By Gp. Capt. Kapil Bhargava (Retd.)
As you can guess by my rank of Group Captain, I was an officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF). Flying was my first love. I had tried to join the Air Force in 1944 when I was only 16. But on my father’s orders, I had to wait till I completed my BSc and also India became independent. I served in IAF from 1948 to 1976 and worked as a test pilot for seventeen years, including in six aircraft factories in UK, Egypt and India. I had the most wonderful time flying and managed to pilot more than seventy aircraft types of trainers, fighters, bombers, transports, and helicopters. I also did some gliding and once I piloted a flying boat off the sea.
This Flying Tales section of the KBHARGAVA.COM site will contain some personal writing on aviation. Around eighty of my articles have been published in magazines in the UK, Germany and India. Hopefully, some of these might interest visitors to this site. Comments (including adverse ones) and questions on these will be welcome. But I may not be able to supply further information about historical articles. I have not kept good records about these or have access any longer to the sources of my information.
With best wishes,
Kapil Bhargava
Email: kapil at kbhargava dot com