he Surya Kiran team has a total of 13 pilots of whom only 9 are flying at any given time. The pilots are selected from the fighter stream of the IAF.
Presently there are pilots with experience on the Mirage 2000, Jaguar, MiG-23 and MiG-27. All are experienced with about 1000 hrs of experience on the Kiran itself. Besides the pilots the team has an administrator of administration branch and a Kiran qualified technical officer.
The administrator, other than looking after administrative requirement of the team, also does the job of commentator during public displays. The technical officer, the `Spanner', who, along with fifty accomplished technicians has the onerous task of maintaining and servicing the team's aircraft.
What with three sorties a day during the training season and usually two a day whilst on display, it is a very demanding job.
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