They laid that last brick
I am just enjoying my evening tea in my balcony glancing the sky for any possible view of an aircraft. It is then I launch the flight tracker application on my mobile to find those yellow birds waiting to take-off and land at the international airport in Hyderabad. It is then I question myself- “ How lucky are the people who stay under the take-off and landing path of these aluminum birds?”
To some extent I was lucky, when way back the Begumpet airport offered breathtaking views of the arriving and departing aircrafts. I must say, that the entire stretch ranging from Safilguda railway station to the Jubilee bus station was a haven for the aviation enthusiasts like me, which offered absolutely stunning views of the aircrafts at such a low altitude ( of the inbound aircrafts). I vividly remember the powerful Airbus A300–600R of Qatar Airways, when it first started its Doha-Hyderabad operations way back in 2003 circa, gracefully passing directly over my house and I could literally see the main landing gears and the registration number of the aircraft. Woah! the feeling is hard to contain, even to this day.
“Sky is my home and earth is my runway” — Chivukula Venkata Sai Pramod Sharma.
How could domestic airlines lag behind in my memoirs ! “GoAir” had freshly started operations to and from Hyderabad and it was a feast for me. I was pursuing my junior college (class 11th and 12th.) and used to wait for my bus, when around 7:20 AM, this baby Airbus A320 wearing this pink livery used to appear out of no where and every second the aircraft seemed to be bigger and bigger, until it disappeared behind the small hillock. Every now and then the aircraft would boast green, yellow, orange and brown coloured liveries with bold titles.
Joining this list is “Air Deccan” , India’s first low cost airline, operating with a fleet of Airbus A320’s and ATR-42’s. All this appears as if it happened just yesterday and this feeling ignites my low pressure turbine of heart. The NDTV Titles and the Sun Microsystems titles were clearly evident on the Air Deccan’s aircraft just cannot be forgotten. Indian Airlines, Air-India and Jet Airways were a common sight with a fleet of A300/A320/ B747–400, A310, B 737–700, ATR-72 respectively. Later Malaysia airlines, Thai Airways, Silk Air, Lufthansa, KLM connected Hyderabad well, but to my dismay they were late night operations, beginning 2300 hrs.
“Be it the day or the night, there is no stopping of the flight and sight.”- Chivukula Venkata Sai Pramod Sharma
The newspaper advertisements were fascinating, which I used to cut out and organise in my scrapbook, that I still have. Nostalgic moments. Lufthansa deployed MD-11 and A340–300 on Frankfurt-Hyderabad sector while KLM chose the MD-11. Thai used a mixed fleet of Airbus A300/ A330 whereas Silk Air made use of it 737–800 aircraft. I still wonder how these equipment got themselves adjusted at the apron of the Begumpet airport. The main road leading to this airport used to be congested so much so that there used to be these lines 1/2km long from Tulip Manohar hotel till the terminal.
Innocence takes us through many chapters. Living in the rented house and quickly climbing up the fleet of stairs to my terrace only to watch the approaching aircraft making a sharp left turn over the “Moula-Ali” hill to line up with the airport, was never tiring. Even though the Begumpet Airport (ICAO : VOHY) does not anymore cater to commercial services after the launch of the brand new and swanky Rajiv Gandhi International Airport near Shamshabad, some 30 km away from the city, the old airport still handles some VVIP, CIP flights along with flight schools that use Cessna's for the pilot training and some maintenance and crew familiarization flights that take place. At least one could stand by the barbed compound fence to witness the aircraft movements, I was disappointed when the entire barbed wire fencing was replaced with concrete wall / perimeter that completely made it impossible to stand and view :(.
Plane Spotting in India is a huge concern. Every nook and cranny gets taken over the authorities. The reason they give us that is a security concern, which according is a childish and unjustified answer. Don’t photographs get printed in the aviation magazines? Don’t passengers take pictures at the airports? I wish DGCA comes up with some spotter friendly campaigns and platforms similar to cities like Amsterdam, London and Narita to name a few.
— Pramod Sharma, Hyderabad
