The very first impressions of the harness as I was opening the bag it came in on the taxi ride to the office were very positive.
The materials and stitching looked solid. I was in for a real treat the first time I hung it up and sat in the harness, I didn’t even notice the smile that began to grow on my face. WOW it holds you nicely with absolutely awesome weight distribution throughout the harness.
No matter if your in a reclined or seated position, you don’t feel as though your in a harness at all.
First flight went ahead with no issues, it is a bit of a different harness to get into but once its trimmed for you its all good.

Feel in flight is what you would expect from a harness coming from the house of Kortel. Words that I don’t usually use like plush come to mind when people ask me what it feels like.
Weight shift is just great and what’s more important is its pretty much fully adjustable to your needs.

No matter weather your flying solo or tandem the harness seems to take you in and make you feel almost like its hugging you the whole flight. I didn’t think that it would be possible to make a harness for both types of flying without sacrificing something from either the solo or tandem experience. They pulled it off in my opinion, even when your using it in tandem your getting just the same support and comfort level from the harness.
The adjustment straps help space you from the passenger better than normal tandem harnesses even when using soft spreaders. Making this the most comfortable harness I have used in combination with soft spreaders.

In terms of storage space, the main pocket I’m able to fit 2 -25° sleeping bags, tent, clothes, cooking gear still leaving about 1/3 of the space to be used. Now don’t be mistaken this is the storage pocket, I’m not talking about the airbag….

Now the big tests will be coming in the next few weeks, we will be flying tandem from Vienna to the Kossen testival and then through the alps following the x-alps route (weather permitting) so if you see a blue and white Axis Venus 3 tandem coming through come on over and say hello.
Followed by a 2 month bivouac trip to Kyrgyzstan (june-july places still available, get in touch if you are interested in discovering the world of bivouac flying). stan.parakros@gmail.com

A more detailed review will follow after we get some more air time on the harness.
You will be able to follow us from the 6th onwards on our spot page

Needed;
Stick on Velcro
Thin plastic sheet (I used one from the cover of a notepad).
A piece of one sided tape.

Tape the plastic sheet to half of the holux, I made a small cut away section to allow more of the tape to grab the holux.

Stick on half the Velcro tape on the holux and half on the plastic.

There you have it, a nice little adjustable device.

When storing the device to avoid it constantly grabbing materials bend the Velcro onto itself.

Enjoy

In early 2012 apart from a couple of solo flights, not including comp flying i was mainly exploring the mountain area just north of Pokhara, don’t let anyone tell you that they were not intimidated the first time they flew high in the back country. I did want to do more solo flying but bills had to be paid and inevitably i worked tandems through the best 3 week period where guys were going +5000m and flying far. Until this latest flight i had regretted working during this period as i knew that a great chance with good weather had just pasted me by and the next time i would see it would maybe be in 2013.

This flight in reality started the day before as i received an ASA en-c Prototype to test fly, having had 2 tandems at the beginning of the day i wanted to take advantage of the good weather and i went up for an afternoon flight with the last round of tandems. I quickly got ready and the glider inflated straight and clean with only a slight hint of it wanting to overshoot. once in the air i found that the glider thermaled great and soon was high enough to head for Toripani, there as i got to base i heard on the radio some people that had flown and top landed on Korchone. Initially i wasn’t planning to spend the night there, i was however curious how the glider would fly in stronger thermals as the ones we have around the main ridge are ok but far from what is needed to test a wing. First long glide over to Lower Korchone was uneventful except for it being a pretty sinky line (no fault of the glider). Once at Korchone i started to get the needed height to ridgeline it to Korchone Proper, by the time i had reached takeoff i discovered that there was already 13 people including a couple of tandems at the site. Seeing this and pretty much always flying ready for a Bivy i decided to top land and join the Party. This glider is fast at trim speed i knew it would take me a while to wait for a good moment to land, almost 40 mins and one low frontal collapse later i was on terra firma. After the initial greetings the tent was up glider stowed away and dinner was cooking.

