Riding the warm thermal currents of the air is perhaps the closest man has ever come to sailing Para-Gliding the skies as free as a bird. Almost at will, you dip and wheel high over the hills and valleys.
Bir-Billing in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, is one of the best paragliding site. para-gliding is also possible at other places in the state. Places where para-gliding is done are – Bundla Dhar near Bilaspur, Solang valley near Manali in the kullu district.
Himachal Tourism sponsors training programmes and events at various times of the year, in different places. There is an Adventure Sports Hostel at Dharamsala (Kangra) and an Aero Sports Complex at Bir.

For details of training facilities, contact sports associations or District Tourism Development Office at Dharamshala. Ph: 01892-224430.

Paragliding in Dharamshala – Bir-Billing

The paragliding site at Bir-Billing in Kangra district near Baijnath 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.

The small towns of Taragarh, Baijnath and Jogindernagar are close to Bir- Billing and large town of Palampur is 29 km from Bir. Himachal Pradesh is conducting International Paragliding competitions since 2002 at Bir-Billing every year.

Contact:

Paragliding in Bilaspur – Bundla Dhar

Before the year 1994, there was hardly any para-gliding or hang gliding pilot in Himachal Pradesh, excepting one, Roshan Lal Thakur from Manali, who had acquired some skill in flying from foreign pilots, often visiting Manali as tourist. Mean while R.P. Gautam who had come on retirement from Central Reserve Police Force as Commandant, visualised the vast potential in paragliding from Bandla mountain. To make his dream come true, he got in contact with Shakti Singh Chandel, the then Director Tourism and Civil Aviation, to extend all possible help to promote paragliding not only in Bilaspur, but also in whole in Himachal Pradesh. The Director Tourism, who himself belonged to Bilaspur, took keen interest in approving Bandla top as take off site, gave financial assistance to run para gliding courses for Bilaspur under Himachal Aero Adventure Institute Bilaspur, which under expert guidance of Mr. Bruce Mills from New Zealand and Alexi Garisimov from Russia, got the pilots trained. Thus Bilaspur was brought on World Map in Paragliding.
What is special about Bilaspur, which is not there in flying sites at other places, is that it gives you almost eight hours of flying time as against 3 to 4 hours maximum at Billing or Manali. More over it has vast and safe landing grounds on the bank of Govind Sagar Lake at LUHNU. From training point of view, Bilaspur can be considered the best in whole of Asia. It is laid down in the training manual that training in instability maneuvers during advance pilot course i.e. Dynamic Stall, deep stall, spiral drive, spin reovery, assymmetric tuck, front tuck and deployment of Reserve Parachute, should be carried out over a broad base of water for reasons. For this, there is hardly any place, where there is any huge lake just beside the landing site. Bilaspur has the privilege of having unique combination of Air Sports in one stretch, which is very rare.

Contact:

Himachal AERO Adventure & Water Sports Institute, Bilaspur (H.P.)
Phone : 01978-223375, Fax : 01978-223125

Paragliding in Manali – Solang Valley

Paragliding in Manali has become a fast growing adventure activity that is drawing INDIAN as well as western tourists for adventure holidays! Manali Paragliding is mostly happening at slopes of Solang Valley which is equally famous for other adventure sports activities like Zorbing, Horse Riding , Skiing and Rope Way, all in one place. Paragliding as a recreational adventure sports in Manali is liked both by youngsters as well as mature people who like to entertain themselves with this amazing sports once in their lifetime. Manali Paragliding is organised by expert paragliding pilots who have more than a decade experience with Paragliding and Flying in Manali as well as internationally recognised Paragliding spots in Manali as well as Himachal Pradesh, North INDIA.
Paragliding in Manali and Solang Valley is mostly done with two or three options that include Short Flying, Medium Flying and Long Distance Flying.
Paragliding Charges in Manali
Short Flying – Rs. 550/Per Person (2 to 3 Minutes Approx.)
Rs. 400/Group (Minimum 10 persons should be in a group)
Medium Flying – Rs. 1500/-Per Person (10 to 12 Minutes)
Rs. 1200/-Per Person, in Off Season
Long Flying -Rs. 2000/Per Person (15-20 Minutes)
* Charges are not fixed , they may change from season to season.

Contact:

Paragliding in Bharmour

Recently two lost paragliders landed up in Bharmour to open up the opurtunity for paragliding in Bharmour. Before landing they