“YOU HAVE TO RUN DOWN THE SLOPES WHEN I TELL YOU TO, ALRIGHT?" Yells Gabor as he skillfully steadies the glider’s wing, which springs to life in the sudden gust of wind.”Let’s wait for the wnd to blow strongly and then we wil take off.”
I am strapped into a flying harness in front of Gabor Szalma, a 27-year-old pilot from Hungary. I can barely understand his takeoff briefing. The constant beeping of the altimeter, with its sporadic pitch, seems to mirror my heart rate. I check my harness again, pulling tightly on the straps and adjusting my helmet. I give a nervous smile as my photographer friend starts taking pictures. She will take off with her pilot after me.
I take a deep long breath and look ahead. I have to speed down a steep hill, then a dirt trail and an immediate sharp fall to the slopes from the cliff The view beyond is expansive. Will I be alright?
“There’s nothing to worry about, okay?” says Zoltan Herkner another pilot and instructor, as he straps himself in the foot launched glider.
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Just a short time ago, my friend and I were eagerly looking forward to this moment.
Herkner drove the Jeep, steering neatly past the curves and racing along the bumpy road raising clouds of dust, while complaining about bad traffic and reckless drivers in Kathmandu. We had sped up the dirt trail to the Lakure Bhanjyang hill for an hour-and-a-half in the Jeep before arriving at a bare hill top; our launch site situated at an altitude of 2100 meters above sea level.
A young Nepali man, who was also going to paraglide, agreed with Herkner, “You know, your’re more likely to be killed in the streets of Kathmandu than flying off a cliff”.
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“Now get ready,” says Gabor as the beeping picks up with another gust of wind.
He tells me that the wind is just right for takeoff and we start to run together down the slope. Before I know it, we are floating. We soar up slowly with the lift from wind and hot air and glide high over the hills. I feel my fear evaporate.
I sit back on my harness, which is as comfortable as a chair, and relax. It was a very easy take off, slow and gentle, and for a moment it felt as if we were levitating mid air.
“How do you feel?”Gabor asks me once we gain some height.
“Great!” I shout with a sudden burst of excitement.
Gabor is busy pulling the suspension lines to keep the glider steady. He constantly shifts his weight and adjusts the air pressure to steer the glider as we soar or dive.
The scenery is striking, the sprawl of Kathmandu Valley, the surrounding hills and the breathtaking snow-capped mountains beyond. The sun is shining in the brilliant blue sky and we continue to soar up. I look down and see the lush green jungle of Godavari with its dirt trails snaking through. Though the air is cool and refershing, it is already summer.
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Beep...beep, beep, beep...beeeep, the altimeter reports as we rise and then dive again. Gabor works tirelessly to make difficult maneuvers. As a good pilot, he regularly briefs me of our status: we are just over 2500, he reports. He has a very positive tone and it works to soothe my nerves.
“How high can we go?” I ask.
“It is a little windy today or else we could go up to 3,200 meters,” he tells me.
Gabor has been a professional tandem pilot since 2005. What started as a hobby soon became a passion as work took him to different parts of the world; and this year, to Nepal.
“I have flown in many parts of the world and some of the spots were fantastic,” he tells me. “But flying in Nepal has its won charm, especially when the day is clear and the wind is right, you can reach very high and have a fantastic view of the mountains and the beautiful country below.”
After 25 minutes in the air, Gabor says we have to cut our flight short due to the windy weather. We prepare to land.
Gabor adjusts the wings and we circle the hill, trying to slowly descend to the same spot we had set off from before. Gabor told me in light winds I would need to do some running. I stand up, ready to run, but the wind is blowing at a great speed making our landing difficult. We come back in for another attempt and still couldn’t land.
“The wind is strong at this altitude. We now have to land below,”Gabor tells me while pulling the lines accordingly so that we gain height again. I sit back and enjoy the ride as we slowly glide down, even though I feel a little bad for not being of much help to Gabor.
“Are you enjoying the ride?” He asks me in his thick Eastern European accent that I tend to associate with Russian gangsters depicted in Hollywood flicks. “Not to worry! Think that you got some bonus time. We will now land on the football field.”
I couldn’t be more grateful to the wind! We continue to talk as I capture some of the breathtaking aerial views.
“What is a paraglider’s worst nightmare?” I ask Gabor to keep the conversation going.
“We deal with the elements. The weather, the winds, hills. Some days are perfect. We don’t face any problem. But sometimes nature is aggressive. The weather changes unexpectedly or the wind blows very hard. It is during those times we have to be very careful. Yes, we are trained to handle all situations. But you have to have respect for nature otherwise no amount of training will help you.”
“Not even a reserve parachute,” he continued, remembering a German friend of his who was fatally injured while trying to do a difficult paragliding student over the Fewa Lake in Pokhara.
Then he says he wants t show me an aerial maneuver, a kind of a stunt, for which I need to hold on to the harness tightly.
I thought he wanted to dive in great speed or something, and the adventure seeker in me was excited.
“No, it is not some paragliding acrobatics. It is a very easy maneuver done prior to landing. Of course, you will feel some nausea and want to throw up. It is perfectly all right.”
Gabor instructs me to shift my weight a little to the left and then to the right as we start to circle above the ground like an eagle.
I feel my head spinning a little and my stomach starting to churn, but I didn’t throw up as a matter of courtesy to my wonderful pilot.
I come out of the harness while we are just a few meters above the ground. We slowly descend. I think we will hit the ground with some kind of force and prepare or impact but it is like a feather touching the ground. I’m surprised at how smooth the landing is.
I lie flat against the harness in the middle of the football field. Though I am still feeling slightly nauseous, I am very excited. I wouldn’t have got this rush with my feet on steady ground.
Small boys leave their football game and come running towards us. My emotions find expression tin the laugher, quick somersaults and innocent “rock on” hand gestures of the inquisitive kids who gather around us.
