Raymond Woollen Mills chairman Vijaypat Singhania sets record

Old record holder Brian Milton(right) greets successorNo, Micro light is not the name of a new suiting marketed by Raymonds. In fact, it is a ridiculously flimsy-looking, coffin-size aircraft in which Vijaypat Singhania, 49, the portly, multimillionaire chairman of Raymond Woollen Mills blazed a new international speed record.Covering, 6000 miles from Biggin Hill, near London, to New Delhi in just 23 days, Singhania became the only Indian to beat a Federation Aviation Internationale(FAI) recognised aviation record. His own feat will probably be ratified by the FAI.The bone-weary, bleary-eyed and stiff-jointed Singhania stepped out of his cramped cockpit at Delhi's Safdarjang Airport on September 10 to a hero's welcome and a congratulatory handshake from Brian Milton, the British journalist whose 34-day record Singhania broke. "Every long micro light flight in the world will now be measured against Vijay's," said Milton. Welcoming him home on behalf of the Government, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Sheila Dixit applauded the industrialist's spirit of adventure. "You people in the air do much more for the country than those of us on the ground." she said."I could sleep for a week," said Singhania. It's easy to be brave when an ordeal is over, but Singhania admitted he had been pretty scared at several points along the route. The scariest part was the six-hour flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Crete to Alexandria. Mortally afraid of ditching in the shark-infested waters, Singhania had strapped on a life-jacket, its electronic locator beacon beeping, and a can of shark repellant on his knees. "Every time I passed a ship I would comfort myself with the thought that the ship would reach me in 15 minutes if I ditched in the sea. I knew my shark repellant would last only that long." To keep boredom away, he would have imaginary conversations with his two-year-old granddaughter Ananya, whose photograph he has pasted inside the cockpit alongside those of three family deities.If his granddaughter's picture kept him company aloft, his wife Asha raced him mile for mile on the ground, at least from Amman (Jordan) to Ar'ar (Saudi Arabia). She was held up for five hours by Saudi customs and immigration officers while her husband waited at Ar'ar. When she finally arrived, he advised her to take a scheduled flight because he could not cope with the tension of flying and also worrying about her completing the desert journey in a car that was not even air-conditioned. She too worried about him. When he touched down on Indian soil at Bhuj after his flight from Gwadar (Pakistan), Asha Singhania wasn't among those present to receive him. She was at Kanpur giving thanks at the Dwarkadhish temple. But receiving him at Delhi's Safdarjang Airport, she commented mischievously about the 11 kilos her husband lad lost on the epic flight. "He's looking smart," said she.Smart he may have looked, but awfully sore too, Singhania ruefully admitted. His bedsores were in pretty bad shape, he said patting his faded Levis. His aircraft, however, looked none the worse for wear. In fact, it looked quite new while the previous record holder Brian Milton's plane had looked like a Hying bandage at this stage of the flight. What will become of the aircraft now? Singhania said he would like to keep the microlight. But if the Government wanted to display the Rs 3.4-lakh plane in a museum he would consider donating it. Congress(I) MP Suresh Kalmadi said the Independence 40th Anniversary Implementation Committee would appeal to the Government to allow Singhania to keep the plane. But till that happens, rules are rules. And some officers of the Customs Department were present at the airport to take charge of the plane V Esprit d'Indian Post, named after the Bombay newspaper he says is his second love after flying. An avid pilot for the last 28 years Singhania admits he was hooked the moment he saw a magazine picture of the "funny looking machine" in February this year. By definition, a microlight has to weigh less than 150 kg and have a minimum wing area of 10 sq m. The microlight Singhania flew was a little heavier and generated slightly more horse power than a Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle. Each propeller blade is about two feet long and the idling engine sounds more like a Rajdoot Yamaha motorcycle than an aircraft. "It behaved very well if you treated it like your girl-friend rather than like your wife," laughed Singhania.Would he ever try it again? "As of now, I have had it. One adventure like this is enough for a lifetime." At the end of it all, many people wondered why a heavy-weight corporate tycoon decided to risk a buffeting across two continents in an insignificant looking microlight aircraft. "He didn't have to do it," said Milton. "I had run out of stories to tell my grandchildren." replied Singhania. And, who knows, maybe Raymonds will cash in on the publicity and start a new range of microlight summer suitings after all.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Sep 30, 1988 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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Raymond Woollen Mills chairman Vijaypat Singhania sets record

Adventurous tycoon sets record.

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