“I’m learning to fly but I haven’t got wings and coming down is the hardest thing!”
Well, that’s not strictly true…landing is easy…but landing softly on your feet and where you want to is another matter entirely.
It
all started at around 6pm on Tuesday the 18th standing outside Adam
Hill’s Frontiers Paragliding shop in the lakeside area of Pokhara
having a pre course briefing.
There were 6 people on the course; me,
my mate Bryan who had arrived that day from slough via Bahrain. Ricky a
hyper active 25 year old media sales rep from Dartford, the couple Greg
and Laura (Laura made the mistake on day 2 by saying to the rest of the
group that she was quite gullible…Doh!!!!) and Francesca a “silver
haired” youngster from Sussex. So not only where we all English but we
all came from the south east of the country, so decent folk one and all!
The
next day everyone was at the shop at 9am, which meant we were all on
time and according to Adam that was a 1st. The next thing to do was fit
heads and arses to helmets and harnesses. When all that was sorted out
it was time to clamber onto the jeep for a quick blast across town to
the training site, passing the Himalayan golf course on the way. The
jeep parked on a small sliver of land 100 metres or so above the river
Seti. From there it was a 5 minute walk down a dirt track to a small
flattish piece of grass covered land where we would be spending the
day.
Without getting too technical a paraglider is a big kite you
hang under. The wing needs to be inflated via a series of
interconnected ram air scoops which is achieved by air passing over the
wing, inflating it and creating a low pressure on the top of the wing
surface thus providing lift. When you are on the ground this means
running forwards at speed. So yes, I spent the day running down the
slope!!! Getting the wing into the air was in reality quite easy,
keeping it in the air and under control was tricky. Keeping it in the
air and under control whilst running down hill was trickier still. It
turns out that the ditch was a nice place to lie in after tumbling
through the low lying and prickly shrubbery when it all went “Pete tong”
On
the Thursday morning we all went for a tandem flight from Sarangkot.
Unlike my previous tandem flight this one was more educational. The
instructor showed me what a wing was capable of doing and still being
able to fly, which was nice and somewhat reassuring. In the afternoon
we were back at the training site, this time round the corner at a
slightly steeper slope. Because the slope was steeper it meant the wing
came up quicker, so you had to react quicker and you still needed to be
running downhill (which was steeper) all the time looking up at the
wing and responding to what it was doing. Braking left and running
right, braking right and running left, braking with both hands to stop
the wing flying past you and dragging you along the ground…lucky for me
I can roll quite well!
The 3rd day was the day when the reality
of what we were doing came up and bit us all on the arse. It was time
to go to the “training hill”. The launch site was 150 metres vertically
up the side of a steep and imposing hill overlooking a wide flat
landscape of freshly harvested paddy fields. The walk up the steep and
narrow path was to be honest knackering. Help was on hand to carry the
paraglider in the form of 9 and 10 year old boys. Who says child labour
is a bad thing!!!
Standing on the slope with a paraglider laid out
behind me ready for take off filled me with some apprehension. Looking
down the hill and at the paddy fields below wasn’t the best thing to
do. Having my inner voice screaming at me for being such a bloody idiot
wasn’t much help in calming my already on edge nerves. However, looking
only at Adam and not what was behind him made it possible. On the count
of three Adam spoke the words “towards me Drew” and as I ran towards
him the wing lifted up, I ran past Adam leaning forwards with my arms
behind me like some kind of 3rd rate overweight unemployed superhero
and approached the point of no return…and as my feet left the ground,
something happened, something magnificent; a certain kind of bliss
washed over me and within 2 seconds I was calm and my inner self was
smiling. All I had to do now was crash…sorry I mean land…Argh!!!!!!
Question: what’s the difference between a paddy field and a normal field like you have in England?
Answer:
about every 10 metres or so there is a little foot high mud wall or
embankment which is there to keep the water in when the rice is growing.
Can
you guess what happened? Yep that‘s right! I came into land just before
a paddy wall and as the speed of the still buoyant glider needed to be
ran off I did so…only my trailing leg got caught on the back of the
wall………it was the 1st time I landed and then immediately went into a
“judo roll”, it certainly won’t be the last!!!!
As the day
progressed so did the students. Each glide down took around 2 or 3
minutes. This was enough time to practise “S turns” or 180’s and
landing approaches. Once on the ground we all could practise the
packing up of the glider or for 20 rupees have 2 young children do it
for you. I think you can guess which option I went with most of the
time! When that was all done it was time to walk back up the steep
mountain track and do it all over again. The following day we returned
to the same place and carried on with getting better with are take offs
and landings.
