Hang
Gliding - An Outdoor Sport
Hang Gliding, comparatively a new sport in India, is gaining popularity. If
you want to touch the skies and sky is the limit for you, then hang gliding
is the sport for you. Hang-gliding is also catching on fast in the valley.
Men have their own wings and fly like birds over valleys and meadows.
The Best Time for the Sport
Hang gliding is an outdoor sport and weather is always a big consideration
in this sport. India has got thermal soaring effects in the summer months
and hill soaring almost year-round. The monsoons are the only months when
this sport is not possible in India, otherwise even the winter months are
also ideal for it.
How to Glide
Hang gliding is usually performed by using air current without an engine
power. The pilot is suspended in a swing harness from the centre of the keel
and maintains control wholly by weight shift arrangement with the help of
airframe. To take off, the pilot runs on a down hill approximately 40-degree
slope and is airborne the moment he crosses the gliders stalling speed,
which vary from 15-km to 30-km per hour.
Soaring can be done by using ridge lifts created by wind striking the hill
face or by hot air columns known as "thermals" that keep rising
upward from the sun heated surface. One can fly as long as one wishes once
he has acquired good experience.
Hang gliding Sites In The Himalayas
Most Indian hang gliding sites have been highly rated and those in the
lower regions of the Himalaya are among the best the world has. Though some
trials for hang gliding have been held in the valley, the sport still
continues to be rare. The location of a flat valley surrounded by high
mountains is an ideal terrain for hang-gliding. Higher up, the meadows at
the foot of mountains such as Yus-marg, Gulmarg and Sonamarg are idyllic
spots to try hang-gliding.
