FlyNirvana BLOG

Hi All,

We are now in May, the last month of the flying season at Kamshet . Come June, the monsoon arrives and our landing fields turn into verdant waterlogged rice paddy fields.  Luckily for me  I am I parked at Native Place for the summer holidays  and can make the most of the flying this month.

This May we started with cloud build up, strong cross winds, unstable conditions and even had a thunderstorm on the 7^th after which the weather settled down and flying has been phenomenal till date.

May is the wedding season, on the 8^th was Bandya’s wedding and Ravi too ties the knot on the 27^th of this month. Many of us are waiting eagerly for the occasion. There is nothing like a village wedding and the dance or shall I say the trance party begins from sunset and full power dancing in the streets goes on and on.  Guys Bandya’s party was a super experience for me. Dwane, Dylan, Hiren, Stan have been to many of these parties and every time I ask them what it was like they say super! But seeing and dancing for one ’s self is the only way to really experience it and that is exactly what we all did on the 8^th night. I have never had so much fun in the city!

You all can join us too – 27^th May is the next big day.

Peace Bliss and Happy Landings

Astrid & Sanjay Rao 

Nirvana Adventures

 I mentioned in last weekends blog about flying back to the parking and enjoying the sunset. what i did not mention was that the parking was strewn with litter - wafer, chewing gum and chocolate wrappers, plastic water bottles  Macdonalds too - horrifying sights. It was not just the parking there was litter all along the path and even at takeoff. Alarm bells were ringing in my head but it was the end of the weekend and i was on my way back to the city.   I thought about it all next week and realised it needed some immediate &  serious intervention. So on Saturday afternoon we got to Shelar with garbage bags and a plan. white garbage bags were distributed among the pilots and students and black among the kids at the site. A competition was announced - black versus white or pilots versus the kids ( no prizes for guessing who won )We collected 43 bags of garbage in one evening! Pilots lets be pro active - get your hands dirty and get the job done. Lets all pick up the trash and not wait for the next person. Believe me it gives instant results and intangible rewards.Peace Bliss & Happy LandingsAstrid RaoP.s.  The hillside was burnt on Monday - notice the charred hillsides in the background of the pic. Luckily the main takeoff was spared so our gliders wont get sooty. Nirvana Adventures

Crosswind dominated the long Easter weekend.  The north wind component continued from the last weekend with a little more strength and stubbornness – consequently very little flying happened. Some of us managed to catch a window of opportunity and get airborne for a significant amount of time but one could actually see the cycles in action as a wave of pilots who had managed to get up one minute all drifted earthwards as the lift dissipated. Gokul who got up early when the direction was good took advantage of the north component and headed back to tower hill and the highway. While some pilots got top to bottoms or simply had to give in and walk down.Sunith who is now 13 years old accompanied us to the site and did some grueling ground handling in the hot sun. He was supervised by Vinya and as I watched their interaction memories of them playing together as children flooded my mind. Scenes from 10 years ago, running around barefoot in the sun, up and down the hills and fields along with the rest of the Shelar kids. Happy days, happy memories.I  had been looking forward to 3 flying days and a lot of other excitement as well. The wind may not have blown favorably but there were other factors and incentives to keep us happy. We had just completed the first round of 100 courses with the air force, there was old friends Mike and gang at Native Place to catch up with, Steve’s staggered birthday bashes that went on through the week, an Easter egg hunt with Irene Anna & Stephan and the standard post breakfast cool off in the lake to look forward to as well.Peace Bliss and Happy LandingsAstrid Rao Nirvana Adventures

If you ever drive up to Native Place on Holi day be prepared for groups of kids who will stop your car at various points demanding poss – they hold a rope across the road to stop vehicles.  Stop and give them a 10 rupee note and they squeal in excitement – this is a collection for the Holi celebrations that they have at the end of the day.

This year on Holi day we got in to Native Place after an early morning training session at Shinde Tekdi. The wind was coming in from the east in the morning again rather surprising for March but why complain about the vagaries of the weather if it means one more, great Tower flying day. We enjoyed the interaction with the children and took some great pix on the way in.

