IAF's women fighter pilots: Avani aims for the best (Part-II)

Bengaluru, June 15: Flight Cadet Avani Chaturvedi, who is ready to script history along with other two colleagues, says she was lucky to have many Army officers in her family - just the right dose of inspiration she was looking for.

In this Part-2 of Indian Air Force's (IAF) first women fighter pilots, OneIndia brings to you Avani's story.

According to IAF Public Relations Officer Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee, Avani had a few hours of flying at the flying club of college, ahead of joining IAF.

"Avani hails from Satna in Madhya Pradesh and her father is an executive engineer and mother, a home maker. She did her schooling from Deolond (near Rewa), from Adarsh Higher Secondary School and graduated in B Tech (Computer Science) from Banasthali University, Jaipur," says Wg Cdr Banerjee.

Avani says she got the golden opportunity to fly two different aircraft, one very modern and advanced (Pilatus), and one stalwart trainer (Kiran), with the best of instructors.

"My dream is to become a good fighter pilot, on whom my seniors can rely on when it comes to fly for live operations. I want to fly the best fighter aircraft and learn more and more each day," she says.

Giving a bit of her experience in the IAF so far, Avani said during one of her training sorties, she heard the Canopy Warning Audio coming on, ahead of the take-off.

"I got confused seeing the emerging situation. The training helped and I aborted the take-off and took all the actions to stop the aircraft safely on the runway. I realised later how the decision of a split second can get the situation under control or out of control. Had I got airborne with the canopy open, the result could have been catastrophic," says Avani who loves playing violin and table tennis.

(This series will have one more part.)

By OneIndia Defence Bureau