Hello...i too am planning my vacation during the Christmas holidays..hopefully I too could join you guys..I got another pal of mine in the UK who too plans to come down during that time..he's mostly a surface guy..but has a quad..i have just ordered a  walkera  x350pro and would need some backup to fly..hopefully we shall meet..

Great!! We  should meet for sure this Christmas and have a happy,holly jolly flying Christmas in GOA

Too bad, my Christmas isn't going to be in Goa, as my exam dates are still not scheduled, but I will be there in Jan!!
hoping to see you then!!

Anyone available for flying tomorrow, 30th November 2014 at Divar?     Ferry from Ribandar at 4.30pm.  Please ring if attending. 9890501718.  Cheers. Harry.

You guys are seriously lucky, I wished I was there this month, anyways will be there in Jan.
Happy flying and click some pictures!

Hi Controlflyer.  Nice to read your post and welcome to see yourself and chum from UK over Christmas.   It was a super day at Divar yesterday with Zero wind and Sunny of course.   A large thermal centered itself over the football field and did not move for a long time so I had a flight of 50 minutes from a 20 second motor run which was OK.
Met Yorkshire Jan from the resort and he says we can call for snacksndrinks any time.
Keep in touch.  Cheers   H.

Quote from: HarrybPickles on December 01, 2014, 12:55:20 PM
Hi Controlflyer.  Nice to read your post and welcome to see yourself and chum from UK over Christmas.   It was a super day at Divar yesterday with Zero wind and Sunny of course.   A large thermal centered itself over the football field and did not move for a long time so I had a flight of 50 minutes from a 20 second motor run which was OK.
Met Yorkshire Jan from the resort and he says we can call for snacksndrinks any time.
Keep in touch.  Cheers   H.

Divar is a pure bliss, especially the foggy Christmas nights!! I have many-a-pals and relatives residing there, Alemao Gonsalves is a chubby lil chap from there and works in the UK, there's a candid photographer+videographer named John Lino, who did my wedding photography..
AS for your 50 minute flight, I can imagine the thrill and excitement you must have experienced. Imagine a FPV gear on your plane, you'd probably be living in the skies then..I will try my best to make it there when I come down to Goa this season..tell Yorkshire Jan that we'd be needing a lot of fueling from him when the planes fly..hehe..

 WOW !! 50 minutes of flying without propeller power!! Real Exciting!!!  
Am just waiting for when I will be in Goa and at Diwar football grounds!!
Pictures if possible, Harry please.  Yes,I saw the video of you flying in strong winds back in UK moors, I am sure I will get a chance to see one of your gliders thermal in the goan skies soon!!
  Back here in Mumbai, my friend Merwhan Irani  used to be a real glider pilot with license  and now loves flying RC gliders, and thermals are his favorite, He soars the sky for God knows how long, frankly after 15 minutes or so I get a strain in my neck trying to track the model so high in the sky!!! It does not even look like a 78 inch wing span model then!!!
That's me with Merwhan Irani's glider. A tissue covered Carl Golberg Gentle Lady Glider with a Speed 550 up front as it's Power Plant. This is about 12 -13 years Back.

Nice to know you all had a good time Harry....  Safe landing!!

Hi Jonboy.     Goldberg Gentle Lady is still a very good model even today.  The motor is a bit antedeluvian but quite up to its job.  Gentle Lady is a PROPER model because you have to actually build and cover it.  My Compliments to your chum Mehwan.   A 400 size Brushless Inrunner would be perfect - a 600 size inrunner would be too powerful as you dont want the GL to go like a rocket.  He would also be able to put a whopping LiPo in the front to balance the CG but it would last all day !!! Have a look at www.Puffin Models.com.  Cheers. H.

ps.  wife pouring me a Whiskey and Soda as I type this  - Bless her !

One my friends (not RC freak) sent me a pic of his latest adventure in Goa. I was  shocked to see such a beautiful place. It appears to be one of the ideal locations for slope soaring. He doesn't remember exactly where it is located but said it fell somewhere in between Agonda and Cola. The road is not very kind and he took lot of pride in saying he wouldn't have attempted it if it was not for his jeep

Driving down to Goa this weekend (with family) and will try to locate this gem

Talking about Goa, here is something for all to enjoy...... (images have been lost, please send a personal message with email id if you want me to forward the full email.)............Deepak C

A correction pointed out by Sanjay Rai;

"till today no Catholic Goan boy has passed the IIT entrance exam"

That is a fallacy. I am an IIT Bombay Graduate, and I had many, many co-students, many of them very brilliant, who were Catholics from Goa

SR

=======  The Goa Inquisition ========


Negationism, obfuscation and digression are tools in the hands of apologists for atrocities committed by their masters especially with regards to Goa Inquisition.

