---
title: "Mussourie Tandem Festival – Exploring new sites"
url: "https://www.templepilots.com/blog/mussourie-tandem-festival-exploring-new-sites/"
type: "post"
published: "2015-05-24T06:58:00+05:30"
modified: "2026-06-11T12:56:57+05:30"
author: "Avi Malik"
---

MISSOURI FLYING FESTIVAL

 Doon Valley Flying Update – The joy of discovering & exploring a new site is unparalleled. We have been here for over a week and its been one helluva ride. Meeting Govt. Officials, Forest Permissions, ATC meetings, press conferences, working on the Take offs n what have you. Flying here of course has pretty much made for everything. Touching cloudbase at 3200mts several times, flying over the [Mussourie Hill station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussoorie), soaking in amazing views of the doon valley has been a delight. Downside for flying are hazy conditions reducing visibility most days n strong west winds in the afternoons. The test flights for Tandems have been good and we hope to launch operations in a few days time. Its tempting to fly XC to the east- north east with both the sun and wind on our backs. We take off around 11’ish and the take off is directly in s thermal stream, you launch n you shoot up. Thermals are little rough closer to the terrain but once up they are smooth, big n enjoyable not exceeding 3m/s. The max I saw was 4.1m/s. One can expect rather rough conditions in May/June with all the heat ascending up the plains but I guess haze is softening the thermal conditions. It rained last night with super strong winds clearing the haze to a great extent. Flying should be more interesting today *smile emoticon*
 Love n happiness from the Northern hills !!

  [!\[\](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MUSS1-300x223.jpg)](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MUSS1.jpg)

 

 [!\[\](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_6232-300x225.jpg)](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_6232.jpg) [!\[\](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_6287-300x225.jpg)](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_6287.jpg)

 

 [!\[\](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_6239-300x225.jpg)](https://templepilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_6239.jpg)