Paragliding in India so far

As I write this a batch of pre-monsoon storms and showers have put paid to our flying. Strong winds have broken trees and the rain is the first I have seen since arriving six weeks ago, the temperature has dropped and the dust in the air has settled for a while. Tho' the rain is a nice reminder of home (never thought I'd be saying that!!!) I’d rather be paragliding.

The past few weeks have been excellent for flying and I’m a very happy chap. The consistent West wind which blows in from the sea, this time of year, March-May, has meant good flying in the late part of the day. Earlier can be too weak and middle part of the day is too strong, but patience on the hill is rewarded with very nice conditions for the last couple of hours after 4pm with the sun setting at around 7pm.

The winter (Nov-Jan) can be better for flying and has a more agreeable temperature, but as I chose to come here in the summer and am still managing to fly almost every day, I cannot complain. The conditions suit my experience very well and there is no way I’d be getting this much airtime in the UK. With more experience it is possible to fly cross-country during the middle of the day but the wind and thermals can be very strong, so this would be for the very experienced pilot only. As it is I have been launching in strong winds at 4pm with the windsock in a steady vertical position, and use of speedbar has been essential. Later the winds tend to be less strong.

Staying at Japalouppe has been incredibly handy as Temple Pilots allow me to tag along with the students and Club Pilots every day. Mixing with these guys is great fun as they learn the ropes, and it all takes me back to the many weekends I spent with Northern Paragliding high in the Yorkshire Dales last year. My training was very good but took a long, long time, a mixture of bad weather and my own availability meant that the whole thing was a very long process. I don’t think the students here appreciate how lucky they are being able to qualify in no time at all.

Just reading through my log-book confirms that my flights have gone from 20 to 56 and my hours are now 24 from the original 4 hours I had on arrival. Many flights have been short as I practice take-off and top-landing, and both have improved loads, flying with Avi, Anita, TJ and Dhawal has been an inspiration as they are all excellent pilots and I have learned a lot. My confidence has soared also as I work on my ground handling skills and other techniques which I had only used in a basic way before, and I am a much happier pilot because of this.

Being in full control of the canopy at all times is such an important skill, and probably the most difficult to master in Paragliding. Experienced pilots will dance with the wing at takeoff, choosing the launch time they want and not the one the canopy might dictate. Control in strong winds was my weakest skill, and it is one which is difficult to work on, a mistake can mean you may be dragged along the ground struggling to kill the life in the wing with the risers. Practicing here has meant that I am much better at this, though it is something which needs to be constantly worked-on. I’m certainly much better than I was before coming here which means less aborted take-offs and more airtime.

The speed that the great weather here allows the students to learn is impressive. A young couple Jamie and Mary from the UK were here for just 10 days recently, after 2 years of travelling around the world, they completed their P1 and P2 in just 8 days. They then spent the last 2 days flying under the instructions of the school and both had 1 hour plus soaring flights in the evening achieving heights of up to 1000ft above take off. I think they were fairly happy with their achievement! In the UK they will just need to take one or two tasks more (such as top-landings) to convert to the UK Club Pilot system.

It makes a change for me being the more experienced pilot in a group and somewhat of a visiting celebrity because of this. I am now the wise old experienced pilot the students come to when they need to clear up some point and the instructors are not around. I remember well trying to soar with my limited skills during training, and somewhat inevitably gliding down to land in the bottom landing field. I would stare enviously at the experienced pilots still in the air. Now the roles are reversed as I watch the new students short flights from the air.

You can read more about the sites I’m flying, in particular Shillar and Pavana Lake here at the Temple Pilots web site.

Thanks to Jamie and Mary two smashing people I met taking Paragliding training with Temple Pilots in India, I can now see myself launching/flying for the first time! Woohoo.
(the video is about 40mb so you will need a broadband connection or a lot of patience to view it).

If you are reading this guys then good luck with your flying careers and keep in touch!

The site is Shillar near Kamshet, India.

It’s a Crappy Business

OK first a warning: this bit is about toilet. It concerns bodily functions and uses a couple of rude words and crude terms, so Mum, I’m sorry and to everyone else you have been warned.

Before coming to India I Googled many things, diet and hygiene seemed to come up a lot without me searching specifically for them. This issue is of course not restricted to India but concerns travel and being away from home in general.