Day One Flight

Tent Up

shame that the moon was not full

almost the same level of ice in as out of the tent

Avia Club morning flybys

the landing party getting a morning wave off

approaching Sirkot

the ASA behaved well the whole flight

Day Two Flight

once on the ground i felt a smile coming on as it started to hit me, that in one flight i had accomplished 2 of the goals that i had set out before i could leave Nepal with no regrets.

during the night we got a nice surprise, we discovered where they get the sound effects for dragons in most movies. I awoke to the sound of dragons i mean bats swooping my tent catching the insects that had been attracted to the remains of the camp fire. if for nothing else than that experience it had all been worth it.

we were welcomed in the new day with bad haze and low visibility which later proved to be an added difficulty in line choice not to mention one kid that the night before tried to join our camp out, Mitch took off first and i followed shortly leaving Pablo and Will at the takeoff with thermal suck from all directions. after 1.5hrs waiting for them they finally made it into the air from a place slightly lower down the ridge. once we were all in the air we started to make our way east, unfortunately 2 ridges later Will and Pablo bombed out leaving Mitch and myself to continue towards Kathmandu. The closer we got to KTM the stronger the wind became around 22km/hr at cloudbase.

Approaching the final ridge separating us and KTM we were met by very strong wind and decided to take advantage of the biggest flat area we had seen in 2 days and land. coming in to land we had strong valley wind and landing speed for me was a nice and lazy 3-4km/hr

Day Two

Once packed we headed to the main road about 100m away where we had to wait about an hour for the last minibus to KTM, surprisingly a pretty quick 3hr ride for Mitch and I, during which we discovered that landing on the KTM side of the ridge would have been much more difficult than we would have liked, with strong haze still covering terrain and hiding the multitude of power lines that from even the road looked almost like a spiders web, steep rice paddies that didn’t at all look friendly and a mass of buildings covering and hiding all the landable places, Pablo and Will had walked for about 3hrs from where they had landed and found out that the next bus would not be till morning. In the morning we jumped on the morning bus back to PKR and arrived around an hour before the others who had had to work their way back on 4 different busses.

Thanks to the Boys for a nice trip and hope we have a couple more before the weather turns.
this shows you that a little EN-B can keep up with the big boys, the 777 Rookholds its own.

Mitch’s Blog

For more information on either organization please click below
Karmaflights
Cloudbase Foundation

Coming to iconic places like Bir or Pokhara and being surrounded by famous names and exciting plans of other pilots wanting to go big in distance, height or not so simply on bivouac flights in the big mountains out back.

my first questions to relative new comers that are planing to go out back are:
are you sure?
what’s your skill level?
what wing are you on?
what equipment do you have?
are you really ready?
do you know the risks?
are you choosing the right guide/school? if any.

many people come to these places to try and prove something, no problem if your trying to prove something to yourself. i find that the majority of problems start when people are trying to prove something to others. When you start to think more about what others will think the less you listen to yourself, these are the times you start to hear of rescues, big cascades, forced landings in not so nice places down the grapevine.

Just to be clear i have nothing against pushing the limits or your own abilities but what you need to remember is that this sport/passion/way of life is all about calculated risks.

now back to my questions,
are you sure?
pretty self explanatory but are you really sure you want to be flying in mountains that can turn viscous in a matter of moments?

Skill level?
what kind of flying do you normally do? for some of the pilots coming to notorious places they tend to think that their skills are higher than they actually are.
are you an occasional weekend warrior?
I met a couple of people that have been away from flying for quite some time (years) and came to Bir to go into the big mountains. I’m in a way happy to say that they didn’t make it out that far as the conditions on the front ridge scared them out of the idea of heading back

I see people coming and going from places no matter if they are in Europe or the third world taking pro guides to fly the big stuff with. the key word here is “guide” they are not flying your glider for you, they can not guarantee your safety. the role of a guide is to take proficient pilots into unknown (for the visiting pilot) areas, choosing the best route on any given day to get people out and back in one piece and hopefully with a huge smile on their face and a story or two to tell.
pilots wanting to head out into the big mountains should be of such a level that even on their own would feel relatively comfortable flying the conditions that you will come across.
at times i see people that don’t display the skill level to fly the front faces let alone the rough stuff out back, but these people have paid someone to show them the way and they manage to somehow follow. unfortunately when it gets rough visitors at times panic and the guide cant really do much except give advice over the radio this of course is assuming that they are not concentrating on someone else in the group or in the middle of an SIV course themselves over barren, vertical rocky terrain.

