TL;DR: This blog is part-2 of my backpacking+paragliding pilot course experience that happened at the start of 2020.
The first part talks about my backpacking to Majuli. You can read it here . The second part talks about my paragliding pilot course in Dirang. The third part would be about hitchhiking from Dirang to Guwahati (Over 35 hrs of some crazy and spine-chilling experience, literally)
Backdrop:
In September 2018, I was on a trek to Rupin Pass — A picturesque trail that changes every day. It was the 7th day of the trek, also the summit day. After about 7 hrs (started the day at 3 am) we did make it to the summit. It was about 15,250 ft ASL, and I could feel my lungs shriek to thin air that it was fueling on.
From the summit, you could see other snow-clad peaks in the Dhauladhar range. The view was surreal. I wished I could fly and get a closer look at the surrounding mountain. While descending (mostly running) down the summit, I used to open my arms wide and to fantasize that If I had a wingsuit (Birdman suit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBG79cKaxv4&t=540s ) and take off the cliff :).
That night, I was thinking about how I scaled from swimming a few meters in a pool to swimming a couple of km in the sea, from hiking a few hundred feet in hills to thousands of feet in Himalayan mountains, then what stops me from being airborne like a bird someday. I needed to start somewhere. That moment, I made up my mind that I would learn to fly.
Arriving at paragliding:
I remembered the trek lead was sharing his experience of mountaineering course from NIMAS (National Institute for mountaineering and allied sports), Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh. He had mentioned the institute had courses in flying and adventure sports.
After the trek, I checked out the website and zeroed on paragliding (other was paramotoring). The reason that it is close to experiencing flying naturally (wingsuit being the closest to natural flying. Also, you need at least 200 Skydiving jumps before you get into wingsuit flying). Also, comparatively less risky and cheapest (Basic paragliding kit cost starts from 1.25 to 1.5 Lakh Rupees in India) equipment to get airborne.
After a year and a half, Jan 2020, I was all set to learn flying. It was a combined Beginner (P1) and Novice (P2) pilot paragliding course (The rating scale being P3 for Intermediate, P4 for Advanced pilot as per United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association [USHPA] ).
It was also the first time, I did not read up anything about an experience/skill that I was going to attain. In short, I arrived here in the state of tabula rasa. If you are also thinking about experiencing in the same way, then you should stop reading here :)
Reaching NIMAS (5th Jan 2020):
NIMAS is located (about 6500 feet ASL) on a hill in Dirang. You get a shared taxi (Sumo) from Guwahati and Tezpur to Tawang that stops in Dirang market. From the market, it is a 3km uphill (About 1000 ft elevation gain, steep gradient — Good for MTB cyclists. Approximately that of Nandi hills, Bangalore).
Defence personnel from the Indian Army are instructors. The institute is under the purview of the Ministry of Defence.
P1 — Unfolding the wings (6th Jan — 10th Jan):
The P1 course is all about understanding the equipment (1st day) and ground handling. It spans over five days that you experience the wing flying, but you are still grounded. You are learning to control the wing to avoid overshooting or collapsing. During this is when you start feeling the wing movement, and your brain is moulding models for effective launching and control in fluctuating (from almost nil wind to gusty winds blowing in the valley) weather conditions.
Our day used to start with breakfast being served at 7 am. We had to be ready for the briefing by 7:15 am. Any late, you would be pulled up. It was more military-style training that needs you to be punctual. Being civilians, we were lucky to experience this at 10 percent of rigour that regular army personnel would go through :).
We would load all the equipment and essentials in the pickup truck that would accompany us to the training ground in Dirang helipad in Dirang valley. We would reach at around 8 am and start cleaning the field (Just to ensure there are no sharp objects that would damage the gliders).
At around, 8:30, we would have another briefing, and then groups of 3 members would be created. Each group would have an instructor assigned.
Every group is assigned a paragliding kit (Glider+Harness). After a short 15 min warms up, every member gets the glider on a rotational basis. While one is practising, the other helps him with setting up and noting down his mistakes. It helps you to learn a lot watching others. Ground handling involved mostly forward launching technique and then controlling the wing speed and running with the glider for about 20–30 meters. It was quite exhausting when the wind speed was below 5kmph as you needed a lot of strength to get the wing above you and chances are the glider would collapse. After about 11 am the winds would change direction and also would get stronger in range of 15–20kmph. It would be easy to lift the glider with almost no effort, but running forward was a challenge. The chances of overshooting were higher in such situations and sometimes your feet would get a little airborne (Few inches above the ground), and you would get a feel of moonwalking (Or rather moonrunning if that exists :) ). The instructors would monitor wind speed and would ideally stop when the winds would get gusty, mostly by 12:30–1 pm. At this time we would wrap up and head back to our institute.
