Himalayan Paramotor Yatra 2011
January 14-23, 2011
Organizer:
Avia Club Nepal in association with Nepal Air Sports Association
Supported by:
Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal
Nepal Tourism Board
Nepal Tourism Year 2011
CCI Chitwan
CCI Palpa
Avia Club Nepal, organized Air show and cross-country Paramotor competition under FAI WORLD-2 CATEGORY, for the first time in Nepal from January 14-23, 2011. Main highlight of the event was air show on auspicious official inauguration ceremony of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 over National Stadium.
It was not only an Air show but a competition as well. We had 34 participants in total, 19 flying pilots and 15 supporters. Participating countries were Russia, Singapore, Malayasia, Israel, France, Canada, Brazil, Belgium and Netherland.
The Winner of Himalayan Paromotor Yatra 2011
Mr. Laurent Salinas (Canada)
Second Place – Alexsander Bogdanov (Russia)
Third Place – Boris Lunev (Russia)
Himalayan Paromotor Yatra 2011
To see pictures => click on “play” button
To use full screen => click on a little circle (bottom right corner)
To close full screen => click an “ESC” button on your computer
On Jan 13th 2011:
Pilots did preparation for the test flight and interaction program with organizers and ATC controllers.
On Jan 14th 2011:
There was familiarization and briefing to all the participants of the event and necessary requirements by organizer. Air show began around 13:00 with the numerous spectator of Kathmandu Valley along with banner towing of Nepal Tourism Year 2011. This banner towing activities done by both the Paramotors and Ultralight Aircraft i.e. 9N-AIS, from Kathmandu Tundikhel.
On 15th January 2011:
We changed the Program of cross country flight from Kathmandu to Bharatpur via Hetauda because of bad weather. Except 2 pilots all other pilots went to Bharatpur by road. Those two pilots flown to Bharatpur from Kathmandu via Hetauda successfully.
9N-AIS also flown to Bharatpur from Kathmandu and landed at the bank of Narayani River.
On 16th January 2011:
Shown air show in Bharatpur, this day there were small incident in Bharatpur, as one Pilot Mr. Ubachs Ben from Netherland dropped down to Narayani River because of the problem came in his wing, and rescued by the water rescue team. No injury occurred.
9N-AIS also participated in Air Show by towing banner of Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
On 17th January 2011:
All the participants flown to Butwal via Dandi, as per the pre scheduled timing. On this day while flying from Dandi to Butwal, most of the pilots were flying in a group, suddenly one pilot faced the problem with fuel supply to engine and landed near to Arun Khola safely and along with this pilots other 7 pilots flying together have also landed at the same place. So this day there were total of 8 pilots landed in that village. Once they landed there all the villagers came to them and welcomed them in very well manner by offering them garlands and meals. For the villagers it was a first time they come across such people along with amazing equipments for them. When our rescue team reached that place the pilots were enjoying with the villagers and they were requesting our rescue team for the night stay at that place with villagers.
So we can use these parmotor for village tourism and home stay, as they can fly to certain destination and use the local services and fly back to another destination. After meeting with the rescue team all the pilots were taken to Lumbini straight by road.
9N-AIS flown to Butwal from Bharatpur and landed at Butwal stadium.
18th January 2011:
This day pilots shown the airshow in Butwal.
9N-AIS also participated in air show activity in Butwal
19th January 2011:
As every day 9N-AIS, flown to the Bharatpur-Palpa flying route to check the weather for Paramotor Flights, and suggested all the pilots not to fly on that weather condition through radio mobile accordingly all the pilots of paramotor were taken to Palpa by road. Once 9N-AIS reached Palpa, after looking at the wind direction pilot landed at Tundikhel. During the landing sudden change in wind occur with cyclone rotor and turnover the wing. Which damaged the wing, no injury was occurred.
Due to this wind condition, air show shown after 5 pm only for the local people of Palpa waiting from the morning. And we send all the pilots to Pokhara by road.
