Pilot starts another business after paragliding stops

Rabindra Dhungel, 25 september 2020. It has been 11 years since Subash Thapa of Lake Side in Pokhara started paragliding. The paragliding, which was weighed down by the earthquake, could not get up and the corona dropped to zero again, he said.

 

 

He has three gliders, solo, double and stunt. However, his glider has stopped working since April.

“Chinese tourists used to do a lot of paragliding,” he said.

He said that even though the corona can be seen only once a day after it started appearing in China, it has stopped since April.

He is currently working on removing and drying gliders. Every year, he removes the glider for fear of damage and keeps it dry in the sun.

Before Covid, he used to earn Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh a month from paragliding. He said the paragliding area, which was weighed down by the quake, was made even more impassable by the corona. Before the earthquake, even the paragliding that was under the pressure of the customers was not even available.

 

 

After the earthquake, the paragliding company, the pilot all increased but the number of customers did not increase, so one pilot had to make only one flight.

“The situation was similar again after the Kovid-19 was spotted in China,” he said.

He has been engaged in poultry farming for the past three months. He is now raising a variety of chickens at home.

He has raised 100 different breeds of chickens by spending around Rs 2 million. He currently plans to produce eggs and chickens.

 

 

“My parents registered the farm two years ago,” he said. “Now I am running the same farm.”

He doubts when tourists will be able to fly and when the paragliding area will be the same as before. It usually takes 2/3 years to get to the paragliding field.

Like Thapa, Hari Bhandari of Pokhara-25 Hemja has also taken up another profession by making good use of his free time. He had been paragliding for four years. It’s been two years since he started paragliding commercially. He bought gliders at a cost of Rs 7 lakh and started flying commercially.

 

He had learned to fly paragliding by spending Rs 2.5 million. He is making good use of his time to raise livestock after being paralyzed due to Kovid-19. He has built a shed for 200 goats at a cost of Rs 800,000. They have raised goats and goats.

 

 

At present, they are raising 15 goats and 35 fallow deer. He is now raising a worker. He said that he will return to his previous business with additional staff after paragliding starts.