My first taste of free flight came in the form of Bunny Hops. A series of low short duration flights. launching forward my feet left the ground for the first time and i couldn’t believe how easy and exhilarating it was to fly all on my own.
Now on a holiday in India with friends from NZ Sinchan organised for all of them to sign up for an Elementary Pilot Course. His close friends from Mumbai joined in too. NZ friends Miky, Arjun and Sean loved the paragliding course and had a lot of good things to say about it. As did Sonal Sharma, Manan Vora and Avik Das.
Archana’s post flight enthusiasm was contagious and made us all smile. “Awesome, awesome, awesome” is what she exclaimed as soon as she landed and thanked Anand for encouraging her to give it a try.
We had a great turnout on the weekend with students coming in from Kerala, Bangalore, Kodikanal, Pune, Gujarat and Mumbai. Being summer the winds are strong in the early afternoon and the paragliding training and the solo flying starts later in the evening.The days are spent chilling in a cosy nook within the guesthouse, or the garden or by the lake with a bunch of fellow students and pilots. Students pilots and guests enjoyed an idyllic weekend exploring the garden, the lake and the paragliding site by day and joining the gathering on the roof for dinner and interesting conversations.
I did a tandem flight with Nirvana Pilot Ganesh Shinde on the weekend. I was flying tandem after 10 long years. Felt strange not to have the controls in my hands. Was an…