My first look at Adventure Sports – Paragliding

I have been thinking of writing on my first solo paragliding experience for quite some time now. My first brush with paragliding was in Manali – but it was so commercial and you had to double ride with the pilot. This was like just sitting and floating through the air. This is when I thought that it would be great if one could do it independently. As luck would have it Times of India which writes a weekly article on unique groups, wrote about Templepilots and how they teach people to fly at Lonavla. This being a couple of hours from Mumbai, I got in touch with them and signed up for the course after convincing my daughter to come with me. My younger daughter and wife agreed to accompany us for the three day weekend brush with flight. Remember Didarus and Icarus – well I was thinking of them when I left for the course. Off we left for Kamshet for our first brush with adventure sports!!

On Friday, 9th May – we assembled at Rangoli restaurant at Kamshet, filled in the registration forms and around 3.30pm left for Pawna lake – the training location. The training site is beautiful and even with the mid day sun beating down, the weather was pleasantly cool with a light breeze blowing.

We were told how to wear the harness and attach the para glider to the harness. Then, began the hard work – trying to get the glider up by running into the wind. At the outset I was told that my daughter would fare better than me as the ground handling involves finesse and technique rather than strength!! After quite a few failures and persistence on the part of Pankaj sir and Avi sir, my daughter managed to get the glider up and started controlling it towards the end of the day. She successfully managed to do the hops and was cleared for her first solo at the de-briefing session. I was not very confident and said that I needed to do a little bit of ground handling before going for my solo.

The next day, early morning we were back at the site. The breeze took some time in coming and we had to wait for about forty five minutes before Lord Varun smiled on us and gave us ideal wind conditions. My daughter told TJ that she would also like to do some more ground handling along with me, before going for our first solo. After about 45 minutes of ground handling TJ told us that we are cleared for our first solo. There was a lump in my stomach as we were driven to the take off site atop a hill about 500 to 600 feet high. I was made to go before my daughter. Before going to the top of the hill, Avi sir had drilled into us that we should just listen to his instructions which would come over the two way radio. I took off without a hitch and was just concentrating on the radio, thereby ignoring the beauty of the surroundings. I did not get to admire the scenic beauty, but did manage to do the turns – left, right and a figure of eight, before being cleared for landing into the wind. I did a perfect landing into the wind and killed the glider by turning around immediately on landing and pulling the brakes. What this does is that the glider just deflates and lands flat on the ground. This was the most amazing and exhilarating experience of my life. My subsequent two flights just kept getting better and with confidence being gained with each flight, I found time out during the flight to admire the scenic beauty. In flight you could admire the calm expanse of Pawna lake and the surrounding hills, in the far distance you get a glimpse of Pawna dam. You get to fly over some lovely bungalows which dot the hillside. All in all an amazing experience.

I would like to say that our batch was a lovely crowd of great people and the trainers were friendly, helpful and always at hand to guide and correct. It may be an adventure sport – but with the experience I got it must be the safest adventure sport around. It is definitely far safer than hang gliding and the equipment is also not too bulky. The para glider when folded fits into a haversack which you can carry on your back.

I for one am definitely going back with my daughter for the P2 course and thereafter for the advanced course. Am looking forward to getting my pilots license and then my own paraglider. Can’t wait for the day when I will be able to take to the skys on my own glider!!