what’s your wing?
are you heading into the unknown on the latest and greatest race machine? look at the wing selection of pro adventure flyers, majority of them are hanging under the latest en-B and C gliders, maybe there is a reason for this?
nothing against race wings if your racing but when you come to the bigger stuff your looking at getting out and back while at the same time surviving it all, having fun and managing to take some photos of yourself and your friends.
how many photos of your epic adventure are you going to get if your hands are glued to the toggles all day long? no action flying shots, you may as well rent a jeep to take you to all the LZ’s along the flight path to take photos and save your wing for home.
what’s the point of flying a wing that can go 70+km/hr if your too scared to push the bar on transitions? a wing that you are scared to push bar is basically a 1/2 glider flying at trim speed just a whole lot more work to keep open and above your head.

what equipment do you have?
when i look at pilots at takeoff the first thing that my eyes search for is a SPOT, if you don’t yet know what they are then you can find more information here
venturing into this terrain without a tracker is almost suicide in itself, the amount of terrain you can cover on a good day with a paraglider is massive and even if you follow set waypoints along a 100km track unless your flying down one ridge it still gives an enormous amount of options to go along other ranges that are working better than the one that is on your flight path. the main thing to remember is that if people don’t know where to start looking for you the chances of them stumbling upon you in the wilderness are extremely remote.
Do you have tools of any kind with you? knife, lighter, matches, emergency line to get out of trees or secure yourself to something, wire saw?
Do you have a first aid kit? even a very basic one has things that could be essential and could mean the difference between life and death?
Do you have a sleeping bag or emergency foil heat blanket? if you don’t have these you can always sleep in the wing but be aware that moisture has a hard time escaping the material and you will be wet by morning, if you have no choice my advice is set up your harness in such a fashion as to keep the majority of your body off the ground and make a tent like cover over yourself with the wing this will create a shelter for the night and help maintain some extra warmth around your body. Make sure that no part of the wing is touching your clothes as during the night the moisture will transfer from the wing to you and you will have wet patches.

are you choosing the right guide or school?
please take care in choosing a guide that you will end up flying behind into some of the most unforgiving regions in various countries. Look at the track record of these people, you have to realize that the majority of serious or death related accidents will be hushed up before they hit the main stream. you need to remember that even though you are flying with a world famous pilot they are still not in control of your glider, so in places that you feel uncomfortable flying or your not comfortable with the conditions you have to give notice to the guide and they will then be able to adapt the rest of the route to not exceed you relative comfort zone.
what will benefit you greatly is learning how to fly far when conditions are far from epic. flying in different conditions will also show you in what weather you can still fly and find lift, learning to patiently scratch the light stuff will normally be the difference between going far and bombing out or simply getting those last few kms that you need to get home.
over the first 2 weeks of flying in Bir i was normally half way to Dharamsala by the time others had managed to get away from house thermal, that’s 25km more every flight.

do you know the risks? really?
most of the places you will bomb out you need to remember, your pretty much on your own out there. you need to be prepared and have the knowledge and tools to survive on your own out there whether it be for an afternoon, a day or more.
assistance in the back country is far from you and majority of rescue operations are carried out on foot, which means if your hurt its a battle against time.
Helicopters are around but organization of rescues are normally a formalities or finance nightmare. Dont maje the mistake of thinking that things function like in western countrieswhere first they rescue you, patch you up and then ask who’s paying for it all, most of the time your going to have to come up with some sort of prepayment for the rescue helicopters fuel, medical bills etc.

More to come soon
fly far, high and safe

time and time again i fall witness to groups heading out to exotic places to either learn how to fly, improve their flying skills or explore unknown places with an experienced pilot in the lead. about 60-70% of the time i talk to people about what had really been offered to them that made them want to book, more often than not when i hear the answer i find that what was offered and what was delivered were completely different.
during the last month in Bir i have seen several groups come and go through different guides/schools and what i have observed is.

1: book with a person that wants to be in the air as much as possible this will mean that you will be in the air when ever its possible. (if you book with someone that is only in it for the money then that’s all they are interested in. now don’t get me wrong everyone is in it for the money otherwise you would be getting help for free but the goal is to book with someone that wants to help you become better).

2: book with a person that has a know reputation you will normally get more out of the experience as they want to keep their good name. (when it comes to Bir there are several people that can show you the do’s and dont’s like Debu or Gurpreet these are world class pilots that know the area very well).

3: booking in a large group you may think that your saving money but your not going to get the hands on help that you have paid for. (prime example is an XC course that a Russian school is running, where they have one instructor at take off and another at landing, leaving the students to do their own thing in the air, nothing against Russians as there is another instructor that has a smaller group and flies with them all day every day).

