UK – Europe hops by Kerala family on a plane built during the Covid lockdown

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN
Our Special Correspondent

 NEW DELHI, July 30: Even as the global aviation industry is recovering from the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ashok Aliseril Thamarakshan, a man from Kerala, is travelling through Europe with his family on a plane he built himself.

The plane was built by Thamarakshan, now based in London, during the Covid-19 lockdown. A native of Alappuzha in Kerala, he took nearly 18 months to build the four-seater aeroplane.

The four-seater aircraft model “Sling TSI” has been named “G-Diya”, named after his younger daughter Diya. Thamarakshan moved to the UK in 2006 to pursue his Master’s degree and he currently works for Ford Motor Company. So far, Thamarakshan, his wife and their two daughters have visited Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic in the four-seater. He has a pilot’s licence.

Speaking to The Times of India about how he zeroed in on the idea to build an aircraft, Thamarakshan said: “Initially, I used to rent small two-seater aircraft for trips after acquiring my pilot licence in 2018. But since my family comprises my wife and two daughters, I required a four-seater aircraft. But they are rare. And even if I could get one, they were very old.”

This difficulty in finding a proper four-seater aircraft made him research the subject during the lockdown, and learn about home-built aircraft.To build his own plane, the 38-year-old learned that Johannesburg-based company Sling Aircraft was launching a new aircraft, Sling TSI, and promptly visited their factory in 2018. After the factory visit, Thamarakshan ordered a kit to build his own plane.

With plenty of time at hand due to the pandemic-induced lockdown and the money saved during this period, he got the opportunity to work on the ambitious project. The total cost to build the aircraft is estimated to be INR18 million.