Recreational Aviation for General Aviation
If you have been following me on My Youtube Channel, you might have known that I have completed my P3 Paraglider Training. Many people asked me the reason I did this rating. First, let me tell you this, there is NO NEED for a paraglider rating to become an airplane pilot (unless you want to deliberately jump off an airplane and face 40 years of jail)
The whole purpose of my aviation journey is to promote General Aviation in Nepal. This statement might be a hard pill to swallow for some well-frogs but no matter what, I will finish what I started.
Recreational Aviation falls under General Aviation. What’s exciting about this form of aviation is that it’s easily accessible, cheaper and available for all kind of age groups. Dreaming about buying private planes in Nepal as the next step can be a big leap forward. That requires a big system. We can somewhat say that we are not yet ready for that. But we have to start somewhere and in this case, we already have a push start; recreational flights. The climate and topography of Nepal is phenomenal for recreational flying. People from all over the world love to fly in Nepal. In this country, we can fly more than 300 days in a year. This is RARE !
So ? What are we missing out ?
After staying about 16 days in Syangja during my P3 Paragliding Training with The Babu Adventures International, I learnt things that I would never find on any book or internet. Sano Babu Sunuwar is a revolution. I am glad he exists in Nepal. I feel lucky to meet him and listen to what he had to say. He showed me the light, he showed me the way. While listening to him, I found that whatever I was “dreaming”, he already started doing it years ago. He is still fighting, I will be on his side.
During our first meet. I started my rant with him. “There is no rule for us. What the heaven is this government doing ? Why can’t I fly anywhere I want if that’s an uncontrolled airspace ? Why the heaven does the CAAN need to care if I fly my own paraglider in uncontrolled airspace. If I follow the basic VFR rule and minimum safe altitudes, why can’t they just shut up ?” As you might have guessed, I got my answer. I got a new pair of eyes. Nepal’s airspace and it’s rules made more sense to me. The system that is working on it made more sense to me. I no longer blamed the government. Government is doing fine. It is “us” that is lacking something.
What are “we” lacking ?
Simply said, numbers. We are lacking numbers. I can’t explain everything here but when I asked Guru Babu Sunuwar, he said that it’s all about Insurance. It is the lack of insurance that is creating hurdles for us. We lack insurance because we are in a small number. We can’t fly VFR like airplanes. There is a reason why.
Lets say the government opens up whole national airspace for us to fly. We can now fly anywhere that is an uncontrolled airspace. The planes won’t fly in the uncontrolled airspace and we won’t fly in their control zone. Simple isn’t it ?
No !
Not that simple. There is always a “what if”. There are a number of stupid people in the air. Lets suppose if someday a person learnt paragliding by buying a cheap glider and flew up and up and up until she/he collided with an airline aircraft. If there happens to be a crash due to her/his negligence, who will be responsible ? Who will bear the cost ? There needs to be someone who takes the responsibility. The insurance can’t cover the damage as we are just too less in numbers. And there is no body to control the pilots because we are just too less in numbers.
So ? Whats the bottom line ?
The bottom line is that we are too less to ask or get anything. If we can make the numbers, the system will follow. We can’t ask the government to look after 300 pilots where most of them are not even active pilots. So what we can do to best solve this issue is to increase the number of pilots.
And that is why I had to go for paragliding training. I had to show people how beautiful it is. I had to make others want to fly. I had to prove that it is so simple that literally anyone can fly. It had to be the first step. We should make flying so simple like riding a bike. Hike and Fly should replace hiking. This has to be a new culture in Nepal. If we can do this, I am sure we will fly our own private Bush Planes very soon.
Hey you ? Go fly !!! Ask me how if you are confused. It will be like a 20 days vacation.
PS- Some facts can differ because I am a human being. Double check and research. Thanks
Stay Tuned !!!
