Chennai: It was not the aerial view of verdant lands or the panoramic Aliyar dam in Pollachi that excited those who took off to the sky on a hot air balloon expedition, but the ecstasy of perambulating at an altitude of about 200 feet or beyond.
Hot air ballooning, though fun, is altogether a new turf for adventure sports in Tamil Nadu and it is emerging as new genre of sports attracting the young and old alike.
The second international hot air balloon carnival held in green hills draped Pollachi town, about 40 km from Coimbatore in the state, coinciding with the Pongal festival, emerged as a crowd puller and it indicated the tremendous potential for this sport.
Though it is yet to take off on a commercial scale in Tamil Nadu, the efforts made by the tourism department in encouraging hot air ballooning has appeared to ignite the minds of the adventure buffs.
About seven pilots from India, the US, Netherlands, Brazil and France took part in the five-day festival that concluded on January 16 organised by the state tourism department and the Global Media Box Innovations Pvt Ltd to promote hot air ballooning as adventure sport.
Tourism director and managing director of Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation H. S. Meena who inaugurated the festival, says this would broaden the scope for adventure sports activities in the state.
“Technically, the hot air balloon is like flying an aircraft. In fact it is classified as an aircraft and has registration number. Unlike the aircraft, which relies on electronic gadgets leaving the pilot to watch the monitor, the hot air balloon is mechanical and flies according to the wind velocity and direction.
It is equipped with a GPS unit and a barometer and the pilot can fly it for an altitude of about 2,000 feet,” explains Benedict Savio, director, Global Media Box Innovations Pvt Ltd, here. His firm is involved in organising hot air balloon carnivals.
Though the take off and landing may be vertical, the pilot manning the hot air balloon cannot land at the very spot from where he took off. “He has to look for an ideal spot to land as the balloon gets swayed by the winds. But no risk is involved in flying on it, Mr Benedict added.