Lots of things can upset a persons system, knock it for six or give you the skits. If after a ‘safe’ meal you find yourself confined to the smallest room you will have plenty of time to meditate on the cause as the world falls out of your bottom. If the water was bottled, the food hot and well prepared in a reputable kitchen, and you scrubbed your hands very well then the cause will probably be a mystery, especially if your friends shared the same food and are all fine. Perhaps it was something at breakfast which was on a time delay…

Incidentally as I write this at 11pm waiting for a train in Pune, I notice the passengers from the incoming train on the far track do not bother using the footbridge to cross the line they just nip across the tracks and help each other up onto the high platform, young and old, it strikes me that it must be very difficult to be a rebel in India, no one does as you expect. How can you be a non-conformist in a country where people choose which rules to follow and which to ignore?

Anyhow, back to poo, as Tigger once said (though that would have been Pooh).

So you’re not feeling too well but your friends are fine, if they are local then the reason is obvious as they are used to the food and water wherever you are, but this does not help you avoid the problem the next time, which food do you take and which do you leave? It’s a lottery. So getting sick once in a while is the norm for me, I continue to be reasonably adventurous and try new things, within certain limits. It doesn’t help that I really enjoy food and will pretty much try anything, the rabbit curry (not recommended incidentally if you ever come across it in a small café in Kerala) is a case in point, had I stuck to a plain omelette that evening then I may have eaten something in the three days that followed, as it was my stomach would not even accept water for a while.

Some chaps are painting the station ceiling, its 11.15pm. They are using pale blue paint with a long pole, a plastic tube and a pump. The system is working well, the ceiling is now powder blue, as is the platform, the benches, the light fittings, and the passengers. I keep moving down the platform as this is a new shirt and I quite like the colour. I expect a new team will come and clean-up tomorrow, but that’s the way things seem to be in India.

OK so this time of year (April) its pretty hot I have not felt like eating much, so in the mornings I’ve been eating only fruit, typically half a kilo of green grapes and three bananas. The fruit here is delicious and cheap, this meal costs me about 20 pence. Also I should now mention at this point that regarding my bowel movements, to use a train analogy, the engine has been stuck in the yard for some time now, the rolling stock has not been released, erm.. the big engine is backed-up in the tunnel. OK I’m constipated. I know this makes no sense and I have no explanation for it, I’m eating all this fruit and then vegetable curry twice a day, I should be pebble-dashing the bathroom but for whatever reason its not happening for me.. until yesterday. I’d had a good days flying, and we had been out in the strong Indian sun all afternoon with no shade, I’d not worn my hat which was stupid of me. At the end of the day my face felt hot, glowing in fact, and I knew I’d overdone it. I definitely had a very mild heatstroke.

As we neared home I felt the need, the need to speed somewhere pretty darn quick. My buttocks were clenched tighter than a Yorkshireman’s purse (I can say that I’m a Yorkshireman) and I only just made it to the bathroom before the points switched, and believe me there was a whole goods train of traffic. I spent a large portion of that evening driving the porcelain train; it was unfortunate that the toilet was not built to take that amount of business. The pan was not bolted to the floor and rocked from side-to-side which meant that every usage was a dance. Of course this affected the pipe which led from the pan to the cistern so that it leaked when the toilet was flushed so a small pool always lay around the base of the loo. Additionally the pipe movement lifted the cistern off its little hooks so that it began to rest on my back which meant I was pinned in position pending a further flood. Luckily I had with me a copy of the Times Of India, not a very good paper incidentally, the India Express is better, not as many ads.

I am now on the Mumbai train to Delhi, but only for 9 stops.. I think. I struggle to find a spot as the train is quite busy. There are sacks of grain and sleeping people everywhere, and I mean everywhere, floor, luggage racks, seats, and these include babies and old ladies. A man kindly moves his feet after I stand forlorn for a while and I perch on the end of a bench. My feet are very close to an old ladies face as she sleeps lying on the floor. Two children are curled at my side and I try to keep very still to avoid waking anyone. Five stops later the train remains at the station and does not move for 20 minutes, I don’t know why, it’s very hot. I don’t feel uncomfortable in India now, people still stare, sometimes I ignore it, sometimes I stare back until they look away. Foreigners are not as uncommon a sight as they once were, however I’m typically the only non-Indian on any train or bus or in the street so and still a novelty item for most people. Blending in is impossible, though I do try.

So anyhow, I am now totally cleaned-out. My system has been very well flushed, forget colonic irrigation,
come to India. Oh and another good thing to come from this episode is that I am now proficient at Indian botty washing, which is actually quite easy and very hygienic (in a well equipt toilet). Originally I was carrying small wads of Andrex with me, and still do incidentally, but am now cool with the squirt and wash method which gets things squeaky clean. The only downside is having a wet bot for a little while after, but in a hot country this is soon gone. Its nice and cool for a bit actually.

