By : Andy Buchan

The badge they gave me said 'Pilot'. I found it reassuring..... In January I was invited to Jakkur airfield in Bangalore by the Aeronautical Society of India. I had been asked to demonstrate the Mosquito powered hang gliding harness at their Airsports Jamboree.

Air India kindly transported both myself and a large box of equipment of Bangalore from Heathrow; all I had to do was fly the Mosquito for the two days of the airshow. It sounded easy enough, until I started to think about the flying conditions.

In England, with a near sea-level take off and cold air, I normally launch the Mosquito after just a few steps. In India I knew that it would be different. A temperature in the high 20s, a flat airfield of 3,000ft elevation and no wind would all contribute to a long, fast take-off. Just how fast could I run?

I had chosen to take with me a 16m Target hang glider. This is a single-surface 'floater' type wing; slow and docile. It also breaks down to under 2m in length - useful for transportation. With a take-off airspeed of around 12mph in England, a rough calculation gave me 21mph for Indian conditions.

The first time I flew the Mosquito was one evening a couple of days before the airshow. I had flown a trike earlier in the day and with wheels the high ground speeds just meant that it rolled further. By the time I was ready to fly the Mosquito the wind was practically non existent but cigarette smoke indicated a slight drift at 450 to the dirt runway.

After one false start and some more waiting in cash things improved, I decided to go for it - wing on shoulders, throttle wide open. And run. Afte what seemed an age the glider lifted, the skids left the ground, and we were off. Those below grew comfortingly small and the motor felt normal even on the low octane fuel.

Ten minutes later a fast approach and a stand-up landing completed my first flight. A quick look at the marks left in the sandy soil confirmed that the takeoff had been long : about three or four times what I was used to in England. And the same with the landing. But at least it was possible… I'm sure that the 'Pilot' badge helped.

The two days of the airshow gave a chance for the Indian public to see many different aircraft types, flying and on the ground. As well as larger aircraft such as an Indian-built Rutanesque canard design and a Hansa composite prototype, both three-axis, weight-shift microlights were well represented.

The airshow ran on two afternoons and started with a parachute jump by the Indian Air Force. Most impressive were two jumpers who stayed together, one standing on the other's shoulders right until they landed.

Larger three-axis aircraft then flew, disappearing far away before returning (generally at low level) to perform aerobatics. And then it was to turn of the microlights.

Some flew as small groups, others such as myself and a powered paraglider, alone, so that we could better demonstrate our aircraft before the crowd. Our advantage over the large aircraft was that our slow airspeed made us much more visible to the spectators. The exception was a trike flown by A Vasan which became a small dot high in the sky before the passenger jumped out.

India's only commercial microlight builder is Raj-Hamsa Ultralights, based in Bangalore. The company produces kits of the popular three-axis X-Air for export as well as building complete aircraft for the home market. It also makes the Gumnen, which is a higher performance version of the X-Air with a more efficient airfoil section and flaps. The X-Air has proved itself well in India and is increasingly used as a robust trainer. No surprise then at the numbers there.

Raj-Hamsa originally built hang gliders and then flexwing microlights. Most Indian weight-shift machines use their wings. Flexwing ownership in India is very different to England, with most machines owned by research institutes or other organisations. As a result many trike units are built as sponsored projects, which gives a wide variety of designs.

One single-seat trike built by Dr Pai of the National Aerospace Laboratories used a Norton rotary engine of 35hp instead of the original adapted 250cc motorbike engine. The machine had been test flown but was still under development.

Other trikes included a wide bodied single-seater and a twin-seater (Double Trouble) for use as a trainer where instructor and student can sit side-by-side. Both were built by Prof Radhakrishna of the Raman Research Institute and were powered by Rotax 503 engines. With wide pods and high windscreens at the front, good directional stability was achieved by large fins at the rear of the trike. These originated as the rear wings of an X-Air.

Also on display was a well finished Mini-Max and a beautiful seven-eights replica of a Nieuport biplane. This project was nearing completion and will be powered by a Rotax 503.

My time in Bangalore passed quickly. Immediately after the second day's flying I had to rebox the wing and Mosquito and a few hours later I was aboard a much larger aircraft back to England. My thanks to those who organised my visit, I hope my photos do justice to the event.

(Article reproduced from Microlight Flying)