ABOUT INSTRUCTORS

We are professionals in our field and have several years of experience in paragliding and training. Each of our team members have flown at various locations and in varied weather conditions. Our team has trained several recruits of NDA’s Adventure Cell, have organised demos and training camps for the Indian Air Force, Army, Raigad Military School, Indian Coast Guard. We were invited by Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and Kerala Tourism Department for demonstration on various occasions. We have regularly flown our paramotors at the Kite festival of India and organised joy ride camps for corporate houses. On our student list we have a number of foreign students who have learned the basic as well advance paragliding skills from us.

SAMSON D'SILVA Started paragliding in 1995. In 1998 at the peak of his career he gave up his job as a director of a publishing group and started working from home so that he could devote more time for his hobby of paragliding. He started assisting paragliding clubs as a trainee instructor. A prominent name in paragliding circle in Mumbai, Samson has flown many paragliding sites in Western Ghats. He is an excellent winch operator and paragliding instructor presently heading the operations at Mumbai for Space Apple.

Samson enjoys teaching. He regularly conducts camps and workshops for all age groups, right from six year olds to engineering students. A hands on person with many innovative ideas to tackle problems on hand. The topics for his workshops are aviation, hobby electronics and domestic science.He enjoys trekking and camping in the wild and is actively involved in terrestrial sports too.

Most of the adventure activities are organised during weekends so on weekdays i.e. Monday to Thursday he works for the Business India Group as and writes for Auto India.

M JOHNWIN Johnwin was born to be a sportsman. Throughout his school and college life he enjoyed being on the playgrounds than in classrooms. Samson and Johnwin bonded together in college because of sports. Though Johnwin could not pursue a career in sports his heart was always into sports. When he heard about Samson and his plans of starting a adventure sports club he was more than happy to get involved as a promoter.

Business commitments did not allow him to get into paragliding initially, but the desire was always there. He picked up the basics, took his time to master ground handling skills and today enjoys the company of birds and fellow pilots on weekends.

SIDDARTH D'SILVA Siddarth loves outdoor sports. As a child he often accompanied his father on various adventures trips. At the age of 13 he showed interest in learning paragliding and soon became one of the youngest person in India to fly regularly on weekends. He was featured in the Bournvita advertisement as a young achiever and also appeared in Pogo Amazing Kids Show. He likes flying all kinds of kites - from the Indian fighter kite to four line Para foil stunt kites to traction kites. He is an assisting instructor and an inspiration to the students of Space Apple.

MOHAN GANPULE Mohan too learned paragliding at a young age in one of the camps organised by Space Apple. His interest in the sport made him join the club as an assistant instructor. He has also developed his skills in Power kites and traction kites.

Boxing is another sport he enjoys and has won several medals at school and college competitions.

RASHMI D'SILVA Rashmi is the women behind the success of Space Apple. Her first experience of paragliding was in 1997 when she got her first lessons and a solo flight from a bunny hill. Other commitments and priorities had kept her away from the sport. Be it cooking excellent meals for paragliding student or helping in preparing for the workshop she participates whole heartedly. She also stitches parafoil kites using ripstop polyester.

In late 2006 she has returned back to the sport and plans to join the team on the field as well.

We also have visiting Instructors who join in case of group training. Some of our regular group members are:

ERIC MENEZES He is the Chief Paragliding Instructor and comes from a thorough aviation background. He has 22 years of experience in flying sailplanes and is a holder of Flight Instructor's Rating for Gliders issued by Civil Aviation Dept., Govt. of India. He started his flying career way back in 1980, has done 4000 flights and logged over 450 hours airtime.

Eric is one of the pioneers in paragliding in India. Having learned paragliding in 1994, he established a paragliding school in Pune. He has successfully trained over 1000 students in the past 7 years. Apart from flying Paramotors, he specializes in aerial photography. He is very safety conscious and believes in disciplined flying. Eric has an Independent aviation club in Pune and can be reached through his website www.paraglidingindia.com

MANGESH DIGHE Mangesh Dighe started his paragliding career in the year 1994. Today he is an experienced instructor in paragliding and one of India's best paramotor pilot. Incidentally, he happens to be a Civil Engineer and has completed his post graduation in Environmental science. He is an expert in cross country flights. Be it paramotoring or paragliding, his graceful takeoffs and landings are inspiring to the audience.

SHAILESH BHATT A name withstands among the pioneers of paragliding and paramotoring in Gujarat. He has successfully organised many paragliding training camps in Ahmedabad. He has flown the leading international brands of Paramotors and has been representing paragliding in International Kite Festival organised by Tourism Dept, Gujarat. He won the second place in National Paramotor Rally. He has the most experienced team for conducting parasailing joyrides.