On the 5th day of the course we all got just a
little bit higher, about 650 metres higher as we changed locations and
started to take off from a launch site a mile or so down the ridge from
sarangkot. The road to sarangkot village is the same one I biked up
before only this time standing on the tailgate of the jeep it was just
the views that were taking my breath away. Once we ran out of tarmac it
all got a little bit dusty. Actually that’s a bit far from the truth,
it got very dusty (if you ever come here try and get a seat in the
cab!). Sitting in the pickup section I wondered how the thin metal
sheet roof had got all those little bumps in it. A few minutes later I
was rubbing the top of my head and I had the answer…ouch!
Arriving
at the stop off point we all climbed out of the jeep to be met by
several very keen looking locals. I avoided the scramble for the bags
by standing to one side and trying to get all the dust of me. Once
those lucky enough to have bags started walking we followed them up the
mountain path. 20 minutes later I was sitting semi collapsed at the
launch site. This site is about 50m below the ridge line and on a good
day (which is everyday!) you can see for miles. Looking down you could
see the world’s biggest landing zone in the valley 800m below.
Now
we were really paragliding and for the rest of the course we would be
launching from here twice a day. On the 1st day the flights lasted for
10 to 15 minutes. This gave Adam plenty of time to get us doing drills
on the glide down.
a) Pitch control: basically you make yourself
swing forwards and backwards and then come to a controlled stop
directly underneath the canopy.
b) Roll control: by braking left
then right several times in quick succession the glider rolls left and
right whilst you get shaken about till it calms itself down.
c)
Weight shift steering: you grab hold of the harness and lean back and
then tilt your body left or right depending on the direction you wish
to turn towards.
D)”d” riser steering: this is what you do if your brake line fails.
e)
360 turns: this is a tight turn 1st one way then the next and when you
stop turning you need to control the pitch of the wing.
f) Big ears:
this is when you collapse the wing at each end by pulling on the single
line “A” riser thus reducing your lift and airspeed.
All of
these exercises were helping us all to build up our confidence in not
only what the wing was capable of doing (without spinning out of
control and crashing into the ground) but also getting us all used to
how a paraglider flies through the air.
The flight plan was he
same everyday. Launch then head towards the school across a small
thermal area, then turn to the right and follow the gully down the side
of the mountain passing over a second thermal area before ending up
soaring up and down on a small ridge before heading over to the landing
zone. For the 1st few days we were launching before the thermals became
to strong, so as we passed over the thermal sites it was a bumpy ride.
The glider would roll and pitch just like when we did it during the
drills, so this time we all knew what to expect and more importantly
what to do.
The last two days we were taking off when the thermals
were a little bit stronger. On afternoon flight my mate Bryan became
the object of envy as his flight coincided with “magic air”. This is
when the valley releases all of its thermic energy in one huge valley
wide thermal. The bastard just kept going up whilst floating in a
straight line across the valley. In a few minutes he was 500 metres
higher!
When we took of Adam was there to instruct us during the
take off and whilst we were flying. For landing, Graham was on the
ground to guide us in. The way we 1st learnt to land was the “S turn”
approach. You flew downwind and perpendicular of the landing zone,
making a series of “S” or 180 degree turns to lose height before making
a 90 degree turn and gliding into land. On one of my flights Graham was
talking me down; I had just done my final S turn and was waiting for
Graham to tell me when to make my final 90 degree turn to the right.
Imagine my surprise when he told me to make a 90 degree turn to the
left. After a short pause for thought I raised my right arm up and
pointed to the landing zone. Graham quickly got back on the radio and
said “yes that’s right drew make a 90 degree turn to the right”. By the
next day all of the other instructors and tandem pilots had heard about
it on the grapevine and he got the ribbing he deserved.
The morning
flight on the last day was my best one of the course. Soon after launch
I hit a small thermal and Adam guided me in. I climbed up past the take
off point and carried on till I was higher than the ridge. Coming out
of the thermal I looked north over the ridge and saw the snow covered
peaks of the Himalayas in the distance…it was glorious!!!
So
there you go, 9 days to learn how to paraglide. My longest flight was
around the 25 minute mark and I got over an hour and a half of air
time. If you were to learn to paraglide in the UK it would take you
several months and your flight time would be measured in minutes.
Frontiers
paragliding: all the people at this outfit are top banana. Adam is a
very skilled instructor who teaches you in a way that makes the rapid
progression from walking to flying a non scary experience. If after
reading this you’re maybe thinking about learning to fly yourself then
frontiers paragliding gets my seal of approval and complete
recommendation.
Check out the website for yourself
http://himalayan-paragliding.com/
This afternoon the 6 of us went rafting. What happened on the river stays on the river…ALRIGHT!!!!!
p.s: Graham now knows how to tell his left from right, we are all very happy for him.
