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Billing takeoff
Click here to see more pics of Billing flying in spring 03 season
Takeoff at bilaspur
Tandem from phattru, manali.
A slope near Rohru
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Himalayas is a great place to fly, perhaps the greatest.
This is the perfect playground for great cross country flights and
bivouac flying. People like Bob Drury and Rob Whittal have fallen
in love with these mountains. |
This is truly a kingdom of gods. Just being here can be a rewarding experience,
but flying here is definitely heavenly. But bear in mind that it can be
dangerous also. Most of the sites here are no place for faint hearted.
Rescue and medical services are very basic. For emergency rescue best
solution is to get in touch with nearest Air force station or district
collector. Only medical institutions I can recommend are PGI (post graduate
medical institute) Chandigarh , Apollo hospital New Delhi. Patel hospital
in jallandhar(punjab) is also well equiped option, couple of surgeons
from there are flyers so they give fav treatment :))
BILLING / BIR : Most documented flying site in India and my favorite.
Billing is the takeoff and Bir the local village/ place to stay/landing
zone.
Situated in front off nearly 200km long Dholdhar range it provides excellent
place for cross country flying along the range or flying backwards into
Kullu or Chamba valleys.
Altitude: 2400m takeoff 1400m landing zone (ASL). Season: Feb.- April
;intermediate to strong thermic. April- June; for hard core cross country
flyer, very experienced. Oct -Dec; most recommended flying season, strong
but big thermals, empty crop fields for landing and good comfortable weather20-30C.
Places for staying:
Bir Resort/Guest house: 12 DOUBLE BED ROOMS
TARIFF: 3 DOUBLE BED ROOMS @ Rs.500/- + 10% L.Tax
9 DOUBLE BED ROOMS @ Rs.400/- + 10% L.Tax
Tel: +91-1894-268367
+91-9816604568
Sakya guest house, very cheap stay and popular hangout for flyers(Rs85-200/-
or 2-5$/day) Ph: +91-9816157276 Palden's guest house, comfortable
place for staying in Bir. Rs 80($1.8) for single and Rs150($3) for double.
attached loo here with hot running water (solar heated). Ph: 1894-268544
/ 268444.
Monasteries have rooms they let out about Rs 200 ($4)/ day if you dont
mind waking up to sound of prayer bells early in morning :). These places
are in Tibetan colony Bir which is the favorite place of stay for most
flyers as it is closer to LZ.
Besides this there is Forest rest house in upper Bir village about 4km
by road from Tibetan colony and about 1km walk. Forest people have different
rates for Indians and foreigners Rs100/- from Indians and Rs300/- from
foreigners( $2.1 and $6.3). If you are planning to stay for longer period
it is possible to rent out a room in the colony or upper village.
Billing was also venue for 3rd
Pre-PWC in oct 04.
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Local pilots contact : |
BILASPUR: Pretty good place to fly but not so popular among visiting flyers( lot of local flyers though). BUT if you have to check new equipment (particularly reserve) or extreme maneuvers over water, then no place like this one in India (I haven't found one at least).
Takeoff site is situated about830m over above the town (also the LZ) and adjoining lake (filled during aug to Jan period). Boats are available on rent from Himachal tourism but there is no official water rescue service. So if you are planning to do anything involving wet landing it will be a good idea to arrange your own boat and rescue before hand. As mentioned boats are available ,but involve some bureaucracy to hire them, so contact local flyers for that, some are pretty helpful.
Earlier there was only one decent hotel called 'sagar view' but recently two or three new hotels have come up around the town. Decent accomodation is in range of Rs 400-600/day (8-12 $)
Flying Season: Sept to April.