Earlier the subject was a video produced by Government in Goa about history of Goa. And it deals with the Goa inquisition. Yet the bigot with pseudonym sounding Hindu tries to divert our attention saying there was no partici-pation in liberation of Goa by Hindu nationalists or RSS, which of course is a lie. Jagganath Rao Joshi was life long RSS pracharak much like Narendra Modi. He was one of the leaders along with many others, that included patriotic Christians too who participated in struggle for liberation of Goa from Portugal.

Lest that part of history of India gets forgotten due to concerted efforts of suppressio veri, suggestio falsi (Suppre-ssion of the truth is [equivalent to] the suggestion of what is false). mainly by converted progeny who are more royal than the king, every person of India should be familiar with events of inquisition. Otherwise like many gullible innocent Hindus who flock to mausoleum of 'St' Xavier for healing, while he inaugurated most bloody inhuman campaign in Goa .

Pope John Paul apologized to Indians in South America for atrocities committed on them by likes of St Xavier. 
Current Pope Francis decreed in general against atrocities done in name of God but no apology in specific is rendered yet to Hindus of India for atrocities against them in Goa by his church.

Meanwhile friends, do study the enclosed, chronicled with some effort by Capt. Ajit Vadakayil.  Be familiar and make others familiar as well with that part of our history, so that it will never be repeated again. This is the least we can do compared to heroic resistance offered by Hindus of Goa during inquisition. You can see some of atrocities in the enclosed, yet Portuguese succeeded only in converting 30% of Hindus. So let us keep the flame of truth blazing in all its brightness because time is not too far when the light from it has to illuminate the whole world.

                                                                                                               G V Chelvapilla
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GOA INQUISITION.

PORTUGUESE INQUISITION IN GOA ORDERED BY FRANCIS XAVIER -- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL


A BRUTAL INQUISITION ORDERED BY ST FRANCIS XAVIER

In 1498 Vasco Da Gama landed up at a beautiful beach ( Kappad ) in my hometown Calicut.



He was actually lost on the east coast of Africa at Malindi—and was piloted across the Arabian sea by the Calicut king Zamorin's deep sea pilot Ibn Aziz.


A small stone monument here , commemorated the historic landing.



Vasco Da Gama tried to impress the King of Calicut with glass beads , scarlet hoods and coral.

On his second voyage in 1502 Vasco Da Gama came with 25 ships , thousands of soldiers and large canons. Enroute to Calicut they caught a pilgrim ship on passage to Mecca and burnt all 700 including women and children alive. He pounded Calicut city with his long range guns. When a messenger was sent by the king, Vasco Da Gama cut off his lips , and ears-- stitched the ears of a dog in place and sent him back.
King Zamorin was wary of the Portugese and soon they shifted base to Cochin and then to Goa.

Portugese admiral Alfonso De Albuquerque was driven away by the Muslim ruler of Bijapur and Goa Yusuf Adil Shah.  However after 3 months he again re-attacked with a larger force,  with help from a local Hindu Chieftain Thimayya.


On 25th Nov 1510—he captured Goa .  Yusuf was dead and his son Ismail was still an infant.



On May 6th 1542, St Francis Xavier of the Jesuit order of Ignatius Loyola , at the young age of 36,  landed at Goa, after a 13 month ardous voyage round the Cape of Good Hope--


under orders of King of Portugal Joao III.



As soon as Xavier landed at Goa he wrote to his king " Whoever has seen Goa need not see Lisbon "—and he goes into great lengths to describe the architectural splendor ( Ottoman style ).

Pretty soon, he found out the hard way-- that the local Indians are NOT east to convert from Hinduism to Christianity. He started by ordering the temples to be demolished. But then people had idols in their houses.

Hinduism was deeprooted.  The vedic Indian civilisation flourished on the banks of river Saraswati from 9000 BC to 4000 BC. When the river Saraswati dried up in 4000 BC , the people had migrated to the Zuari.



