Girish's Blog

Paragliding at this site is always a pleasure as the site is so scenic and beautiful and in tune with nature that is sets you at peace with yourself. One can just sit there all day by oneself and enjoy the natural beauty with which one is surrounded. I reached the lake site at around 2.30pm before the rest of the crowd got in and sat below a tree to protect myself from the sunlight. There was a gentle breeze which helped in keeping one cool. After some time a couple more paragliding students joined me and a while later Parsha came down in the jeep with the gliders. There were a group of overseas students, probably French, from their accent, though I am not sure. I decided to get some kiting practice as I had a lot of cobwebs in my mind with my last flight experience where I had got caught in a “venturi” and had an interesting experience. I did some kiting for a couple of hours – I had assistance for about ten minutes, with all the trainers busy with the “new” students and not much time...

Saturday, April 3, 2010 we were told to assemble at Rangoli restaurant at 1pm – the usual assembly point. Because of the Easter weekend there were a lot of holiday makers as well flyers. We encountered a lot of traffic in Lonavla, but reached around 12.30 and had lunch at Rangoli. I was having a very uneasy sensation on waking up, something telling me not to fly today, but I had a friend who had come just to watch and decide for himself whether he should take up the course, hence I decided to go. After lunch at around 2.15pm we left for Shelar, two Bullet motorbikes, two jeeps and my car. On the way, the jeep which Avi was driving had a close shave with a drunk villager on a motorbike. I was behind the jeep and had a clear view of the incident. The road ahead was clear in my line of sight, which means the motorbike was on Avi’s side of the road (guy must have just returned from the US) driving on the wrong side! Suddenly I saw the bike as he swerved out of the way of the jeep and a sma...

The first batch of Geo Pilots started off on their paragliding course on the 19th of February from Mumbai. We had twelve adventurous souls including our Chairman who put their hearts, bodies and minds into completing the course. Day one started out with introductions students with trainers and instructors at Rangoli restaurant, Kamshet. After being briefed about the course, going through the training booklet, signing off on the Templepilots indemnity our boys were ready to fly. We went off to a new site at Kara about 60km from Pune, a flat plateau. We had three vehicles, of which one managed to do off-roading very well – Scorpio belonging to Sanjay Sarkar – the two hired vehicles a Tata Safari and Chevrolet Tavera played safe and did not venture to do the steep climb to the training site. Our boys got off and walked in the afternoon sun for their first feel of a paraglider. A lot of the trainees had stated that they had done a lot of adventure sports but those were all connected to the...

As our holiday was over and both Pallavi and I had to do our flying tasks we were told to come back on weekdays, as weekends were always crowded. Pallavi and I decided to return on the 12th and 13th of May and my nephew enrolled for the P2 immediately. So we were back at Kamshet and this time stayed at the farmhouse instead of travelling up-down from Lonavla. Parsha, the youngest instructor was demonstrating how to kite with Vikas another instructor pulling at the risers so that the glider collapses. This was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Parsha is a skinny lad, but the skill and control he demonstrated with the glider was amazing. For about ten minutes he had the glider up in the air and did not let it touch the ground, I wish I had taken my camera and filmed this for educative purposes. Vikas used to pull the risers and the glider used to start tilting and collapsing and Parsha would pull the brakes and corresponding risers to set the glider right again, this was t...

The long weekend beginning with voting day on Thursday 30th April, was the one booked by me for our P2 paragliding course with Templepilots at Kamshet. We had done our P1 last year in May and this was something I was really looking forward to, as my first three solo flights were absolutely unforgettable. My nephew decided to do the P1, thus it became a long weekend outing for my brother in law and his family and my family. The P2 is a four day course and we had only three days. The first day was at Pawna Lake site and the wind being pretty light, Pallavi got the opportunity to do the tandem as well as solo flight. Both her first P2 tandem and solo flights were about 25 minutes each. One would wonder why you need to fly tandem – but that is part of the training as the instructor teaches you how to fly the ridgeline to pick up the winds up draft, how to turn using body shifts, etc. The tandem flight is to get a feel of the glider controls and movement with an experienced flyer. After her...

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 a...