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Local contact: Vishal Jassal Ph: 01978-223890. |
KULLU VALLEY: This valley has abundance of flying sites unfortunately few with road up to takeoff. Solang valley situated at the uppermost edge of Kullu valley (near town of MANALI) is perhaps the busiest tandem site in the world. Fortunately most of the commercial action is concentrated on small learning slope at solang and other / better sites are relatively uncrowded. There is also a local paragliding association called NPA (national paragliding association) but so far they do not regulate visiting flyers or charge any fee.
There are basically three sites in this valley with good accessibility. These are:
a) Bijli mahadev: A temple situated on north west of Kullu town a small road leads up to it about 45min drive in a taxi and then about 45min walk to the temple. You seldom see people flying here despite being good site, because it is close to airport and can only be used as a start of good cross-country, secondly it is about 45kms from Manali which is a better( and popular) place to stay. This site finds mention in Bob Drury's Himalayan stories. If you fly here there are plenty of hotel to stay in Kullu with price range of $3 to $130. If you can afford it good place to stay is apple valley resorts at $25 onwards.Season : May - June, Late Sept - end Oct.
b) Gulaba: About half way enroute Rohtang pass from Manali. Situated at the height of nearly 3000M it is one of the highest takeoff areas. On a good day it is possible to fly high enough to get a magnificent and unforgettable view of Greater Himalayas. But this Valley is susceptible to bad weather due to freaky cold front crawling down from the slopes of greater Himalayan range through Rohtang pass. To fly here it will be convenient to stay at Solang valley or Manali. Solang valley has 4/5 cheap but passable hotels, but food is pretty crabby. While Manali is a full fledged tourist place with nearly 300 hotels to choose from. Old Manali and Vashist bath areas are popular with flyersand western tourists.
c) Phattru: Not exactly a very accessible site. About 45min walk up the steep slope from Solang valley gets you to a steep but good takeoff site that overlooks a rock bed. This site starts working early so it is popular with flyers here. Landing is at the commercial tandem site of solang valley (if you don't head off cross country) so watch out for heavy, unruly, traffic. Same places for stay options as for Gulaba. |
 A good day and a good flyer can virtually fly the whole upper Kullu valley starting from here. Again susceptible to sudden bad weather. |
SHIMLA HILLS & OTHER SITES: There are plenty of good sites in Shimla hills. Kasauli and Chail are particularlyrecommended. But there are lots of power lines to watch out for. Valleys are narrow at bottom so be careful with choosing landing areas. One good cross country option in this area is from Chail to Rohru. From air you will see lots of roads in this area; but there is very poor public transport service. So unless you got a retrieve check out the local bus service very carefully. It is slightly expensive but you can generally convince someone to give you a ride back for some money. There is normally at least one vehicle for hire every village if there is a road.
Kinnaur and Spiti also provide very spectular view to fly for but these are extreme areas with very tough conditions and very poor infrastructure. Spiti has similar terrain to sister valley Lahaul. A place even likes of Bob Drury found risky to fly in. Feel free to drop a mail to know more about these offbeat places. There is also some flying going on in Chamba valley and it is possible to fly a 2day bivouac from Bir to Chamba
Uttranchal:
Earlier this was part of Uttar pradesh but now a seprate state.Great potential.
Sadly, unexploited :( .
| This area has really great potential for
good cross country and bivouac flying but only people I know who have
done some good flying, are Bob drury and Rob whittal. Here Himalayas
form a Simpler Range Enclosing Nanda devi Sanctuary in its center. Pithoragarh at the Nepal border has some good training slopes and places for easier flying. But infrastructure (roads and places to stay) is really bad. |
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Shankar Singh is a local flyer from pithoragarh...Ph: 05964-223916. I am waiting for him to contribute more Information and picture. Besides him M/s Snowland Adventures is running a Tandem flight business near Nainital (at a site between Bhimtal and Naukuchia tal).This site provides limited flying scope to a sports flyer with a 800ft (250m) AGL takeoff area 1400m ASL . Surrounding areas seem to have potential takeoff sites but need to be surveyed...with a better takeoff area it is possible to fly out to a big cross country.