Ever since I was a kid my true love was flying nothing else. It is always in my heart and still will be as a long as I am around. My first experience of flying ( nothing to do with commercial domestic city to city flying ) was hang glider flying in Ooty, to be precise Kalhatti. The Instructor was Joel Koechlin , father of actress Kalki Koechlin. He is the pioneer in hang gliding in India . He was the first to manufacture Hang gliders in India based on a French design that was safe. He established a aeronautical industry in Mysore where he manufactured hang gliders and the first hanglider wing based motorized trikes. The engine was a modified 250 cc Jawa motorcycle engine that was developed by the ace racer driver and engineer Mr Karivardhan. Sadly he is no more with us having passed away in an air crash that had nothing to do with hang gliders and trikes.
I did buy a motorized hang glider trike and did some flying In the Kovilpatti airfield in south India thanks to the encouragement of late Sri GK Rajagopal of Lakshmi mills. But after a bad crash landing and getting hurt, was forced to stop.
Joel went on to manufacture the first 3 axis ultra light in India that was powered By a Bombardier Rotax engine called the X air. It is a very successful safe micro light still flying today 30 years later, it was ordered by the Indian Air force as well. I had the good opportunity to fly many hours in it during the my flying training stint in Jakkur aerodrome in Bangalore. The instructor was EX IAF wing commander Ashok Mehta.
My next experience was In the UK at Staple ford aerodrome outside London. This was basically a state of the art training facility in Accordance with CAA regulation. ( Civil aviation Authority Of the UK) The aircraft was the unbeatable Cessna 152 two seat trainer that is considered to be the best trainer till today. It was the most enjoyable moments of my life. I did go solo ( flying the plane alone without the instructor) and had harrowing experiences as well. From what I heard the CAA based training is one of the toughest compared to other countries.
The next was Helicopter training experience in the US in California on a Robinson R 22. at ( Reid Hill view airport San Jose). Another wonderful out of the world experience . My instructor was a British Gentle man who took a great liking to me as I progressed extremely fast and started hovering in the 4th Hr itself , he said I was his best student so far, he was amazed and literally begged me to continue with him. I consider Helicopter training a magnitude tougher than fixed wing training as I experienced both. Students hover in a helicopter in 10 -12 hrs, ie keeping the helicopter in a static position about 50 ft above the ground without any forward, backward , sideways movement of the helicopter. It needs simultaneous coordination of the cyclic, collective , rudder pedals, mind and body, there is no time to think it has to be automatic. After 6 hrs of training I had to discontinue as it was a planned as a Helicopter experience and not a full fledged training course which was expensive.
The next experience was a ballooning flight in Napa Valley in the US which by all accounts was dull and boring ie after being trained on aircraft… more for the normal man who wants an air experience . That was followed by a glider sortie where you are strapped in a fixed wing glider towed into the air and released to glide back to the ground ,nothing inspiring I should say.
Then I did a basic qualification course in Parachuting in the UK in London Skydiving club. It was a 3 day course where basics of parachuting was taught with 4 static jumps from 3000 ft.
The next plan is to go PPG ie powered para gliding which I hope to do in very soon.