First mountain flights - April 2005

I'd arrived in Bir about 10 days earlier and was enjoying being in the mountains again. I'd spent quite a bit of time in Himachal Pradesh during other visits to India and it was nice to be back. Having been there for a while I had got to know a number of the regular pilots as well as catching up again with Andy - one of the English pilots from Goa.

With no instrutor and no equipment I had to amuse myself with long walks, visits to the local gompas and watching the other pilots fly against the impressive mountain backdrop. Eventually Steve arrived from Goa and we got the gliders sorted and a taxi organised to drive us to the take-off, a 30-40 minute journey up the mountain. Having had pleanty of time there I was familiar with the take-off and landing field so I couldn't wait to get going.

My take-off was a little different to what I was used to in Goa as there was very little wind - but it went OK. We were flying at the end of the day so the thermals had died down but there was some nice dynamic lift along the ridge and myself and Brian soared the ridge before heading out over the valley. Himachal is a beautiful part of India and from the air at the end of a sunny day it was even better. I made the landing field easily and without mishap.