The fascinating sport of Paragliding is one of the most popular aero sports all over the world. A large number of people across the world enjoy this sport, as it is convenient and safe medium of soaring high in the air. Paragliding is the latest aero sport, whose origin goes back to1940s, but it expended rapidly after 1980s. The adventure sport is a blend of skydiving and hand gliding, but a para-glider is different from a hand-glider or a parachute. A Para-glider is much lighter, easy to open and it take a short time to glide, as there is no any need to jump from a helicopter or plane. Paragliding is somewhat similar to Para Sailing, the only difference is that Para Sailing is done on the beach while the launch
sides for Para Gliding are gentle hill sides. One needs some basic training and strong determination to successfully glide high in the air.
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There are several Para-Gliding sites in Himachal. Para-Gliding in Bilaspur gives you almost eight hours of flying time as against 3 to 4 hours maximum at any other paragliding site. More over it has vast and safe landing grounds on the bank of Govind Sagar Lake at LUHNU. From training point of view, Bilaspur can be considered the best in whole of Asia. It is laid down in the training manual that training in instability maneuvers during advance pilot course i.e. Dynamic Stall, deep stall, spiral drive, spin recovery, asymmetric tuck, front tuck and deployment of Reserve Parachute, should be carried out over a broad base of water for reasons. For this, there is hardly any place, where there is any huge lake just beside the landing site. Bilaspur has the privilege of having unique combination of Air Sports in one stretch, which is very rare.
Billing in the Kangra valley is another famous site for Para-Gliding. Billing has been the venue for five national and three international hang-gliding rallies since 1984. A fairly recent sport that is steadily gaining popularity, para-gliding is possible at various places in the state.
Also, Paragliding is organized in Kullu valley throughout the year at Solang Valley, located 14 kms from Manali and other locations like Marhi, Fatru, Bijli Mahadev etc. There are generally two kind of flights:
1. Short flights : The guest is taken 100 - 150 mts up the slope and takes a flight along with the pilot in the two seater paraglider.
2. High flying: Approximately 20-30 minutes flight with two seater paraglider, and arranged at Fatru, Kothi and Bijli Mahadev. Mainly for experienced pilots. |