The next day it was still east and we headed to Tower Hill early in the morning. Sandeep managed to gain enough height to leave the hill and flew up to Govitri – we see him in the picture above entering Native Place feeling like a sky-god. Dwane got a great flight too and landed north of the river. All in all an exciting opening of the new season of spring

Nirvana Adventures

Friday saw us get to Shelar in the afternoon. It is always great to fly at Shelar. Meet the kids at the site, enjoy the walk through the fields crushing the foliage underfoot releasing a spicy fragrance that subtly rises up to greet our noses. The grasses on the hillside are now bleached golden while the fields beyond still have traces of green looking like a big patchwork quilt from the air.Dinesh, Rahel and Lina are excited too. For Lina it is a big day – her first flight with her father. She is in a big hurry and wants to fly ‘now’ Rahel has that worried look of a mother that I pick up on immediately. Been there done that! I reassure her and we continue to walk up to the site.Lina took to the air naturally, like a fledgling. It was a glorious day. Great flights and great fun. But first she helped out spreading gliders on the hill.Saturday was reserved for parawaiting at Tower hill. The wind went from strong to inconsequent. It was a day for watching the clouds form and gather.Sunday saw us back at Tower Hill flying all day. East face in the morning and west face in the evening. Nirvana Adventures

 Yesterday at the training site there were a couple of little boys barely 9 or 10 years old holding up bed sheets and running full tilt – they had no preconceived notions about flying with the sheets. They have been watching us train here and  have some idea about what one needs to be airborne – they were simply having the time of their lives  – turning around to demonstrate kiting the glider, jumping ahead to demonstrate bunny hops etc. they were just imitating the training process and having a blast.Their antics reminded me of an article I wrote ‘Kamshet and the Circus in the Sky’ almost 9 years ago,  to give people an idea about a day at the flying site. I had ended the article by musing about the village children who come by to see the circus in the sky (us paragliding) and wondered how our activities and their exposure to us would affect their lives.Back at the site and in the ‘present moment’ my eyes turn towards Ravi Shelar one of those very village boys who today is a paragliding instructor and a competent tandem pilot.  And then there is Bandya Sandeep and Vinay,  fondly called the Karanjgaon Contingent. Yesterday’s children and today’s young men who are now part of the Nirvana Adventures team all having achieved their flying dreams as well as dodged the bus that takes all young people away from their homes family and roots in village India to the drudgery of menial work in the city.The circus in the sky sure has impacted many livesPeace Bliss & Happy LandingsAstrid Rao

The festival of lights was celebrated in style with oil lamps adding to the warm glow at Native Place. Lamps, Fireworks great food and happy people set the festive mood and students, pilots and house guests all had a wonderful time, away from the noisy firecrackers and pollution in our own little piece of paradise.Many new gliders were opened on this auspicious occasion. Sunith Rao spent the week at the training hill with the new Ozone Ground Hog and enjoyed the forward launch runs downhill and the odd hop.The wind was fairly mild and very very switchy and the training progressed slowly.I was happy to go off to the Tower and fly with Hiren, Dwane, Hans and the rest of the gang. It kept me from having to watch my son on the training hill.A  lot of para waiting ensued but we were able to squeeze in the odd half hour to an hour and this kept us extremely happy. Gokul in his new Airwave Sport 4 entered the air at Kamshet and reported that he was extremely happy with it.  Daniel in a new Element and I too got a brand new Mojo 2.What is it with new gliders and the preoccupation of keeping them clean? Last year this time I had a new glider that I landed on a dusty road on the very first flight. This year too I did the very same thing instantaneously making a brightly colored wing eat dust and look suitably faded. Nirvana Adventures

This batch of young students came in from Pune and Mumbaito do the 5 day course. They were treated to cold refreshments at the site thanks to 9 year old Vijay‘s enterprising spirit.

Now its not just chai but chilled thum pas (read thumb’s Up) , Pepsi and Miranda are other options available on a sweltering afternoon at the Shelar site.

Nirvana Adventures

Waking up late on Sunday morning we looked across the lake to see the wind coming in from the east.  Sanjay said it did not look good but the rest of us were seriously hopeful that it would turn.

Gokul who had spent the previous afternoon ground handling a new wing was continuing with his preparations to take Veda his precocious 4 year old daughter tandem. But the stubborn cross wind refused to turn disappointing pilots who had driven up for the afternoon flying fix from Mumbai and Pune. Friday and Saturday were both good flying days and those of us who had spent the long weekend at Native Place were not thaaaat disappointed

All through the summer holidays Sunith Rao practiced with his kiting wing at the site carefully watched over by by father bird Sanjay.

It has been a pleasure and a joy to watch him play the kiting game. Who knows how many hours of ground handling he will have under his belt before he is able to fly solo. Right now he has the time, the opportunity and the interest.

Que Sera Sera

Peace Bliss & Happy Landings

Astrid