Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
Up above the world so high
|
Children from different parts of Kerala learn, at a flying camp in Nanguneri, what Jonathan Livingston Seagull did long ago: `There are no limits'.
|
NANGUNERI IS a place you would not like to be in during summer. Here flies swarm, brambles prickle and the sun burns you to the colour of roasted coffee beans.
But for the young, who, like Icarus, wish to fly, this village, adjacent to the highway from Kanyakumari to Tirunelveli, 120 km from Thiruvananthapuram, has been the place to visit this season.
As the village bestirs and women draw kolams early in the morning, the drone of flying microlite aircraft rises and subsides with insistent regularity. But few look up.
For them, the flying microlites with gaily-coloured wings, have, like the birds that fly in from other countries to neighbouring Kunthakulam every summer, been a recurring feature. They call the microlites, parakkai.
Chancing across a river-fed tank just four km from the village, the National Adventure Foundation (NAF) Kerala, has been holding flying camps here for the past few years. The tank, spread over a thousand acres and dry for the major part of the year, is considered an ideal location for the sport.
"This year, the camp, being held from May 3 to 31 aims to provide awareness of adventure sports to 250 children and to train 50 students in microlite flying, all free," says Wg. Cdr. S. K. J. Nair, director of NAF.
The training, provided free by NAF, is a boon. A 10-hour course on microlite flying, with five hours of flying and five hours of ground training, would cost Rs. 25,000.
Sreekant, a B.Com student from Pattazhi says, "The charges for flying being prohibitive, it is not possible to fly, except at NAF camps, where it is offered free."
Participants are trained for 10 days. After the first day, devoted to theory, they are taught to fly. They come to grips with taking off and steering, with relative ease, but landing the craft requires more effort and practice.
"A silky smooth touchdown is rarely achieved," says Capt C. B. Saner, a flying instructor from New Delhi, at the camp.
Three microlites are currently being used. Of minimalist design, the microlite consists of an aluminium framework with two seats and three small wheels, a two-stroke Rotax engine with a five feet long propeller crafted from red cedar wood, and a pair of wings, 28 ft long and made of decron.
Flying in one feels like riding in a two-wheeler a thousand feet above the ground. Or, as K. J. Minimol of Newman College, Thodupuzha, on touchdown, says, "I felt I was a fairy."
Flying sessions start at 6-30 a.m. and are over in about four hours as the wind grows stronger and the air heats up, both of which make flying difficult.
Thereafter, the participants hire bicycles and pedal in and around the village, play cricket with the village children, admire the architectural splendour of the Vanamamalai Vishnu temple, more than a thousand years old, or just down a cold sherbet to beat the heat.
Some attend the camp for fun and some seek a career. P. Babu of Coimbatore wants to be a professional microlite flier, while Asha Mary Joseph, a student from Thodupuzha, says, "I came here just for fun."
V. R. Aparna of the Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode has joined, as adventure sports attract her. Shilpa from Thodupuzha says, "Becoming a commercial pilot is beyond my means. This experience compensates for it." Dhanya George of Jayarani School, Thodupuzha and M. A. Ajas and M. S. Sandeep of Newman College, Thodupuzha, feel, "Such camps will help us face the tests for the defence services with confidence."
The camp has gifted a new visual perspective to some. "Now I know how we look like to the birds that see us from up above," says E. B. Ambili of Thodupuzha.
The children of Nanguneri too are having a jolly good time. They hitch free joyrides, 10 minutes of which would cost them upto Rs. 750 elsewhere.
PRAKASAM K. UNNI
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
|