4: anything involving XC training you want to have an absolute max of 3 people per instructor and even that is too much in my view. sometimes its better to pay extra and have the instructor all to yourself, which will give you the best value for your money. when flying in any sort of group you are either holding someone else up or having to wait for someone.

5: a fun and party orientated instructor is fine after you have finished your course, but if they are hung over every day or second day then your out of pocket as they are constantly roaming in search of an excuse not to have to go up the hill.

Don’t fall for a smoke and mirrors show.
during a trip if you have doubts as to the quality of the instruction that you are receiving, take a stand and either demand that something improves or demand your money back. you need to remember that even on a long trip you at the end of the day are the customer and adopt the old saying “the customer is always right”. if you feel that you have been charged for something that is not being delivered then demand it. talk to the instructor and say what you want to get out of the course. at the end of the day you are paying for a service so make sure you get what you pay for, unless there is bad weather there is no reason why you should not be flying and using every day to its full.

in my next post i will talk about what to expect when heading out to exotic places around the world, normally found in 3rd world countries from a safety point of view.

We are heading over to Bir Billing for a bit of a holiday and to catch up with some friends that will be there through out October and November, Not forgetting to take advantage of the weather and go big in the big mountains both on the solos and tandems. Anyone that wants to tag along or go for some over night trips get in touch and we can organize something.

Solo Setup for anyone wanting to know what i am flying with when going to unknown places:
Harness:
Supair Delight, cutting weight down to a minimum using the Supair Connect

Rescue:
Apco Mayday Light

Backpack:
Supair Adventure 110L (much sturdier than the light weight packs on the market both for airport handling and back country snags on bushes and rocks etc. Big enough to fit all the bivy gear with ease.) down side its 2kgs rather than sub 1kgs.
if you know that you will be landing in nice places each time and you dont have to pack alot of things after the flight into the pack then you would probably be going for the lighter version. i prefer to have something that can easily fit everything and stand some punishment along the way.

Wing:
Triple Seven Rook (pl version), en version

Electronics:
flymaster live
compass beeper (backup vario)
Spot Tracker
mobile phone with good battery and a small solar charger (solar charger only if i intend to be away from base for more than 3-4days otherwise all electronics hold there charge long enough)
a good 2m Radio dual band is preferred but you dont want to skimp on something that you may rely on in a sticky situation.
Don’t forget to also have a relatively good compass, even with the advances in technology electronics still sometimes point you in the wrong direction.

in addition,
A Basic First Aid Kit
head lamp
down sleeping bag with bivy bag . (you can always sleep in your wing but you know im a sucker for comfort)

Heading out tandem,
Wing:
Axis Vega 3 (Vega Duo)

Harnesses:
Gin Safari Pilot Harness
Supair Altirando 2

Rescue:
Tranquilizer

all other equipment is same as for Solo.

safety note:
1: before going out alone see if there are any local pilots with knowledge of the area that can give you advice on what the do’s and dont’s of the area are, where you can fly safely don’t let pride become a safety issue for you. everyplace has one or two places that become dangerous in certain conditions ask so your at least ready for it when it happens, with a plan B ready to implement.

2: advise someone of your planned route before your flight also arrange a check in time to call by to say that your safe this can be with friends, local pilots or even your hotel manager. leave a copy of your travel details, passport copy, insurance, glider information especially the colours with your friends or the hotel.

3: see what frequency others  are flying on and either use that or keep note of it so if something goes wrong (rescue ride) you can inform them as your going down or at least try to.
4: if you do by chance need to relay information on the reserve ride down you have a limited amount of reliable radio time until terrain becomes an issue. so speak clearly, slowly and passing specific information. Name, glider, position from “X” takeoff including direction and km’s, specifics like gps position no one will remember. eg, reserve reserve reserve this is John Doe on a blue white gradient 50km’s west of Bir takeoff on the front ridge. wait a few seconds for a response from someone if nothing then say again.

5: when it comes to safety i cant stress enough that putting money ahead of your safety is the worst thing that you can do, so when it comes to your safety equipment please get things that you can rely on. at the end of the day, you get what you paid for, so how much is your life worth?

Thanks to our new Partners in crime helping us to lead a normal life
Triple Seven Polska

When to come,
for relatively reliable conditions the season starts September and runs all the way through March.

