Imagine one fine morning you walk up a hill with a small backpack (about 12 to 15 kgs). You reach the top and feel the gentle breeze on your face. You rest for a while and observe the wind conditions and the birds flying playfully. And then you decide to open your bag and spread your wing on the slope, connect yourself to the harness and with a few steps join the birds. No machine, no noise or air pollution just the wind on your face and birds for company…. Paragliding has arrived in India and is here to stay. This is the youngest, and comparatively, the cheapest form of air sport where a person can literally fly like a bird.
I had my first test of the sport somewhere in 1995-1996. It was my quest for free flight that I was looking for someone to teach me hang gliding when I got to know about paragliding which was much simpler than hand gliding and was taught very close to home at Virar near Mumbai. The chap who gave me my first lessons was a Korean Instructor representing ‘Edel’ a company making Paragliders. I got my first lessons for a few hours on controlling the paraglider on flat land and was asked to takeoff from a small hill. The instructor guided me with the help of coloured batons for staying into the wind and landing. The training was not great but it got me hooked onto paragliding.
Though one needs to fly for years to gain experience and fly professionally, the basics of paragliding can be picked up in a few hours. This is the only form of aviation activity where the pilot can actually take his first solo flight on day one! The budding paraglider pilot begins his training sessions with an introduction to the equipment. Ground handling is very important in order to understand the basic controls and get a feeling of take offs and landings. Once one gets comfortable with the handling one is taken to a gentle slope for hops in preparation for the solo flight. If all goes well, a theory session and briefing during the lunch break is all that is needed before the first solo flight.
Paragliding pilots commonly use two forms of rising air. The basic form of rising air one encounters on hills is called ridge lift, and is caused by wind blowing over a ridge or hill. By flying within this rising air back and forth along the hill or ridge, the paraglider pilot can remain aloft for lengthy periods of time.
The second is thermals, which are large ‘bubbles’ or ‘packets’ of air that have been warmed on a sunny day, and that rise up thousands of feet into the air. By catching a thermal and circling within it, the paraglider pilot can actually gain height, and remain aloft for many hours.
One of the great challenges of paragliding is developing a ‘feel for the air’ which involves finding and staying aloft in such rising air. This challenge is one reason why pilots remain faithful to the sport for years on end. The next step for a paraglider pilot is cross-country flying, where the pilot keeps on moving from one rising packet of air to another, covering long distances in the process.
A paraglider is basically a collapsible wing which fits into a backpack and weighs about 12 to 15kg. Though not a big deal for an adventure enthusiast, this has to be carried on one’s back to the takeoff area.
There are many sites in the country where paraglider pilots of various skill levels can explore the fascinating world of paragliding. Some of the paragliding schools in western India where one can learn paragliding are:
http://www.paraglidingindia.com (Pune)
http://www.nirvanaadventures.com (Kamshet)
http://www.spaceapple.com (Mumbai)
http://www.templepilots.com (Kamshet)