Forthcoming trips

Southern India. January - February 2010.

A trip for pilots at CP + 10 hours to sky-god level.

Building on the success of previous expeditions (by luxury car and 4 star hotel!) to Panchgani in India's Western Ghats in 2007 and 2008, we're going again for all of January and the first half of February. Included for this year are:

• Expert guidance from experienced BHPA instructors.
• Tuition to help your thermalling, XC strategy, etc.
• Smooth dawn soaring (wind permitting!)
• Mid-day XC conditions (100km triangle so far.)
• Evening large-scale smooth restitution.
• Western standard 4 star hotel.
• All meals, from a clean kitchen.
• Soft drinks.
• Airport pickup by quality taxi.
• Transport to and from flying sites plus retrieves as required.
• Tandem flights to familiarise with the area.

New for this year, we will stay in an amazing colonial-period hotel, restored above and beyond it's former glory. We're going to have some luxury jeeps exclusively for our use and have the option to go on expedition every week or two to further explore the mountains for flying sites, visit the Maharaja's palace in the former capital of Kolapur and complete the circuit by following the old road back along the coast to visit beaches more beautiful than those of Goa.

Our main base will the the thermal paradise of Panchgani, but with the option of visiting Kamshet's more forgiving take-offs if low air-timers prefer.

Price of all this is around £1200 for 14 nights (based on two sharing.) Discount for non-flyers.

Apart from the luxury accommodation and amazing flying, Panchgani also offers much over alternative Indian and other developing world destinations:

• It's only around 4 hours along good highway by luxury taxi from the airport in Bombay.
• There's plenty of landings, both at the top and the bottom.
• Valleys and hills are well served by mobile phone, public transport and populated by trustworthy, english speaking people, making out-landings a joy.
• There are no airspace problems in this area of the Ghats, unless you fly a long way north to the Pune - Bombay corridor.
• Accidents can happen and the village has a good cottage hospital, with an orthopedic consultant. There are real hospitals and a rescue helicopter 100km away.

More about the place and what to expect...

Dave has spent the winters since 2005 flying in India's Western Ghats, setting the local distance record in 2006 at 70 km. Recognising the potential of the place, Dave ran his first trip there in Jan - Feb. 2007, where that record fell again and again. This experience gives the Skylark team probably the best knowledge base about the area's weather and XC routes.

This year Dave will be joined by Chris Craven, just back from his sixth season guiding pilots XC in the Indian Himalayas. The wildcard entry is Ozzie, hang glider instructor and XC merchant extraordinaire who, we expect, will be the most excited man in all Asia and bang in some monster flights on his slippery machine.

This area has the benefit of reliable weather making for pleasant thermic flying just about every day and long XC flying available in very high, powerful conditions every few days (remember - you don't have to fly in the peak of the day!) Apart from world class paragliding, we have the pleasure of staying in Panchgani, a beautiful old British hill station where us Brit's can still escape the heat and mayhem of lowland coastal India. To experience real India, you just have to bottom land and you drop into a rural culture unchanged for centuries. Being India, such bottom landing adventures always include friendly English speaking locals, tea, snacks and the fun of one of the best public transport systems in the world to bring you home.

Panchgani is the public school capital of India and so attracts plenty of money but few tourists. As such it has the benefits wealth brings, such as good communications, hospitals, and shops that sell Swiss chocolate. A mountain top island of civilisation amid a sea of India.

Accommodation will be in a modernised luxury establishment from the colonial era, frequented by rich Bollywood stars. We can also expect to rub shoulders with some of the world's top pilots and traveling eccentrics!

We'll fly to Bombay for about £300 and jump in a luxury taxi to Panchgani asap. Bombay is a delight to be savoured on the way home having become accustomed to India more gently! Once housed, we'll spend the mornings flying at Harrison's Folly and hopefully climb out to great heights above the table-lands. A previous years mission was to follow the road the 100km to Adam's tea shop on the beach. No-one made it, but several times the sea was sighted. Much bigger flights are possible in other directions and many days we made triangles of up to 100 km, but the lure of fresh fish usually won out!

If you're back from XC in time, we fly the evening session from beside the Ravine Hotel. It's normally reliable, gentle magic lift over a large area giving plenty of chilled out airtime and the opportunity for acro practice for those that way inclined. Sometimes we still get good thermals in the evening; how about take off from 1200m at 5pm, climb in 1 m/s for absolutely ages up to 4000 m and glide gently down for sunset...

Apart from the flying, the local fascinations are endless. I usually rent an India Enfield 350 motorbike for peanuts and have lots of fun breaking down all over the place and making friends with truck drivers and mechanics! Just below Panchgani there's a huge lake with some nice places for swimming (no crocs here!) Trekking is popular, and Andre, the French-Canadian resident flyer, knows some great routes often encompassing truly ancient ruins from a different time. Andre also tells me of great climbing, from the local nursery cliffs to some epic long routes a few km away. There's even an 18 hole golf course, cut out of the jungle, left behind by the British. If you're in need of a party, Goa is only a sleeper bus away. Anyway, this is India, on the odd day it's not flyable it's impossible to get bored.

	Hot, hot, hot in India's Western Ghats, winter 2005.

Click here for a very odd video from a very odd bus stop

Click here to see Chris's tips on Indian Air Law

Click here to see some of the photos from recent trips to India

Click here to read an award winning article by Crispin Rose-Innes published in Skywings