It’s spring in the Indian Himalaya and for me there is no where more amazing to be flying, today was a nice 5 hour flight and tour of the area with a visit to Dharmsala and back, base was a pleasant 4900m.

To catch up first I have to give a big congratulations to my friend Debu Choudhury who recently set the Indian distance record from Bir at 176km and then days later broke it  by doing 211km  on the 14th of April. Have a look at http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:drdebu/14.4.2009/05:07

Second I just participated in an amazing adventure. Across Himalaya is the name of an expedition to fly through the Indian Himalaya to the border of Nepal in 12 days. With a bit of rain and political concerns hindering the start we moved location to the western edge of the Dhula Dhar range in Himachel Pradesh and flew to within 20km of the Nepal border. 8 days of flying, almost 500km along a route few have flown. So few in fact I think I can name them: Bob Drury and John Silvester in 1997. Phillipe Nodet and Julian Wirtz in 200? and Luc Armant on his 1000km trip past Kathmandu in 2007. If you know of more please tell me I’m interested to learn as much as I can about the flying history here. Basically it’s wild terrain and incredible flying with opportunities to top land and camp all along the route. There is road access over most valleys and it’s quite doable.

There were 7 pilots in our group, the dream and initive was from Adie Kumar. I was the most experienced in the Himalayas but least experienced in terms of flying time. It was an incredible experience, one that I can remember so many details and images of each unique day… I guess if there’s something I can say from it that other pilots will hear it’s that it’s ok to walk down no matter the situation or pressure involved. We all need to know our limits and if we go beyond them it’s ok to land and walk down!

What a trip and what and adventure, I’m already planning for next spring! You can see more on this webpage

http://acrosshimalaya.org/ and some of my track logs here http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/pilots/detail:bradsander

Excited at the prospect of what this new day will bring.

My Track Log