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`Winged' visitors draw curious onlookers

S. Sundar

Army contingent to create record in paramotor flying

A SMOOTH GLIDE: A powered paraglider in mid-air after taking off near Sattur in Virudhunagar on Saturday morning. — Photo: K. Ganesan

SATTUR: Five `winged' visitors drew curious onlookers here on Saturday morning. Little did passers-by on Madurai-Kanyakumari national highway know that those paragliders were just a few hours away from setting a world record.

They would not have remained silent, but joined a score of men in camouflages applauding after each successful take-off of the gliders, had they known that those flying the gliders were part of an Indian Army contingent that had undertaken a `never ever attempted' paramotor expedition from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

Ten pilots of the Parachute Regiment of the Indian Army, led by Colonel M.S. Sandhu, reached here after flying under testing conditions.

"This is the first ever attempt to fly the longest distance with a formation of four or five paramotors. There is no known record of more than two paramotors in formation having flown more than 1,000 km. [in any part of the world]," Col. Sandhu told .

This contingent will complete its more than 3,000 km expedition when it reaches Kanyakumari on Sunday.

The 10 pilots, who took turns to fly the five powered gliders, braved not only the unfavourable wind and inclement weather but also militant-infested Kashmir valley and the toughest terrain of the Satpura range in Madhya Pradesh.

"We thought that we will have a smooth flying over Tamil Nadu. But, the two cyclonic storms further delayed us," Col. Sandhu said.

The contingent was 20 days behind schedule: its original plan was to reach the southern-tip of the sub-continent by November last.

Best and worst experience

The best part of the flying was when the team covered 209 km in a day with two stopovers for refuelling between Nagpur and Adilabad. And the worst was crossing a 100-km stretch between Meerut and Chandigarh that took four days owing to poor visibility. Besides, they wasted four more days at Salem what with incessant rain, said Major. Ranjith, who heads a medical team.

The team was ably supported by a 50-member ground staff travelling in four trucks.

Col. Jodha, Chief Flight Controller, is in charge of maintaining communication with airport flight information centres to get clearance for flying paramotors.The team has a state-of-the-art communication system for pilots to communicate among themselves and with the ground staff, and a global positioning system that will guide them in the right direction.

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