A small boy has lain down next to the old woman, I am now effectively pinned. The is no obvious route to the door without treading on someone unless I can hop onto a sack of grain. Looks like I’m going to Dehli.

This link will enable you to download Google Earth KMZ file of a recent flight I had at Pavna Lake, Kamshet, Mahararashta.



Give it a try here

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Uploaded a few new pics to flickr

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Japalouppe - Kamshet

I am now staying at the base used by Temple Pilots, an equestrian ranch called Japalouppe. Based in Kamshet near Pune (pronounced Poonah), Temple Pilots is the most successful and well respected paragliding schools in the region. Run by Avi, ex-RAF pilot, and his wife Anita, the school has a good throughput of P1 and P2 pupils and a growing number of Club Pilots who fly under the protective wing of the Club and its very experienced instructors.

Japalouppe is used by the school as a base for briefings, food and lodgings, and consists of a couple of bunkhouses, and a lodge. Here at the ranch kids from well-off Indian families can come and horse ride, scream, shout, run-about and cause general mayhem. There are stables, countless dogs, four Labrador puppies, a very vocal cat and some very cute two-day old kittens.

Also dotted around the place are a dozen geese, three tiny little bright yellow fluffy goslings, some goats, fish in two large fish tanks, a visiting Kite who calls here for his breakfast every morning, flocks of big black crows and about a zillion flies and mosquitoes.

Facilities are very basic when compared to the UK and it is something you have to get used to in India generally. The dorms have bunk beds and noisy ceiling fans, and mosquitoes are a problem, having said that I do sleep well and the atmosphere is always fun in the bunkhouse. The showers are camp-site style, usually cold (which I prefer personally in the heat) .. shaving isn’t much fun, not had a hot water shave since I arrived, but hey.. in a warm country its always lots easier to shave anyhow. All-in-all a welcoming place to stay if you love animals and don't mind a busy environment.. Incidentally the owner Lorraine and her son Rohan and staff are great people and will make your stay a lot of fun.

Flying

Paragliding is very much in its infancy here and is within the reach of only a lucky few. The new students I have met are mostly young and successful; every one is a graduate and successful in the corporate world, others are older business people. Interestingly there is a good mix of the sexes, with young women from the media, design, and banking industries.

I have been going out every morning with the paragliding students and practising ground handling in the mornings, then we all get back for lunch and a siesta as the day gets hotter. The heat is pretty oppressive, I’m drinking several litres of water per day without much need to visit the smallest room, so to speak, and theoretically this means I need to drink more, which would almost mean an intravenous drip by my reckoning. Also I have to remember to take salt, this makes a change from trying to keep a low salt diet.. bring on the snacks! The weather is fairly predictable, as of course it never rains until the rainy season in May/June, and the wind direction is also seasonal. The strength and direction may be off a little, but usually the instructors get it right.. so much easier than the UK.

Generally flying has been good though I do not have anywhere near as much airtime by now as I'd hoped. My total so far is around three hours, which for almost a month is hopeless. On the positive side I've seen and done loads and made tons of new friends. I'm familiar with some tremendous new flying sites and pretty much set-up to visit them when I want. Soon I'll be moving to a new location and should be able to hook-up with other pilots and fly every day.

OK that’s all for now. Off to find a cool beer..

India prices in UK pounds

Some prices for you (approx and rounded down, 100INR is as near to £1 for me not to bother calculating exactly.. OK its £1.18 (27/03/07) if you want to be exact))

Bottle of water 15p
1^st Class ticket for 1 and half hour journey £2.60
2^nd Class ticket for same trip 18p

Yes you read that correctly, a train ticket can cost the same as a bottle of water. Train journeys deserve their own chapter, truly incredible, so I’ll leave that little chestnut for later.

Huge juicy watermelon 35p
1L Kingfisher beer in market 80p, in bar £1.70
1L imported single malt Whisky £5
Petrol 60p litre
Fresh coconut as a snack, (top chopped off and straw stuck in, then later chopped open so you can eat the flesh 15p)
Bananas couple of pence each, grapes 25p half kilo
Soap 20p, talc 35p etc.
Trousers or shirt you can get for £2
Sandals £4

As I sit here I notice a new mozzie bite on my foot and it itches. Bugger.