What you need when arriving at Kathmandu:
Pilots will need around 10 passport photos all up, for Visas, sim cards and all the flying permits. these you can even get at the arrivals hall.

Apon arrival in Kathmandu you will need to fill out two visa forms, make sure you have both before heading for the visa que. (one is A4 size and the other is half this size)
For visas up to 3 months you will need basically a dollar per day (3 month visa is 100usd). They only accept main stream foreign currency at the visa payment desk so have Dollars or Euro.

easiest way to calculate money here is 1eur is about 100npr, fluctuates anywhere between 90 and 113.

Money needed in KTM
Taxi to Thamel (main tourist spot), approx 500 npr
Hotel, they range from 800 to 16000 per night. we normally stay at Hotel Kathmandu Terrace which you can find on booking.com, as its 800 for a room and is located in the heart of Thamel. also they can organize your travelling needs.

KTM-PKR
now you have a couple of options for getting to PKR from KTM, all depends on your budget, time and what experience you want to get out of your trip.

cheapest tourist buses run at 400npr per person, leaving every morning at 7am. these take around 6-7hrs to cover the 220km journey including 2 food and toilet stops of about 20mins. a great place to meet people and share stories while seeing some of the terrain in this part of the world.

private car or taxi, you can get some pretty luxurious cars for this part of the world, these can leave when ever you like, can stop along the way on your request. they make the trip between 4-5hrs depending on the season and traffic.

remember there are chances of very long delays if there is a mudslide, accident, breakdown on the route as its pretty much the only road.

then you can fly, takes 20 mins and costs between 50-100usd once again depending on time of year. Flying to PKR make sure to sit on the right side of the plane so you get to see the Annapurna from above.

once in PKR
it will take you a couple of hours to sort out all the permits you will need to fly here.
First you will need to visit CAAN located at the airport (if your flying in take the time to go to the office there before going into town), without the flight permission slip you get from them you cant get your NAA (office located above Annapurna paragliding in town) members card which you need in order to fly in PKR and finally head on over to get your free APPI card from Blue sky paragliding.
from memory all this will cost you approx, 100-120usd.
without these you will not be allowed to fly from Sarangkot

once you have all these you can head on up and go flying.

Local Expenses:
hotels, guest houses and cottages. prices range from 300-15000npr with plenty of cheap/clean accommodation in areas where most of the local pilots stay.
food, depending on what and where your eating daily you can be spending upwards from 300npr
transport to takeoff, 700npr for a taxi or if there is room in one of the tandem jeeps you’ll pay 200npr 

please remember once at takeoff as per the site rules Tandems have priority for takeoff.
as of last season thermalling in the house thermal is right hand turn to try and cut down on the amount of close calls.

Beginner Pilots not taking part in training or SIV organized by one of the local outfits are not permitted to use Sarangkot as a takeoff, they are to use Toripani or Mandra Dungha located further along the main ridge line or Dicky Dandha located about 6kms to the north of Sarangkot.

other places to fly while in Nepal are Sirkot and Bandhipur.

If anyone will be interested we will be running guided tours this year so check out our previous post Here

see you all during the up coming PKR season.

Places we will Visit,
November through March we will be operating in
Nepal;
Ø Pokhara,
Ø Sirkot,
Ø Bandipur.

India, October and then April
Ø Bir Billing

We will also be catering for Non Pilots that have a strong sense of adventure also pilots that would like one on one instruction using one of our high performance Axis Venus 3 tandems.

Learn how to plan those long out and return, fai triangle flights.
Covered will be:
Ø weather forecasting,
Ø optimal route planning,
Ø routing options,
Ø thermal prediction,
Ø decision making,
Ø flying comp tasks

What’s needed,
Ø National Pilots licence and IPPI card
Ø Certified Glider, Harness, Reserve Parachute.
Ø 70cm or 2m radio
Ø GPS
Ø Travelling Insurance
Ø Emailed Flight log record (used to match pilots into different level groups)
Ø Mobile phone

Recommended equipment
Ø Spot Tracker
Ø First Aid Kit
Ø Thermal Blanket

Limited numbers are available as we like to keep the groups to an absolute max of 3 students per instructor for both safety and quality of experience reasons.

for prices and exact dates (guiding dates are flexible as we don’t charge for non flyable days) please message us.