Paragliding Course P1 Day 2 (15th January 2006)

February 9, 2006

This is the day of my first solo flight. I completed my initial ground training yesterday so today we moved to a small hill
called ‘Deer Hill’. Deer hill has the height of about 300 ft. from the ground level. Take off area is adequite for
beginners. We reached there (at the bottom of hill) in the Maruti Gypsy (A jeep in India). Climbing hill took around 10 minutes. Then I got ready
for my first flight. There was enough wind (around 15-18 kmph). I was put up with helmet, radio and knee-caps also. I was ready to take off. Due
to good wind conditions my take off was very very easy (fully assisted by Mangesh and Shiv). Mangesh was giving me
instructions all the time on radio whether to turn left whether to turn right. My overall flight time was around 2 minutes. This
was my first solo flight and believe me I really really loved it. Wow!!! I was feeling just like god. I was seeing all around.

Before launching I was thinking that I may get afraid but I was not. It was really a good experience. Due to good wind
conditions I missed my landing target and landed little ahead (around 30 meters). The landing was not at all smooth. I
actually crashed down on face. Reason? I was thinking a lot about launching before launching but I never thought about landing.
So I completely forgot to flare and run. Then I was told by Mr. Mangesh that the good practice for landing is that you
should get out of the harness (get into standing position) before landing. When you are around 5 feets above the ground
flare (pull both your brakes to extreme) and try to run on the land. But I had forgotten all this while landing. So overall
not at all a good landing or I would say very bad landing.

That was the only flight for the day as the wind conditions were getting stronger. Not very good for a beginner like me.
The day was ended with some more brief instructions (like what I did right and what I did wrong) by Mr. Mangesh.