Nandhi Hills Flying Permission

Dear All,

on 24th Jan, 2009 me and Arvind visited Horticulture dept at Lalbagh and DC office at Chikaballapur. Both the officers were not available to put our case and subsequently we have got the contact nos of these officers.

Horticulture dept head : Mr Vasnath Kumar - Director Ph: 26571925 (Direct) & 26579231 extn 202

Mr Anvar Pasha - DC

PA to DC Mr Salim 9880926617 & 08156 262001

Today me & Narendra met Mr Vasanth Kumar and he speaks typical government language and he says we need to take permission from all concerned depatments for flying!!! We asked him to give permission from his side then he says let him speak to Special Officer who stays at Nandhi hills to know the complete case & whether it comes under his jurisdiction to give any permissions. As of him they have control over 90 acres of land which is within boundery of Nandhi hills. Other part comes under forest and as per him, we may have to take permission from DC. We have to contact Mr Vasanth Kumar next week to know the developments.

In the mean time we have to visit DC's office this Friday to know whether there is any official order restricting paragliding at Nandhi hills. If DC clears from his side, there should not be much problems in speaking to horticulture department.

Let's hope for the best.

Regards

Venu

Crosswinds Massala

Nandi Take Off in Cross Winds from Dipankar Roy on Vimeo.


There is nothing more amusing as an after-thought than the memory of a near perfect crosswind take off. At the same place and the same time a week earlier I was all over the place trying to orient a glider that was determined to come up sideways. Of course it helps to learn from mistakes. Vrata pointed out on the previous occasion that I was tugging the brakes even before the glider came over head. So, this time I was determined to make it right. On the hill and in strong winds the wing will react fast to brakes so braking has to be at a minimum and subtle. I pulled the risers and let the wing come up on its own - its better to wait till the glider is overhead because at that point its not as wild as while its in the arc while coming up (Note to myself: the way I pulled the risers was not correct, I was tugging it towards myself when I should have stepped back a bit and pulled it upwards, will fix it next time). You will notice in the video that just after I turned around, for a brief moment, I was trying to bend forward and keep my arms behind. However, I was airborne in a split second so I had to correct my position accordingly.

The view from the ridge above has a calming effect. The rush you feel at the take off slowly dilutes and the mind now concentrates on two things - Left Brake and Right Brake. It takes a while to get into a rhythm with the beats and the turns and keeping track of other pilots. Then, you look around and start to enjoy the view. Once in a while you watch a bird fly by under you and you realize what a wonderful sport this is. Just so that I am in their good books, I thanked the hill and a bird that was soaring with me before I left the ridge and headed for the landing field.

I left the ridge a few minutes too late not realizing that it may take a while to lose height over the landing zone. It took me a good 8-10 minutes of figure of 8's and a few 360's to get down. The lights were just about switched off for the day when I touched down. I packed my glider in complete darkness, well, maybe my teeth were shining because I was grinning from ear to ear after the wonderful flight.

Alison's first flight at Chota Hill

Alison's First Flight from Dipankar Roy on Vimeo.

After days of perfecting her kiting skills Alison makes her first flight on Jan 18th from the Training Hill (Chota Hill) at Nandi under the supervision of Vrata. Welcome to the Free Flying Fraternity.

varkala (still elusive)

been to varkala for a third time since 2008, this time at least a got around to opening my wing the second day (which apparently is a far cry from the last two times when it wasnt even flyable). this time around, as soon as i reached varkala the second day at 12.30 in the afternoon i saw yaseen (?) (a french guy) take off in his second attempt (with a pretty unique style) and that was followed by ohelion (another French guy). well whats interesting about their take off was that both were (technically) doing a reverse launch, but had turned around and were running forward such a way that the risers were assymetrical, but were managing to do a forward/sideways fast run, brake, as well as control the risers to get the wing out of the rotor zone due to the sharp edge cliff, once the wing is out of the dead zone, then it is ok and the take off becomes somewhat normal and all that is left is crossing over a meter high fence around the cliff, at the takeoff (which wasnt much of a worry). gave it 4 shots (to get the wing up above my head), the fist time, run was too weak to even pick the wing up from the ground, progressing to around 60 degress by the time i reached the railings in my 4th takeoff attempt but by which time the two of them landed, i was bloody sweating with all the reverse runs, spreading the wings, maybe more than the sea lets go to the sun, and it was time for lunch (12.30 in the afternoon not far from the equator). and then the conditions were too weak to give it another shot. waited till evening, then left for trivandrum after getting some tips from ohel on the takeoff technique (who it turns out has been flying for 10 years, around 2000+ hrs, and has been camping at varkala since october). the next day, was in no mood to risk driving 120 kms without a semi-assured flight and had to be back by evening for a party which meant me sticking around trivandrum.

been to the beach at trivandrum the next day evening with an intention to kite, but the main beach shanghumugham turned out to be crowded and went for a relatively secluded spot near a fishing village to the north, but it was no fun trying to keep the wing up in light winds in narrow beach, with fishing boats as obstacles and a bunch of of rowdy kids for company. aborted the kiting, and went recce-ing for other decent places to kite - unfortunately it turns out that its the same story all the way to the north till thumba, which would mean that a shanghumugham beach would after all be the best bet to kite, unless i can get to find another beach to the south towards kovalam (my next trivandrum trip, maybe).

so, looks like I have yet to do some waiting for Varkala which is pretty sad considering thats the closest flying site to Trivandrum. but the good side of it is that i got enough time to practice a 'varkala launch'. till then, its massala at nandi.

A New Paragliding School in Bangalore

As of this coming w.e. we have a new paragliding school in Bangalore. The PG Massala Club, in collaboration with Bangalore Mountaineering Club (bmcindia.org) and Getoff Ur Ass the Adventure Store (getoffurass.com) , will be conducting courses Nandi Hills and Hoskote with 4 brand new gliders. All those interested should link up with:

bmcindia.org/paragliding

two course are offered, the initiation course and the mountain flying course. Once you have successfully graduated from both, you will be able to keep progressing by flying in a safe environment with the senior members of the PG Massala Club.

hope to catch you in the skies of Nandi!

PG Massala is to become an actuall paragliding club

Arabind, Rajesh, Vrata, Hari, Venu, Avinash and Alison be forming the new PG Massala club. I hope to be able to get some more post on this on a more regular basis. For the time being check out our photos on:

picasaweb.google.com/flying.india


A Sunset Flight at Nandi Hills from Hari Nair on Vimeo.