Wg Cdr (later Air India Capt) Anil Amarendra Gadgil (Retd), MSc, FRAeS13, 13 March 1947-08 August 2019.
We regret to announce the sad and untimely demise of Wg Cdr (later Air India Capt) Anil Amarendra Gadgil (Retd), FRAeS. He passed away at Joshi Hospital in Pune, India after a brief illness at 0425h on 08 August 2019.
Born in Pune on 13 March 1947 in a family of intellectuals, he had decided that he wanted to fly early on in his childhood, and was a glider pilot long before he was old enough to drive. He was commissioned as a pilot in the Indian Air Force in 1967 where he flew target-towing, photo-reconnaissance, as well as VVIP flights and took part in the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. He graduated from the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and retired as a Wing Commander in 1984.
He joined Air India in 1985 and retired as a senior B747 commander, check-pilot, and Joint General Manager Operations in 2005, with 13,000 flying hours under his belt. During this tenure, he also served as The President of the All India Federation of Pilots.
In 2005, in collaboration with Arco Engineering, Pune and RealiSim, Bangalore, he built India’s first and only indigenous mobile flight training simulator, mounted on a Tata truck body. Having obtained DGCA approval for training pilots in 2008, he trained about 600 pilots to date, most of whom have found jobs in the aviation industry. This training was offered under the aegis of Abhijit Air Safety Foundation, founded and run by him and his wife, Kavita, in the memory of their younger son, the late Flt Lt Abhijit, who was killed in a MiG-21 crash in the Western Sector in 2001. In 2018, he was awarded the Flight Simulation Medal by the Royal Aeronautical Society, London, UK, for his inspirational achievements in designing, building, and operating a low-cost, mobile flight simulator as a means of promoting aviation as widely as possible in India.
He is survived by his wife, Kavita and his elder son, Kedar. He also leaves behind his loving daughter-in-law, Natasha and his beautiful grandchild, Kymaia, all of whom reside in Pune, India. Condolences may be sent to kavita@gadgil.com.
![Mr Baba: 'Would you like to take off the backpack now that you've been downstairs for like 30 minutes?'
Ms Kym-Kym: 'I like it like this. You should try it. It's very comfortable.'
Mr Baba: [Pulling on his backpack] 'Hmmm, you're right. That's rather snug.'
Ms Kym-Kym: 'Twinning! Yay!'
#LuckiestManAlive #BearFamily](https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/416920031_3373151642830342_6696851954454537274_n.webp?stp=dst-jpg&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=ZMLmjPdSAEUAX8nnJex&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfB0olvUVmnenPKd2wCllMDehg5gzDgAbc4BDsGLqIm6pA&oe=65BA4561)
![Kym: 'Mr Baba, can I tell you something wierd? You can actually get tired from doing nothing!!'
Me: 'It is called boredom.'
Kym: 'Noooo. I mean, like physically tired.'
Me: 'One can get tired and sleepy due to boredom. I remember reading about it somewhere. Let's find out.'
[Some Googling later]
Me: 'It says here that "A new paper published in the journal Nature Communications finds that a part of the brain that is associated with motivation and pleasure - the nucleus accumbens - also can produce sleep. The new findings may explain why we have the tendency to fall asleep in the absence of motivating stimuli, i.e., when bored." Isnt it interesting?'
Kym: 'I already knew that. Why do you need to research things we already know?'
Me: [Finding a subject worth talking about now]: ' Ah well, that's what we'll talk of tomorrow on your morning run. It's very interesting the way science is done and our understanding of the universe is expanded.'
Kym: 'Can we talk of unicorns instead?'
Me: 'Sure. How do you know they exist? That's an interesting question too that you can use the scientific method to answer.'
Kym: 'Do they have to exist for us to talk about them? We can just pretend they do for an hour and have fun.'
Me: [Laughing] 'Yes, sure. We can do that too.'
#BabaBabyConversations #BearFamily #KymAndI](https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/416410840_383105434396466_2267910263456009774_n.webp?stp=dst-jpg&_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=LIozs445JFcAX_48wGC&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfDQ2qbb0yO_wUmLj_L0ZxF61eDdwlIN-vyrd8GZe_pBMQ&oe=65BAFA57)
