Joined NDA after passing out from Lawrence School of Lovedale, Ooty. Very charming person and an excellent horse rider. 

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Joined the NDA after passing out from Lawrence School of Lovedale, Ooty. Very charming person and an excellent horse rider. Being the son of another aviator, pressure from his family made him change his service from Air Force to Navy while at the NDA. But, fate had him pursue his love for flying by joining Naval Aviation. 

In the recent past, the 56th NDA WhatsApp group had the occasion to remember Simon George, later known in the Navy as "Pynax" (James Moses created callsigns for almost everybody, and perhaps this one is also his!). The occasion was the institution of a trophy by the IN in his memory for "the Most Spirited Pilot" of the passing out course at Kochi. His younger brother, always known to the 56th & 18th integrated (who joined us from the then Navac) as the 'kid brother', and his family were present at the ceremony that instituted this trophy. It was most fitting that in Pynax's aviator family, his younger brother, Rear Admiral Philipose Pynumootil, himself is an aviator (helicopter pilot) is now the Flag Officer Naval Aviation. 

Much was written about Pynax that week including some blogs- all of which we read with pride and wistfulness at the same time. His short but eventful life, energy, spirit, and sheer "officer-like" behaviour all through and the circumstances of the flying accident and the SAR (Search and Rescue) after that came home from several points of the compass to us.
 
Pynax was a bit of a centaur! The horse in him was never far away, and he was a bit of a danger near a horse because he simply loved them and riding. You just couldn't get his attention for anything at all if he saw a picture of a horse in a magazine, in a cabin, or mess wall. And, he galloped in life. It was a pleasure to go for runs around the naval base in Kochi or around INS Valsura in Jamnagar (where we were commissioned.) He didn't run; he cantered, and you cantered with him. If the Navy had horses in some bases at that time, he would have spent all his time with them. But, this centaur, like the Air India logo, was meant to fly.
  
For all the quiet humour, the ready smile and the zest for life, Simon was a serious, studious cadet, midshipman and YO. He studied hard and one always admired him for the unflinching integrity he showed in not cheating in any exam. He was genuinely officer-like in every way, that's all. 
From hooves and horseshoes, he simply had to sprout wings because when he was not thinking of horses, he was thinking of planes (Actually, he sometimes also thought of motorcycles!). It was not possible for him to keep away from aviation and he did go for it and became a good pilot who infected his fellow crewmen with the same enthusiasm and joy of living that was so evident in him.

It was ironic that his sunny nature and that of his crewmen were consumed by the fate of dark Cumulonimbus cloud on the stormy night of 17 May 1985. In his passing, the Navy introspected several aspects of flight safety, and at least some good emerged from this loss. Death has an individual finality, but Pynax's spirit, his zest for life, his natural predilection for galloping and cantering when most of us would perhaps be content to trot, will always be an inspiration. It is, therefore, especially fitting and poignant for us course-mates, that the trophy was instituted 35 years later at an evening function. 

In the evening of 17 May 1985, Pynax must have prepared for his sortie with the thoroughness he was known for; he must have received his briefing, not knowing that he had seen his last sunset before flying into the skies on his final sortie. But, he lives on. RIP, fellow cadet, sailor, rider, officer, son, brother, aviator,course-mate role-model and inspiration.

🙏May his soul rest in peace🙏