By IANS
Visakhapatnam : Gaurav C. Sawant Friday became the first Indian journalist to be awarded his ‘wings’ by the Indian Navy after completing six parachute jumps, including two skydiving free falls.
His name has also been sent to the Limca Book of Records for achieving the feat in four days.
The training period before jumping is normally spread over six-eight weeks, but in Sawant’s case, it was compressed to four days at the Indian naval base INS Dega here.
Sawant, a senior special correspondent and anchor at STAR News, was trained by Lt. Cdr. N. Rajesh, chief instructor of the Indian Navy Sky Diving Team (INSDT) and a veteran with over 1,700 jumps, and Lt. Cdr. Mahesh Birajdar, an instructor at INSDT.
“It was an exhilarating experience and I managed to come down in one piece on all occasions,” Sawant told IANS.
His highest jump was from 12,000 feet from a Dornier aircraft and the others from heights of 10,000 and 4,000 feet from a Seaking helicopter.
The Indian Navy is the only organization in the country whose skydivers are qualified Accelerated Free Fall (AFF) instructors, having undergone highly specialized training in Australia and the US.
In AFF, a trainee skydiver – after undergoing basic parachute jump training – is assisted by two highly specialized instructors during the freefall from an aircraft.
After diving from an aircraft, the entire activity is recorded from different cameras throughout the dive. Another skydiver, using a helmet mounted camera, records the proceedings during the freefall at a speed of approximately 250 km.p.h.
Lt. Cdr. S. Kartikeyan is the Indian Navy’s camera skydiver and has captured over 400 dives by the Indian Navy skydiving team at home and abroad. Kartikeyan is the first indigenously trained AFF skydiver cameraman.
At the skydiving course being carried out at INS Dega, over 281 static line, 79 AFF and 10 tandem jumps have been carried out, apart from 43 advanced body flying sky dives and 38 instructor aided dispatches.
The course is attended by senior and junior officers of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, sailors and cadets with the aim of boosting adventure activities, encouraging team spirit and to “Look Within and Leap Beyond” by conquering not just the seas but also the skies.