Kerala man travels through Europe with family – in plane he built himself

A mechanical engineer by profession, Ashok Thamarakshan, 38, is the son of former MLA AV Thamarakshan. He moved to the UK in 2006 and is currently based in London with his wife, Abhilasha.

It was during the Covid-induced lockdown that the idea of building an aircraft came to Thamarakshan.

"Initially, I used to rent small two-seater aircraft for trips after acquiring my pilot license in 2018,” he said, explaining that two-seater aircrafts became redundant once his family grew. He realised he needed a four-seater plane if he wanted his family to accompany him on his travels, but such aircraft are rare and hard to come by, so Thamarakshan had the idea of building one himself.

"I learned about a Johannesburg-based company Sling Aircraft launching a new aircraft named Sling TSI in 2018," he said.

After visiting their factory, Thamarakshan ordered a kit to build his own plane. The pandemic-induced lockdown gave him plenty of time to work on the time-consuming project.

Abhilasha told The Sun: “We started saving money during the first lockdown, and we knew we always wanted to have our own plane, and in the first few months we were saving a lot of money so we thought we would give it a go.”

The project cost an estimated Rs 1.8 crore in Indian currency.

Thamarakshan took his first flight in February this year after completing the aircraft. Travelling in home-built aircraft does not pose a problem in the US and Europe, said the engineer, who is currently on holiday in his native Kerala.