After a good protein-rich and healthy meal at the cafeteria, we would rest for sometime before our 4 pm debriefing + lecture sessions. You are expected to be at the lecture hall by 3:55 pm and the doors closed by 4 pm. The instructors would talk about the common mistakes the students made. After that, we would have theory sessions ranging from weather and ground assessment to flight dynamics to general trivia.
The last day of P1, there was ground handling test. Only those who would pass this would make it to P2. All of them made it to P2.
Our Abode — Stay and the campus:
Before I talk about P2, Its time to look at the place, our stay was in army tents shared by ten members. The institute provisioned sleeping bags that could hold onto temperatures of about -10 degree celsius (There were days when night temperatures would drop close to zero). The campus had a few barracks, that was occupied by the instructors, staff and female students. The students were from all parts of India. The songs played in the tent would validate that. We also had some Nati (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nati_(dance)) sessions in our tents that lightened up the evenings :).
The campus location was serene. Waking up by 5 am was something that had become a norm from the past few days. Watching the sunrise and breathing in the fresh air was rejuvenating. The remote location complemented my plan of digital detox, for ten days, I didn’t get any network :). A morning walk in the campus (the non-restricted areas) was a bliss. I had recently picked up birding. On some days, I used to get up early for birding.
NIMAS also conducts other mountaineering courses. The campus houses Asia’s highest sport climbing wall. A group of instructors from the institute had summited Everest in 2018, one of them was part of our paragliding course. It was quite enthralling to hear his experience of summiting the world’s tallest peak.
P2 — Taming the wings (11th Jan — 15th Jan):
The course is all about getting to feel your first flight. In this you practice take-off, planning your approaches and landing under guided radio supervision. The flights are very short in duration ranging from about 30 to 75 seconds. You would get to do about 15 flights in this course.
I was quite calm (In fact I had no problem to be the first one to take off in the group) for the first flight. I didn’t have any fear or anxiety (maybe cause after seeing the hillock, I had prepped for the worst case of failed take-off, I could run down without hurting myself :D ). Having developed fondness running down hills and mountain slopes that probably helped me in getting away with any sort of fears. (Here is a video of me running down the steep face of Savan Durga hill (Asia largest monolith rock hill )
“Pilot Shiv, ready to take-off” — the first sentence you say after your pre-flight checks, sends goosebumps all over for a second. You start to run forward, and once the inflated glider is above you, you damp the speed of the glider to match your running speed and take-off from the hillock. In a matter of a few seconds, you are off the ground. I can’t describe the bird-like feeling.
Till now it seemed that take-off was the most tricky part. Well after the flight, my opinion completely. The landing looks much more straightforward but can get crafty, and most mishaps do happen while landing. The undivided attention during landing is quite crucial. You need to remap and rework on landing strategy constantly. One needs to be mindful about avoiding target fixation (Will talk about this in another blog, for now this link should suffice https://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=16479 to quench your curiosity) on obstacles. The conditions were almost different every time, and you need to have a different plan and improvise constantly.
Over the next four days the course, we were taming the wing. Most of the time, we are successful at it. I had taken about 12 odd flights, every flight I learnt something new, a life lesson or a technique :).
The fourth day we had written exams (mostly on flight dynamics) and flight test on the last day (5th day) of the course. We were given minimal instructions from take-off to landing. You were all by yourself. Later that day results were going to be announced.
The showdown:
Finally, the results were out that evening; most of us had cleared P2. The institute was conducting a P3 course (10 days) and offered the students to stay back and finish P3 (Intermediate pilot course. In P3, you are taught soaring techniques and flight are around 30 to 45 mins). My vacation was almost over. I had to head back to join work. I decided to do P3 course later.
That evening was fun, a lot of conversation and a feeling of accomplishment all over. I had just got used to the army style of discipline in training, and the course was over. Me and another student, Hari, decided to leave the next day and go around a few places in Dirang before heading to Guwahati, from there we would fly back to our homes.
I spend some time reflecting on the past ten days I stayed here. It felt amazing to experience and learn so many things (Including some life lessons, will share them in another blog) in such a short period. More importantly, when I arrived, I was just like anyone with a dream to fly, and now I could fly.