om actions
I
t’s not just the passengers that do
yoga on long-haul flights, it seems.
Two pilots that have been flying
a pioneering Swiss-made solar aircraft,
Solar Impulse-2 (SI-2), around the
globe recently are both keen yogis as well
and incorporate it into their daily routine.
André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard
have each been practicing yoga for more than
a decade, taking turns to fly the single-seater
2,300 kg aircraft in a journey around the world.What does it take to pilot a revolutionary solar
plane around the world? Yoga, of courseIt’s the first ever round-the-world solar
flight. This is no jumbo jet, however, where
distances are measured in hours. The SI-2
journey across the Pacific Ocean alone lasts
a grueling five days and five nights.
The whole 35,000 km journey requires
around 500 hours total flight time; that’s
almost three weeks.
And, while the fuel-free plane gets its energy
from the sun, the pilots energise themselves
with yoga, meditation and pranayama.Yoga master class
Borschberg says he trains with Indian yoga
master Sanjeev Kumar Bhanot.
In recent times, his practice has been
driven by one particular insight: that
even though the SI-2 is supported by top
scientists, the best technology, and could
theoretically fly forever, it is still limited by
the endurance capabilities of the human
pilots in the cockpit.
“Yoga is the best known technology
to prepare the human body, mind and
awareness to be able to face the extreme
challenges of this unique project,” he says.
And so he brought in the support
of Bhanot and his Antastha Yoga
(antasthayoga.com) to find ways to cope
with the many physical, psychological and
emotional challenges.
In particular, Borschberg is using Antastha
Yoga’s CNS Series, which is specifically
designed to balance the human central
nervous system.
It includes classical, static yoga postures,
as well as breathing and meditation, which
can be utilised even at 10,000 feet above
the ground.
Pranayama helps in dealing with the
respiratory challenges due to the extremes of
temperature and altitude, reducing breathingom actions
The
yoga-powered
plane
Bertrand Piccard (left) and André
Borschberg (right) with Solar Impulse-2