Establishment of an Aero-Nodal centre; P.R.T.C, Bangalore

Abstract

This project was done by me at “The Parachute Regiment Training Centre’, Bangalore under the supervision of Lt Col B S Sambyal, Training Battalion Commander. It involved going into all aspects , from conception to implementation, in setting up an Aero Nodal Centre to undertake the aero-sports activities of Parasailing , Paragliding and Powerchute flying. Being in the Parachute Regiment, I was already familiar with parachuting and sky-diving. So to start with, I and my team had to find out more about these sports and learn them first-hand. Only then were we able to go on to the stages of equipment selection, comparison of suppliers, working out the schedule for training of instructors, the course contents, and finally the implementation on ground. The project threw up a number of challenges to us on the way and it was a continual learning process for all of us associated with it. Even though the armed forces have been traditionally insulated from the markets per se, we realised soon enough the necessity of understanding the markets and being ‘market friendly” in the way we went about the essentials of the project. The layout of the report first gives a brief background of the aero-sports being introduced and the level of expertise already available. It then covers the aspects of equipment selection, purchase and the subsequent maintenance; followed by an exercise involving the scheduling of courses and their conduct etc. Finally an exercise was done to answer the questions regarding the targeting of these courses and arriving at suitable options for course fees vis 4 vis the break-even to achieve self-sustenance in the long run.