Farmer starts a school for wannabe gliders

When he was a child, Govind Yewale would watch with wonder as paragliders took off from the Panchgani hills in Satara district of Maharashtra and land in their fields.

He always wanted to experience for himself what it would be to fly like the birds.

However, when an European tourist agreed to give him a joyride, Yewale’s flight of fancy took wings and paved the way for him to pursue a career in aviation adventure sports.

“The first flight is still etched in my memory. I was a bit anxious as we lifted off the ground but then, it was an exhilarating experience to be in the sky like a bird,” said Yewale, speaking by phone from the Rann of Kutch.

That 15 minutes in the air completed his dream to be air-borne. Two decades later, Yewale is among a handful of people in India to own a paratrike, a paraglider powered by an aircraft engine with a seating for two, and one of three who rents it out for joyrides.

The Gujarat government has roped him to fly tourists on his paratrike at the Rann Utsav in Kutch.

Yewale said: “Since December 1, 2014, I have already flown 1,200 hours on the paratrike at the Rann Utsav.”

Its popularity can be judged from the fact that each five minute ride costs about Rs 2,000.

“I take tourists to an elevation of about 500 feet to give them a bird’s-eye view and we return to land,” said Yewale, who tills his fields in his native Pasarni village when he is not taking to the skies.

Five years after his first joyride, Yewale took training for paragliding. He then learnt paramotoring, which is paragliding with a motor fan at the back.

“He is a very progressive person who is keen on improving and eager to modernise and jump to the next level,” said Shirish Joshi, his partner in the adventure sports venture. Joshi is promoting the paratrike for aerial shooting.

In 2007, Yewale took a Rs 5- lakh loan and went to Dubai to be trained in paratrike. He was among the few who passed the test, including night flying, to be paratrike pilot.

Yewale said: “I was employed by the same Dubai company that trained me. In 2011, I came back to India.”

It so happened that 70 per cent tourists in Dubai who enjoyed the joyride on the paratrike were Indians, and they urged him to bring this sport to India. He assembled his own paratrike by getting the chasis built by a Bangalore firm, an aircraft engine from Austria, glider from Israel, and the propellers from Thailand.

Yewale’s expertise is being sought to train the personnel of the armed forces. In 2014, he was roped in to tutor jawans of the Assam Rifles in paragliding.

The farmer is in the process of setting up a training school at Panchgani for paragliding and paratrike.

Life will then come full circle for Yewale, since the place where he took his first flight will house a school to launch the careers of aspiring fliers.

By: Ganesh N