A lot is happening!

Wow. A whole lot is going on in my life. I've been in Pakistan for a few weeks and had some amazing flights... can't even begin to describe. That and my plans for the future are changing quickly. This is a post to say I'll try to post more soon to keep everyone updated!

Something Missing

I've had some amazing flights in Pakistan already this May and so much has happened to write about but I can't until I cover one thing from my travels in Nepal and India.

Riding across the low hills on the edge of the Himalaya in India I saw an amazing site. It was a column of vultures climbing in a wide flatland thermal. I could visualize the thermal because around 60 birds were climbing in all parts of it's 300 meter height, it was easy to see the west drift of the prevailing wind pushing it and how it widened as it climbed higher, at the top as the vultures turned to specks they all glided off in the same direction and were lost to my sight. As the lower vultures soon climbed up and followed I lost sight of all them and now I imagined the thermal to still be there but could no longer see proof of it's existance. For a moment they had helped me understand the world a little better, helped me visualize how and where a thermal exists on a day like this.
How many times have these amazing animals showed me a thermal? Showed me where the core is or how far away from a hill a small bubble is triggering? As I've learned to fly in the Himalayas my instructors have mostly been vultures, in the first few years I can estimate a third of my flights I was saved from bombing out because a bird showed me where the climb was. Now I'm able to stay up on my own because I've learned from my flawless instructors, I understand where the climbs are by studying the terrain and the clouds but I've noticed something other than just how thermals work. I've noticed there are less vultures. And this is the point, in three days of riding across 1400 km of road from Nepal to India I saw one column of vultures and not a lot of individuals either. I'm observing the sky and the clouds all the time, don't worry Mom I pay attention to my driving first! This is an area where millions of birds used to scavenge and now the sitings are becoming rare. Recently a road transect survey was released to confirm my unscientific observations. The numbers are staggering. "Results of a major road transect survey in India reveal the shocking news that numbers of Oriental white-backed vultures have decreased by more than 99.9% in the past 15 years and that this species continues to decline at over 40% each year. The other two threatened species (long-billed and slender-billed vultures) have decreased by close to 97% over the same period." And they are backed up by more than one study please check out the recently updated www.vulturerescue.org to find out more. There are links to recent articles about this problem at www.parahawking.com.
I've known about the problem for a few years but in this recent trip to Bir I can say I've really seen a difference, though I often shared the sky with Himalayan Griffin Vultures (HGV's) I never saw large groups as I have in the past and I saw no White Backed vultures.
More needs to be done toward conserving these animals before they are gone. And I'll get to a solution that could be implemented by us selfish paragliders soon!

To Be a Pilot

The trip to Bir India from Pokhara Nepal took 3 days, fastest I've ever done it. Saving time I would pull off the road and find an undisturbed place to sleep by my Enfield, this way I didn't have to pay for hotels or unpack the heavily loaded bike. One night I even pulled out my laptop and watched a few episodes of "Extras" a british comedy before going to sleep.

Arriving in Manali just before 2 days of rain I relaxed in the hot springs of Vashist before it cleared and I was able to go to Solang valley and sell my Tandem glider with the help of Ajay, Thanks Ajay your more help than you admit to! Knowing the weather had changed I raced to Bir the next morning and started flying. And here's where it hit me... What a fucking joy it is to be a pilot! Now I loved doing tandems and instruction in Pokhara this winter, and flying with the birds.. wow what to say? An amazing and unique experience that I'm already looking foreward to going back and working with the parahawking team again. But.. to be in big air on a solo glider that feels like an extension of my body.. it was like coming alive after a winter's hibernation. And my fears about losing skills weren't justified, being a tandem monkey for months didn't ruin my XC head, it all came back rather quick. Good thing too because I happened to arrive at the best part of the XC season in one of the best flying sites in the world.

Highlights for the flying- 1)Getting stuck on the high route to Manali for an hour and having to backtrack to get out before it overdeveloped, woops. 2)Making the first ever flight from Bir to Dharmsala and then on to Manali in a day with Wolfgang, landing to get a hug from a jealous Debu! 3) 45 km straight glide along the stunning Dhula Dar range soaring with vultures and eagles.

The joy of being a pilot is not just about my flying but it was great to share others experiences. Alex and Finn got a taste and became comfortable with Bir Spring conditions, both had been in Pokhara for the winter season and rode their Enfields over a couple weeks before me. Finn started flying on a course with Adam (Frontiers Paragliding) in November and now has close to 150hrs flying time, he made the flight to Manali on his DHV-1 Nivuk Nk1 glider! Good on you Finn! way to go but realize the risks we are taking flying in these mountains without rescue services and understand the conditions totally before you fly a new area. Speaking of which, a word about decision making a understanding the flying conditions.. Another pilot made an interesting decision to explore high in the mountains and got nailed but what could be described as an obvious rotor. Collapse and riser twists ended in a late reserve deployment that didn't open, hitting a high angled snow slope and sliding cushioned the impact, stopping before a cliff he lucked out with no injury. 2 nights sleeping in his glider without food or water, one take off and forced landing, one morning waking to Brown bear 10 meters away, then being able to fly down and return to civilization is the short version of the story. No suprise this happened and I think the lesson has been learned this time, feel free to comment here friend I'm glad your still in the world with us and wish you safe journey and success in all you do, but be careful. What's the quote? The goal is not to be a good pilot but to be and old pilot. Most of us have made mistakes and gotten lucky, sanity is learning from them and not making the same ones again.

On a lighter note it was great to see Angus start flying again after his accident in the fall and great to see Jessica progressing, next year you'll figure out that big face transition! Gurpreet a recommended instructor in Bir had an XC student make her first ever 100km flight check out Gurpreet if you coming to north india and need some site knowledge or high quality basic to advanced instruction.

Then next step for me? A friend told me her father said in life there are two things to keep in mind. Where you are going and who's going with you. And very important not to mess up the order!

So, I'm going to my favorite place in the world to do the most amazing thing I can think of. And I'm going with whoever will come with me, currently it's Flo a French tandem pilot I've known for years.

It begins, Paragliding in Pakistan 2008!