20 January 2011:
Early morning all the pilots were taken to Pame area for the competition and normal paramotor flight. Competition is judged by Mr. Richard M. Hardy –President of FAI, CIMA.
21 January 2011:
This day the same competition continued and some of the pilots were flying for the sightseeing around Green Wall. And some pilots flew to Pokhara Stadium for Air Show. While flying to the Green Wall one Pilot Mr. Jean David Blanc from France, caught with the bad weather and landed at Korchung (Near Mardi Himal), at that time he was in communicating with us, and helicopter sent to that place to rescue him but because of poor visibility helicopter could not locate him. On the same day official closing program has been conducted in Pokhara.
22 January 2011:
Rescue operation has been continued by Helicoptor, and by ground with the help of Nepal Armed Police Force, Nepal Army, Nepal Police and local people around the place and they could not locate and rescue him this day too. Other pilots were transferred to Kathmandu by road.
23 January 2011:
This day also all the rescue team was searching for French Pilot around the place and finally local people found him and informed us about the location. Immediately helicopter rescued him to Pokhara. This French pilot were having Chocolates, Knife, Torch Light, Lighter for surviving so his health was in normal condition.
This pilot was very happy for the villagers, Nepal Armed Police, Nepal Army and Nepal Police and donate 2.15 million Nepali Rupees to them.
Conclusion:
The main objective of the championship is to open Nepal for flying lovers and reinforce friendship amongst pilots and Nations. Air sports is the most latest and modern adventure sports, day by day number of tourists are increasing around the globe for such activities. As a chain reaction the above mentioned events shall bring fast economical development in our country. All of the participant pilots of Himalayan Paramotor Yatra 2011, were wishing to come back again in Nepal with their friends.
These Paramotor are very easy to handle, doesn’t need special airport facilities and very safe in flying. It would be very good tourist product for country like Nepal. They can fly in remote area and use home stay and discover the new tourism destination.
During the event we found that the flying pilots were very much enjoying with the local villagers staying with them in village. This can be developed as home stay village tourism in country. As those flying pilots are always a high paying tourist they spent high amount of money during this event also. It means it will help to develop quality tourism in the Country.
As like all adventures activities the Air sport has some risk factor too. The flyers of Ultralight or Paramotor are equipment radio mobile, GPS and other necessary equipments. During emergency landing the pilot can communicate with rescue team, give exactly his location with coordinate which would be easier to rescue team to locate him and recue.
For rescue operation we were using the helicopter. We found that the helicopter don’t have special rescue equipment like special rope, harness and others. It can only land at one place and drop the people to find out the proper location of missing person. We also lose the time for waiting companies engineer from Kathmandu for technical attested for the helicopter. This attested certificate is valid for 24 hours only by CAAN rules. During this procedure we lose the time and we were delayed in sending helicopter for rescue. Along with this the weather was changing very quickly in mountain region and helicopter can’t fly in poor visibility.
The most incident and accident are accrued during the bad weather. So our suggestion to use the rules applied for the Alps rescues helicopter operation.
The Air sport activities must be conducted by professional people due some specific requirements and knowledge to develop these activities in more attractive ways and avoid any incident. Like for any cross country event the operator must provide radio communication and GPS to every pilot, to be familiar with air space control and etc.
The Himalayas is very big attraction for all tourists of the world. For flying lover Nepal is also one of the most attracted places. For the pilots, flying in Nepal would be as thrilling experience and checking their professionalism. That’s why they attended flying on different flying equipment around Everest peak or other highest peak, conducted competitions and set the world records.
Nepal with its different structure of terrain is the most attractive place for flyers. In future it will be one of the most popular tourist products in our country as a trekking in these days.
We hope that the Government of Nepal will focus on such airsports activities to make a more loyalty rules for air sport for easy implementation to develop air sport in the country and attract quality tourist to Nepal with home stay facilities, which will enhance the economical condition of village in remote areas.
