@VelocityTTL 2026 calendar celebrates Army Aviation, a force that has grown fm humble Alouettes & Lamas to ALH WSI, LCH & Apaches. Brig AS Sidhu, a gentle giant & beacon on this journey with his many notable contributions was also my 2AM friend at a sim where we trained gen next!

Nyoma: correcting the record on the first fixed-wing landing. In recent coverage of the @IAF_MCC newest airbase at Nyoma, media reports have claimed that the first fixed-wing landing took place in 2009. The record shows the story begins much earlier, in the winter of 1962. The first recorded landing was by a Dakota of No. 43 Squadron, captained by Flt Lt AL Mendanha (4710). The squadron’s Operations Record Book notes the landing in the quarter of December 1962, though it does not specify the exact date. On completion, one of the Dakota’s engines failed to start for the return leg, necessitating an on-site engine change. The second landing followed as part of the recovery effort. On 22 Dec 1962, a C-119G Fairchild Packet of No. 19 Squadron, equipped with the J-19 jet-assisted take-off (JATO) packs, landed at Nyoma Rap. The aircraft was captained by then Sqn Ldr Prabhakar Shankar Dere (3883). It brought in the replacement engine and an HAL servicing party. A contemporaneous photograph from the Dere family collection shared by his son, Maj Gen Anil Dere shows Sqn Ldr PS Dere standing in the left foreground at Nyoma, corroborating the sortie and date. After these evaluations, Nyoma Rap was judged unsuitable for continued fixed-wing operations at that time, and no further landings were undertaken in that phase. For his wider work in Ladakh, Flt Lt AL Mendanha was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal; his citation references “proving flights to our most difficult and advanced landing grounds in this area”. #IAFHistory