Paragliding Indian Pre-Worlds in Himachal Pradesh
So what is happening in the Indian paragliding competitions?
The whole thing is really screwy so nothing is actually unusual.
First, strong winds caught a bunch of paragliders in the air a week before the competitions began.
Two men were killed, two were injured and one was missing for several days.
This was a reflection of multiple fatalities in previous paragliding comps in India.
The government has stopped or delayed the yearly comps many, many times since 2004, out of concern for bad press.
But paragliding has grown so popular AND SO LUCRATIVE that it is no longer possible to cancel the events.
So after the temporary banning of paragliding at Billing immediately after the recent deaths, they decided the Indian Army would be brought in with helicopters.
No kidding. Can you imagine that in the USA?
The deaths were blamed on humidity, a ridiculous claim.
The deaths were actually due to the lack of penetration of paragliders in winds survivable for a hang glder - but also for their propensity for collapse in turbulence.
What could be done?
First, the competition was nearly halved from the inital 170 registered pilots to about 90.
Then, since turbulence is stronger at higher altitudes, the tasks were designed as baby tasks, routed out in front of the mountains in the lower foothills.
On October 28, they held the first task: a baby task out-and return of two 20 mile legs.
https://airtribune.com/play/3806/2dAfter this grueling event, contestents were given a rest day on October 29.
Yawn.
Rick Masters mounts maps of XC routes on the freshly-painted wall of the XC Pilots Association headquarters
in Independence in 1983. Mike Grisham is at center.Compare this to my open distance call of the Don Partridge Memorial Open in 1985 - 35 years ago! - where Rick Rawlings flew a hang glider 198 miles in an open distance task from Walt's Point in Owens Valley to central Nevada.
That was a competition that meant something.
It was momentous!
You needed big mountains and big mountain thermals to do that kind of thing in those years.
Anyway, on October 30, 2018, the task for the Indian paragliders was a "gigantic" 28 miles over the Himalayan foothills.
Yawn.
I'm so glad I was in the in Owens Valley in those early years of big XC, where brave men braved real turbulence on robust and capable aircraft
with airframes to fly those great distances into unknown terrain.
That took guts.
But today, paragliding comps have been dumbed down so much that they are now painful to watch.
So slow! So short. So meaningless.
Why do people think they're interesting?
They're not.
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by JoeF » Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:25 pm 
They've got a powered paraglider standing by!
