Air Chief Marshal AP Singh Ends Flying Career with 42-Year-Old Instructor at Hyderabad

Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh flew his final sortie in an Indian Air Force aircraft on Tuesday, bringing his flying career in IAF machines to a close with the same instructor who had taken him through his first flight more than 42 years ago. The farewell sortie, conducted in an HJT-16 Kiran Mk-1 trainer at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, near Hyderabad, reunited him with Wing Commander V.S. Kochar (Retd), his first flying instructor.

The 55-minute flight was carried out in aircraft tail number U 707. It carried special significance because Air Chief Marshal Singh had first gone up in a Kiran on January 28, 1984, from the same academy, with the same instructor. On landing, the aircraft received a traditional water cannon salute.

After the sortie, Air Chief Marshal Singh called the occasion a “dream come true.” Speaking to reporters, he said, “I started my journey with the same aircraft. I think I must be the only Chief who is retiring while the basic aircraft he flew is still serving. I am very grateful to my instructor, Wing Commander Kochar, who taught me flying in the beginning at this very place. I just wanted the circle to be complete.” He added that he had flown his first sortie on January 28, 1984, at the same location with the same instructor, and that Tuesday’s flight was his last sortie in uniform.

Wing Commander Kochar, now 73, also described the occasion in emotional terms. Calling Air Chief Marshal Singh “the brightest pupil ever,” he said it was a dream come true for him too to take “one more trip” with his former student. “I am 73 now, so getting another trip with him is special. He is the best person ever in this world,” he said.

The Indian Air Force described the sortie as a poignant reunion between instructor and student, saying it symbolised the enduring bond between a pilot, his instructor and the skies that shape a professional life. The force said the occasion paid tribute to the tradition of flying training in the IAF and the lasting role instructors play in mentoring generations of air warriors.

Air Chief Marshal Singh is a Qualified Flying Instructor and Experimental Test Pilot with more than 5,000 flying hours on fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. He was commissioned into the fighter stream on December 21, 1984, and graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1984 with the Sword of Honour. His career included command of a MiG-27 squadron, leadership of the MiG-29 Upgrade Project Management Team in Moscow, and service as Project Director (Flight Test) at the National Flight Test Centre, where he was involved in flight testing the indigenous Tejas.

He took over as the 28th Chief of the Air Staff on September 30, 2024, and is scheduled to superannuate on October 31, 2026. He will be succeeded by Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, the current Vice Chief of the Air Staff, who will become the 29th Chief of the Air Staff from the afternoon of October 31.

The Kiran sortie came just eight days after Air Chief Marshal Singh’s final fighter flight in the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft at Jodhpur Air Force Station on October 12, during the multinational Exercise Tarang Shakti. Tuesday’s flight therefore marked the culmination of his flying career in IAF aircraft.

The HJT-16 Kiran Mk-1, an indigenous intermediate jet trainer designed and produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, has trained generations of IAF pilots since the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its use for this final sortie reflected both personal continuity for the Air Chief and institutional continuity in the Air Force’s flying training tradition.

The event also highlighted a long-standing feature of IAF culture: the relationship between instructor and student can endure for decades and, in rare cases, reach the highest level of service leadership.