The Sunday before last, we went paragliding in a beautiful place called Pawananagar Dam, near Kamshet in Maharashtra:
The idea was to go on “tandem flights” where a qualified instructor will take you as a passenger in one of these parachute gliders:
When I experienced my turn, I realized that taking off was way more difficult than landing because the winds were strong and getting the takeoff right was difficult keeping safety in mind. Also, *evil grin*, finally a sport where being heavier is an advantage – you get to go first!
There were solo flights by student pilots going on as well. Interestingly, I bumped into an old friend whom I had met in a trek in Himachal pradesh several years ago. Amazing what a small world it is.
We went through Temple Pilots, but I would NOT recommend them because (1) they took on too many people for a Sunday even though they knew that they couldn’t possibly take all of them for the ride, (2) they put up a farce that they will be taking passengers in order of decreasing weight, but that’s just an excuse for them to pick people from groups because they make more money that way. I would recommend trying other groups such as Nirvana and Indus who were more efficient and had invited lesser number of people so that they could manage everyone in a single day.
I definitely want to visit this place in the rainy season again to admire the beauty of Pavana Dam in a different setting.