Every person at some point in his life would have dreamt what if I could fly like a bird! An aero sport activity gives wings to your dream.
Aero sports in India is still a new sport but is gaining popularity these days and hold a special appeal for those who want to experience the joy of flying and some breathtaking views. India offers excellent locations for all types of flying sports such as paragliding, hang gliding and ballooning.
Paragliding
The recreational flying sport, paragliding is a fun, thrill and safe way to experience flight in its simplest form. There are two types of paragliding:
single and tandem, with tandem paragliding one can enjoy the thrill of flying without learning how to paraglide. Many schools and flying clubs in India offer courses in paragliding. The main destinations for paragliding in India range from hilly to coastal regions and from planes to desert regions. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Maharashtra and Karnataka are the hub of paragliding in India.
Ballooning
Hot air ballooning is the activity of flying hot air balloons. Attractive aspects of ballooning include the exceptional quiet, the lack of a feeling of movement,and the bird’s-eye view. Since the balloon moves with the direction of the winds, the passengers feel absolutely no wind, except for brief periods during the flight when the balloon climbs or descends into air currents of different direction or speed. Rajasthan,”The Royal State Of India” is one of the best destination for Hot air ballooning in India. During pushkar camel fair, hot air ballooning is one of the major attractions of adventure travel of Rajasthan.
Hang Gliding
Hang gliding is a simple and popular air sport. It is both a recreational and competitive sport closely related to paragliding but using a much simpler and less expensive craft consisting of an aluminum- or composite-framed fabric wing, with the pilot mounted on a harness hanging from the wing frame and exercising control by shifting body weight.
Hang glider pilots can be launched from hills facing into wind, winches on flat ground or by being towed aloft from an airfield behind a microlight aircraft.
The objective is always to stay airborne in lifting currents of air and – for many – to undertake long cross country flights.
Hang Gliding is very similar to Paragliding, in fact they are essentially the same activity performed with slightly different equipment. Hang gliders have a more rigid frame than paragliders. The main advantage of flying hang gliders is their higher speed range, allowing you to fly in slightly stronger winds, than paragliders. This performance does come at a cost to the pilot in that it is a fair bit heavier than the paraglider.
There are many great flying locations around India, Kangra valley and Dharmakot in Himachal Pradesh are one of the famous destinations for hang gliding in India.
Para Motoring
A rapidly developing aerosport which brings the dream of personal flight to everyone
Paramotoring or “Powered Paragliding” (PPG) is the latest in foot-launched ultralight aircraft. Around since the early 80s, Paramotoring has its origins in hang gliding and is an evolution of paragliding. While a standard paraglider is reliant on hills and the use of thermal conditions to self-launch, adding an engine enables take off to be achieved within a few paces from any suitable flat field. In Paramotoring the pilot wears a motor on their back (a paramotor) which provides enough thrust to take off using an adapted paraglider or paramotor wing. It can be launched in still air, and on level ground, by the pilot alone — no assistance is required.
- A Paramotor is a fair weather machine and has a fuel duration of up to 3.5 hours, making cross-country flying a possibility.
- Once airborne, the engine can be switched off to use thermal or ridge lift to gain altitude or the natural glide of the airofoil wing.
- An electric or pull start re-starts the engine in mid-air, extending the range and possibilities of the ordinary paraglider.
- Quickly built and dismantled a Paramotor fits easily into a standard car making it the most compact and transportable aircraft available.
Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon are a few places in India where Paramotoring is done.
Sky Diving
Parachuting, or skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point to Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the
descent with the use of a parachute. It may involve more or less free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal velocity. Skydiving is kind of a sport involving a skydiver to jump down from an airplane while it is flying and parachuting to the ground.
The best places to try sky diving in India are at Mysore, Aamby Valley, Pondicherry, Deesa (Gujarat) and Dhana (Madhya Pradesh)