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‘Fun Fliers’ is a must when we talk of aviation-by Capt Elmo Jayawardena Source:Island The first Sri Lankan to get a private pilot’s licence was Dunstan de Silva. That was way back in 1936. He was a member of the flying club in Ratmalana. People who flew during that period were mostly expatriates. A few locals, too, learnt to fly and joined the fraternity of aviators as the ‘fun fliers’ of Ratmalana. The numbers grew and many an aeroplane enthusiast donned the leather helmet and wore goggles and flew open cockpit Tiger Moths and became a private pilot. It was great fun; they flew the blue skies and took trips to the Puttalam airport, landed and had lunch at the Rest House and by evening flew back to Ratmalana. That was more than 80 years ago. I remember the time when I was a fledgling pilot. Commercial trainees, like me, ...