Hyderaba: Sagar Pawan is the aerobaticdemonstration team of the Indian Navy's Aviation Arm. It is one of theonly two naval aerobatic teams in the world, the other being the BlueAngels of the US Navy.
The team uses 4 Hindustan Aeronautics HJT-16 Kiran Mk.2 traineraircraft, and are based at the Dabolim Naval Air Station, INS Hansa inGoa, Southern India.
The colour scheme used by the aircraft is dark blue on white.
The Team started training for aerobatic aerobatics in end 2001. TheSquadron Commander of INAS 551, then, was Commander JS Tewatia. The work-upat that time was, however, informal.
The drive gained formal momentum in later part of 2002. The paintscheme of the aircraft was changed to the current one and the aircraftwere modified for smoke emission with the inboard stations modified forcarriage of kerosene tanks mixed with colour dyes (if you do not mix adye, the smoke is white in colour).
The Team was initially called as
Sagarkiran and it is under thisname that the Team made its formal inaugural debut display (then withonly three aircraft) in Kochi, India on 11 May 2003 for the GoldenJubilee of the Indian Naval Aviation.
The founding Leader of the Team was Commander Surendra Ahuja. Theformation of the Team gave the Indian Naval Air Squadron 551 a newrole. The squadron had on some occasions in the past also attempted toset up an aerobatic team and but the attempts were informal and werenot sustained for long enough to assume any significant formality.
The other members of the inaugural Team in 2003 were LieutenantCommander Yogesh Garud (who himself later, as a Commander, led theTeam) and Lieutenant Commander N Thiagarajan.
The Team's name was later changed to the present name of
Sagar Pawan (Hindiequivalent of sea breeze). The new name was selected (among a fewothers that were suggested) by the then Flag OfficerCommanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Arun Prakash(later Admiral and CNS).
The Team is also fondly referred to as INSPAT - Indian Navy Sagar PawanAerobatic Team or simply SPAT. Since then the other Team leaders havebeen Commander Sameer Mehra, Commander Yogesh Garud and CommanderSatyen Vartak.
The Team is presently being led by Commander Yashwant Hemant Karkare.Since inception the Team has performed in Kochi,Visakhapatnam,Mumbai(Gateway of India), Pune (NDA, Kharakvasla),Lonavla (INS Shivaji) and a number of other locations as also at theirhome location in Goa.
They have also performed for the International Film Festival of India.The Team members use every opportunity to interact with their Air Forcecounterparts,
Suryakirans, who also fly the same aircraft, and the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows who have performed in Goa on a couple of occasions.
The Squadron that boasts of the Team (INAS 551) has, for itscontribution to the Navy as a training squadron as also for itscontribution in setting up an aerobatic team (only second Navyaerobatic team in the world), been recently awarded the Chief of theNaval Staff's Unit Citation which is a matter of great honour for allthe pilots who have trained in this squadron in the past.
They truly do the Indian Navy proud. MayGod keep them safe and give them Blue Skies to perform - always!