. We tell them to excel in their respective areas and they will get what they deserve. “We keenly watch the standards set and leadership qualities displayed by the boys and girls every year. But you must chase them so hard that they are left with no option but to be yours forever in reality,” says Meghana, who, incidentally, is a trained singer in Carnatic music.Īfter a month’s break, Meghana heads to Air Force Station Bidar for the next level of training on Hawk aircraft.Īir Marshal S R K Nair, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Headquarters Training Command, IAF, who was at the AFA Graduation Parade for the last time, is a satisfied man. Your dreams may be unconquerable at the moment. Your dreams should be out of your league. “I would want every young boy and girl wanting to become a fighter pilot to have really big dreams. Having grown through the grind at AFA, she feels more empowered now. The stint at AFA boosted her confidence and Meghana says she is ready for more challenges now. I cannot forget those 20 minutes of being airborne,” she recalls. To use you own call sign, having your own identity and being in control of your aircraft was really a great moment. “It was a big day for me - being inside the cockpit, ready for a solo for the first time. Her first solo was in August 2017 on a Pilatus. Till date, she has to her credit over 50 sorties on Pilatus (Stage-I) and over 90 sorties on Kiran (Stage-II). Meghana cleared AFCAT (Air Force Common Admission Test) and the subsequent SSB (Services Selection Board) at the very first attempt and joined AFA as a Flight Cadet in January 2017.Īt AFA, it was in June 2017 that she had her first flight as part of the FAM (familiarisation) sortie on a Pilatus, in the company of her instructor. Meghana says her father and paragliding instructor Nagendra are her role models. I decided that I had to go for it, doing whatever it takes,” she says. “In June 2016, I was truly inspired to read the stories of IAF’s first women fighter pilots (Flying Officers Mohana Singh, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvedi) graduating from AFA. It was at this juncture that there was the big breaking news of IAF deciding to let women into the cockpit of fighter planes. I wanted to pursue something out of the ordinary,” says Meghana. “After completing my engineering (in Information Science) in 2015, I was sure I wouldn’t want to take up a day job. She jumped off a cliff on Querim Beach in Goa – an experience which locked her focus completely on to winged wonders later. At 20, during her second year of engineering, she did her first solo on a paraglider.
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