Bir and Billing are famous for its Buddhist monasteries. Hang gliding pilots use it as their landing site. Bir, surrounded by tea gardens and an amphitheater of low hills, is an ideal landing around for para-gliders. Bir has Buddhist Monasteries that are worth visiting. Fine Tibetan handicrafts are also produced here. Billing, up in the hills 14 km. from Bir with an arena of 200 km. for high altitude and cross country flying, is one of the best aerosports sites in the country.
Bir
Bir, surrounded by tea gardens and an amphitheatre of low hills, is an ideal landing ground for para-gliders. Bir has Buddhist monasteries that are worth visiting. Fine Tibetan handicrafts are also produced here. Billing, up in the hills 14 km from Bir with an arena of 200 km for high altitude and cross country flying, is one of the best aero sports sites in the country. This site is regarded as among the best in the world for Paragliding. Billing (2290 m) is the take-off site and Bir (1400 m) is the village at the landing site.The road distance between the two is 14 km. Bir is sheltered by the Dhauladhar mountains and the ridges behind keep rising to 3000 mtrs, 4000 mtrs, 5000 mtrs and one after the other so as pilot can fly at 4000 mtrs and still watch the mountains tower above. Bir is a beautiful village surrounded by tea gardens and spectacular scenery, whereas Billing offers unique opportunities for high altitude and cross country flying and flights of 180 kms have been achieved from here. All along the bottom of the ridges runs a parallel road from Mandi to Dharamshala and beyond which assures easy recovery for pilots after landing. The most important feature of this region is its weather. On bad weather days one can still fly 20-30 kms and on good days 100 kms is not difficult. October & November are the ideal months for flying in autumn and March to May i.e spring is also flyable but conditions are very strong in spring with thermals of 6-12 mtrs/sec and cloudbase of 4000 to 6000 mtrs. Palampur is 29 km and Baijnath is 13 km from Bir.
Billing
14 km from Bir, which came in the news in 1984 when an international Hang Gliding rally was organized at Billing, a place 20 km from Palampur where some expert hang gliders of the world participated. They rated this place as one of best in the world. In the month of May / June a tented colony is set up by H.P. Tourism to facilitate Hang gliders. At this time all the roads lead to Billing. All along the bottom of the ridges runs a parallel road from Mandi to Dharamshala and beyond which assures easy recovery for pilots after landing. The most important feature of this region is its weather. On bad weather days one can still fly 20-30 kms and on good days 100 kms is not difficult. October & November are the ideal months for flying in autumn and March to May i.e spring is also flyable but conditions are very strong in spring with thermals of 6-12 mtrs/sec and cloudbase of 4000 to 6000 mtrs. Palampur is 29 km and Baijnath is 13 km from Bir.
