In a quiet but symbolic farewell at Hyderabad, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh closed his flying chapter in the Indian Air Force by taking off in the same trainer and with the same instructor who had launched his journey more than four decades earlier. The final sortie took place on Tuesday at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, near Hyderabad, in the HJT-16 Kiran Mk-1.
The aircraft carried tail number U 707 and stayed airborne for 55 minutes. It brought Air Chief Marshal Singh together again with Wing Commander V.S. Kochar (Retd), who had first taught him to fly. The two had flown together on January 28, 1984, at the same academy in a Kiran aircraft, making the recent sortie a full-circle moment in his IAF flying career. After landing, the aircraft was given a traditional water cannon salute.
Addressing reporters after the flight, Air Chief Marshal Singh called the experience a “dream come true.” 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 also reiterated that his first sortie was on January 28, 1984, and that Tuesday’s mission was his last in uniform.
Wing Commander Kochar (Retd), who is 73, responded in equally warm terms. He called Air Chief Marshal Singh “the brightest pupil ever” and said the flight was a special occasion for him as well because it gave him “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 meaningful reunion between instructor and student. In its account, the flight reflected the lasting bond among a pilot, the instructor who shaped him, and the skies that define a professional life. The IAF also used the occasion to acknowledge the role of training and mentorship in building generations of air warriors.
Air Chief Marshal Singh holds the qualifications of 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 service record includes commanding a MiG-27 squadron, leading the MiG-29 Upgrade Project Management Team in Moscow, and serving as Project Director (Flight Test) at the National Flight Test Centre, where he was involved in the flight testing of the indigenous Tejas.
He became the 28th Chief of the Air Staff on September 30, 2024, and is due to superannuate on October 31, 2026. Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, currently the Vice Chief of the Air Staff, will succeed him as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff from the afternoon of October 31.
This latest flight came only eight days after Air Chief Marshal Singh’s final fighter sortie in the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft at Jodhpur Air Force Station on October 12, during the multinational Exercise Tarang Shakti. Taken together, the two flights marked the completion of his operational flying career in IAF aircraft.
The HJT-16 Kiran Mk-1, designed and produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, has trained generations of IAF pilots since the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its role in the final sortie underlined continuity in the Air Force’s training tradition, while the event itself highlighted how an instructor-student relationship can endure for decades and, in rare cases, carry through to the highest levels of service leadership.
