Great Flying

We have been having some great Para-gliding here in Nepal

There is a Circuit that most pilots here want to fly.. Let me try and describe it.

This is a simplified diagram.


Take off at Sarangkot at 1400m ASL (above sea level)
Its a 6km flight to DikiDangar with no places where you can thermal to gain height and so to get there safely, you need to thermal above sarangkot to a height of at least 2000m ASL.
Then glide the 6km across to DikiDangar (1470m ASL)
To make it safely to the start of the large forested ridge that we call the 'Green wall' you need to thermal above DikiDangar to at least 1700m ASL
Once you arrive at the Green wall, you travel along its 4km length, trying to gain as much height as possible by thermal ling.
This section is the fun part of the flight, by the time you get to the Pokhara end of the Green Wall, you need to have climbed to at least 2500m ASL
Then you make the long 6km glide across Pokhara city, back to Sarangkot
Finally down to a landing by the lake which is 800m ASL.

On Thursday, we took off from DikiDangar to attempt the last two thirds of the circuit :)

It took me maybe 30 minutes to get the necessary 1700m ASL, but once I had the altitude, I worked my way onto and across the Green wall.
Going across the Green wall brought me to the bottom of the clouds, it was the first time that I had got up to the clouds :)
Up at 2600m ASL, I was getting cold, and the thermals were sometimes power full, climbing at 6.8 met res per second.
The glide back across Pokhara city was calm and peace full, arriving back at Sarangkot with plenty of altitude :)
Gliding down to the landing near thee hotel, it was time for a cold beer to celebrate.

The flight had lasted an hour and a half, the total distance I had flown, including all the circling while thermal ling, was 45km.

On Friday, we took off from Sarangkot, to attempt the complete circuit, but by the time we had flown to DikiDangar, the thermals had become too weak to make the climb onto the Green wall and so we all had to land in the rice paddys in the valley below DikiDanger.
But Fridays flight was still great.

And today is a new day :)

The picture is of the launch at DikiDanger.