The Hindu : Across the Deccan in a balloon

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Wednesday, Dec 03, 2003

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Across the Deccan in a balloon

By Our Staff Correspondent

The ballooning team of the corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering of the Indian Army before it left for an expedition across the Deccan region. — Photo: A.M. Faruqui

BHOPAL DEC. 02. In a bid to showcase the Army's spirit of adventure, the Ballooning team of the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) is now on a six-day path-breaking expedition across the Deccan.

The expedition, which was flagged off from Pune on Monday by the Army's Chief of Staff, Southern Command, would mark the EME's 60 years of dedicated service to the nation. It is also aimed at promoting adventure sports across Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The expedition, which has already reached Solapur, will touch down at the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad tomorrow. During its 600-km journey, it will also halt at Bidar before the final touchdown.

The team for the expedition, being organised under the aegis of the Army Adventure Wing, comprises six experienced balloon pilots and co-pilots drawn from the Corps of EME. It is backed by a skilled ground support crew. Maj. Kumar Bhaskar of 3-EME Centre Bhopal, who has participated in seven major ballooning and two sailing expeditions and has logged over 900 hours of balloon flying experience, is the expedition leader.

While engaged in a rigorous pre-expedition training-cum-equipment checks exercise in here, along with other team members, Maj. Bhaskar told this correspondent that the public demonstrations and free-flights that would be conducted at different places during the next one week would help in generating public interest in an adventure sport such as ballooning. He described Bhopal as "the best place in the world for hot air ballooning."

Keeping in view the hot air ballooning skills attained by EME officers and men, 3 EME Centre at Bhopal was assigned the responsibility of running the Army Ballooning Node in March 1997. The node conducts basic, intermediate and advanced courses in ballooning for officers and men of the armed forces. A number of cross-country expeditions have also been planned and organized by this node in the past. Maj. Bhaskar and Capt. Dwij Kishore (both from EME) set the Indian record for long distance ballooning when they flew 310 km non-stop on March 21 this year while participating in the Army's Trans-India Ballooning Expedition from Ahmedabad to Kolkata.

The expedition team will be received in Secunderabad by the Director-General and Senior Colonel Commandant of EME, Lt. Gen. V.K. Dhir.

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