SIV – Simulation de Incident en Vol (in french) meaning Simulation of Incidents in Flight. Simply put its a Safety Course for Security in Flight.
SIV Course is designed to teach a pilot how to react when his canopy goes outside the normal flight envelop. A good SIV Course should show the pilot when he is likely to encounter problems, how to recognize them as well as how to recover from them. The purpose of SIV is to improve the Safety of pilots in their normal flying envelop…contnd. ……..
Our host Balakram & his family are the sweetest people you will ever find in the lower Himalayas of village India. They are a group of families who house us & cook for us in their own kitchen. The food is delicious, organic & super healthy. They grow almost everything they cook. The old lady of the house was in such distress seeing me doing wingovers close to the ground on take off, thinking I was in danger. Its touching to see such beautiful hearts.
You are at 3000 feet, above a huge water body in a marvellous looking valley. Amazing view but your heart is beating fast, your Instructor is guiding you for a full stall or something even more dramatic. And now its ” full brakes, pull harder, check the dive, hold that stall, back fly, back fly, let fly, let go.. release RELEASE ” , the glider’s appearing & disappearing faster than you can see while your heart is in overdrive on a techno beat. The only words you know now are f###, f###, F### & Sh##, sh##, HOLY SH##!!! What we’re trying to do here is to condition our reactions to act appropriately in extreme situations of glider instability.
Its all kind of stalls, spirals but most of all, what has really impressed me is the way our SIV pilots are getting their Wingovers going. Smooth, symmetrical, deep and beautiful. Wingovers, like someone said are the ‘champagne’ of all maneuvers. They are pretty much the key to good flying. If you can do really deep, smooth, well controlled & good looking wing overs, you can consider yourself a good pilot. You can safely start pushing your XC (Cross Country) distances and safely start working on your ACRO tricks.
The day passes in a jiffy, every one is high on adrenalin & stress hormones, every little thing is a source of laughter. Everyone cracks up every few minuted. Our presence in Bilaspur is the hot talk of the town. We’re in the Local Dailies & TV Channels. Its hard to be discreet about paragliding but the children love us. We’re the children of the skies ourselves, wings of freedom and celebrators of life.
