Looking back… it was a busy, fruitful season. We shared our sport, our sites and our home (Native Place) with so many lovely people. We taught, we flew, we grew and we learnt. The season was a great success.

The season’s first beginner pilot (P1) group came in from South India urged on by Fred who has lived in Auroville for the past few decades. At 60+ yrs Fred was the oldest student but all will agree the youngest in spirit.

A bunch of 6 friends - Fred and Auroson from Auroville, JD & Arun from Chennai, Rajeev & Ruqshad from Mumbai. We got to know that this motley group of adventurers get together periodically to do stuff such as wind-surfing, car racing and it was Fred’s longing to fly that initiated this free flying trip.

So much happened, the season flew by. It was one ongoing free flying party with Diwali, Christmas, New Years and a hundred reasons to celebrate. Here are some of them.

Anu and Prodyut joined us over from Delhi. They were a great couple and both enjoyed their course cum holiday. Sarah and Pratith planned ahead as they had come in from the US. This was Sarah’s first visit to India.

Ricky and Dinesh, 2 incorrigible boys explored their wings like little boys discovering new toys. Their enthusiasm was catchy and made us all connect with the child within.

Jamie is medical student from UK he did P1 with us while on holiday in India.

Shubra from DGFT a keen trekker who has led an expedition to Kailash Mansoravar, this mother of two has oodles of energy and enthusiasm she completed her P2 this year and came back on many weekends to fly with us.

Tushar and Mukul did the 3 day course. They came along with their wives who did tandem flights and enjoyed the peace and quiet of native place by day and the parties by night.

Palande a civil engineer from Manipal and Sanjay’s old pal. He came to help Sanjay build Native Place and got hooked on to paragliding. He now flies with us regularly.

Dwane completed P2 after a gap of 4 years but he made up for lost time with many super soaring flights logging 15 hours.

Neha a 12th standard student came unaccompanied from Ahmedabad and did both P1 and P2. She was soon one of the boys and in-charge of snacking.

Pavan did both P1 & P2 and continued coming back on weekends for a flight or two whenever he could. His friend Mandy came in from Delhi for P1 and managed to complete his P2 at the end of May.

Initially Unnati had a load of reservations about the learning process, her strength & abilities and more. By day two all the reservations had vanished and she was making plans to sign up for P2 which she did.

Lankan Team - The boys from Sri Lanka led by beautiful Mano whose joyful screams at landing had us all smiling and cheering them on. They were the first to fly Shelar on new year’s eve in fact as the winds turned west earlier than usual. The conditions were amazing that day and Stan who was there as well did a record 3 hour flight. It was their last day and they made the most of it logging at least 5 to 6 flights each that afternoon.