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So I wanted to fly in India.
 A business trip took me to mumbai with a subsequent three days off,
before my return flight to Frankfurt.
So I searched the internet and asked friends, who have flown there before,
where to go.
All the information I could gather led to one town in the Western Gats: Kamshet.
First I went on Melissa's website www.pgashram.com
Melissa runs a guesthouse (mainly for paragliders) next to a lake near Kamshet,
so I emailed her for room reservation.
Since I have never before been to Kamshet I didn't want to go flying on my own.
So I made contact with Anita/Avi of templepilots.com, a recoomendation of
a friend and fellow pilot/intructor in Delhi.
I was lucky that Avi had a course of novice pilots running and I could join them.
It was not easy telling the taxidriver where I wanted to go.
Kamshet seemed to be far into the great unknown for a mumbai cabdriver.
But thanks to the map I had prepared and thanks to the miracle of modern
satellite navigation, we were able to reach Melissa's place before sunset.
The road from Kamshet to the guesthouse was another thing the driver had
to get used to...
Me I had to get used to sleeping on the floor, something I hadn't done in many
years. And something I thought people of my age just don't do anymore.
But that's the way it's done at Melissa's.
The first night was terrible. Almost no sleep.
Dogs barking, loud music in the neighborhood, it was colder than I had expected
and thanks to the lake there were also moskitos.
Why did I ever leave my cosy Hilton Hotel room in Mumbai?
The following nights were much better.
Maybe because I put another blanket between me and the floor, or maybe because
I was much more tired. Or both.
Anyway dogs were peaceful and the music had also disappeared.
On the first morning we met early for breakfast.
The breakfast was good and quick and we soon left for Tower Hill.
Avi said that the day before they had to abort flying because the winds got
too strong and he was expecting the same for today.
Good thing he was wrong and the winds were not to strong.
Bad thing there was almost no wind.
So we waited.
After some time wind picked up and we did a little ground handling and then
a top to bottom flight. Not very spectecular (except for my terrible launch)
After lunch (a small buffett at Melissa's with some really good food)
we went to Shelar Hill.
Launch is a mere 90 meters above landing there.
Good, I thought because I knew we had to walk up.
Bad, I thought because I expected only short flights.
But by then I had no idea of the potential of this flying site, which is said
to be one of the most popular ones in India.
When we arrived we were surrounded by the boys from the village begging to carry
our gliders. They were insisting so I gave in, allthough I had a really
bad feeling about these small children carrying my big bag.
After reaching the launch area, the wind was disappointing again.
Too slow and sometimes too cross.
Parawaiting.
After a while we decided to try and with Teejay's perfect guidance I
managed to stay in the air for about 20 minutes. Then the wind died and I was
forced to land.
Man was I flying close the ridge.
At my (low) level of paragliding experience I would never have flown so close
to the terrain. But I felt perfectly safe with Teejay's instructions over
the radio.
That was not a very long flight, but a very satisfying one.
Because I learned so much and built so much confidence in just 20 minutes.
So this surprisingly turned out to be a perfect day for me.
But it was going to get better...
On my second day (after a much better sleep), we went to Tower Hill in the morning.
The wind was coming from the other side this day and Avi didn't seem to be
too happy about it. The reason was the landing zone on the other side was smaller
and there were more obstacles around.
We did some groundhandling again, hoping the wind would change direction.
It didn't. And it got stronger, too.
Avi decided that I could fly.
The wind was a little strong in my opinion, but I wanted to do a reverse launch.
The launch was bit turbulent but I soon gained some altitude.
I was then able to soar along the ridge for a while.
The air was quite bumpy, and i got two collapses.
The first ones I ever had.
Number one was a bit scary, number two was then routine (haha)
That was quite an impressive flight.
I had experienced how you can get tossed around during a collapse, and I learned
that you can get out of it easily.
Back to Melissa's for lunch.
Back to Shelar Hill in the afternoon.
The wind was so much from the side, that I thought we were not going to fly at all.
I was wrong.
The wind changed direction and it was my turn to launch.
Having my last reverse launch on the same day still in mind, I decided I would
do a forward launch despite the strong wind.
It was a good launch (for a change) and again Teejay began to tell me to fly
so near to the ground.
But the wind conditions were much better than the day before and I quickly gained
height.
I was able to stay up and get higher even after Teejay quit giving instructions.
Again very confidence building.
A big surprise was to see a farm on top of the ridge.
What a place to live.
Avi had me doing some manoeuvers and then I had to land because sunset was
near and we didn't want to walk back to the car in the dark.
That was my longest flight so far. What a great fun.
I refuse to talk about the landing.
On the third and last day of my stay we didn't fly at all.
Almost no wind, we didn't even bother to go to Tower or Shellar Hill.
Since I wanted to leave for Mumbai on that evening anyway, I was thinking of
going earlier. Jamsheed was about to join me, because his house was very near
to the hotel I stayed in on the last night.
But in the late afternoon the wind picked up a little.
It was too late to drive to any of the launch sites, so we decided to take our
glider to a nearby lawn and practice some groundhandling again.
Even if you don't fly, you can still learn something...
And I learned that improving your groudhandling-techniques is essential.
So much have I learned in those three days.
Not only about paragliding.
I also met a lot of nice people, who all share the passion of flying.
I learned the secrets of playing carrom and drinking chai (a quite disgusting
kind of tea). I now know how to chew sugar canes straight from the field, and I'm
absolutely sure that I will never do it again.
I bought some chikki (indian sweets) for my wife and thanks to
Jamsheed I learned about Zarathustra.
I'm looking forward to my next trip to Mumbai.
Maybe I can see one of the guys again.
Maybe I can fly near Kamshet again.
- Jurgen |