In 1545 Francis Xavier, frustrated -- wrote to Rome ( this letter is preserved ) and to the King —

QUOTE " The Hindus are an unholy race. They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their idols are black—as black as black can be— ugly and horrible to look at , smeared with oil and smell in a evil manner. "--UNQUOTE





He then formally ordered the Portugese Inquisition fo Goa , which ran from 1516 to 1812. The rest of Europe had terminated the Inquisition in 1774. It stopped in 1812 due to British intervention.

More than 20000 people were brought under trial by this Inquisition.

The Portugese first started off with high ranking Saraswat Brahmin Hindus who held the land and riches. Who ever was caught in a palanquin had to undergo the brutal inquisition.



They were NOT allowed to wear the Shendi ( hair tuft ), have a Tulsi plant in front of their house, wear the sacred thread , have an idol in their homes , wear sandals , read the Vedas etc




This drove all of them away from Goa, leaving the land behind.  Some of them unwillingly converted into Christianity.

It was NOT religious hatred alone, the main reason was to steal as many ancient Sanskrit and Malayalam Vedic texts on Science, Medicine and Mathematics. It is from Xavier that Europe came to know about medicinal leech vaccination ( among other things ) , and later Freemason Edward Jenner made a name for himself. The ancient Maharishis from Kerala, like Imhotep,  has been vaccinating the Pharaohs of Egypt, 6500 years before Edward Jenner.

The masses were converted into Christianity, saddled with Portuguese surnames , given menial jobs, made to eat Beef and Pork and drink cheap Feni ( a local brew made of Cashew and Coconut ). This easy inebriated life destroyed their mindset and till today no Catholic Goan boy has passed the IIT entrance exam. ( ala the Red Indians of North America and the Aborigines of Australia )





The Portugese viceroy Constantine De Braganza had ensconced himself in the Sultan's palace. He was unceremoniously told to buzz off from there and 200 prison cells were built—ordered by the Pope.
The Taj Hotel at Fort Aguada was also used as a torture cell.






On Jan 31 st 1620, the Portugese government ordered that NO Hindu marriages can be performed in Goa. They went one step ahead in 1625—and ordered that NO Hindu infidel can be employed in Goa.


The Portuguese Inquisition Laws filled 230 pages and the Inquisition was to be held behind closed doors. Fr. Diago de Boarda and his advisor Vicar General, Miguel Vaz had made a gruesome 41 point plan for torturing Hindus.

Under this plan Viceroy António de Noronha issued in 1566, an order applicable to the entire area under Portuguese rule. I hereby order that in any area owned by my master, the king, nobody should construct a Hindu temple and such temples already constructed should not be repaired without my permission. If this order is transgressed, such temples shall be, destroyed and the goods in them shall be used to meet expenses of holy deeds, as punishment of such transgression.

In 1567, the campaign of destroying temples in Bardez met with success. At the end of it more than 300 Hindu temples were destroyed. Enacting laws, prohibition was laid from 4 December 1567 on rituals of Hindu marriages, sacred thread wearing and cremation.

All the persons above 15 years of age were compelled to listen to Christian preaching, failing which they were punished. In 1583 all Hindu temples at Assolna and Cuncolim were destroyed through army action.

Convered Hindus , who were detected to secretly  hold their old religion in esteem were burnt at the  stake or brutally tortured.



Brutal methods used were – To tear off the tongues--  To blind the victim with sharp sticks or red-hot iron spikes-- The pulling of the flesh with pliers-- The skinning of the accused alive-- Quartering (in which the victims intestines would be pulled from the body) and impaling, in which a stake would be hammered through the victim's body avoiding the vital organs, resulting in a slow death that could last for hours or days.



A sharp iron fork was used to mangle breasts. Red hot pincers were used to tear off flesh. Red hot irons were inserted up vaginas and rectums. A device named the turcas was used to tear out fingernails. After the nails were ripped out needles were shoved in. Boots called bootikens were used to lacerate flesh and crush bone.


Thumbscrews were used to crush the fingers and toes. Acid was poured on victims and hands were immersed into pots of boiling oil and water. Eyes were gouged out by irons. Alcohol was poured on the head of the poor victim and set alight. Water was poured down the victims throat with a knotted cloth. The cloth was then jerked out tearing up the victims bowels.



There was no limit to the types and cruelty of the tortures. The inquisition meant anything was allowed. The inquisitors were sadistic and mentally disturbed. An "Inquisition" was supposed to be a legal inquiry by the church.

After the poor victims confessed to things they never did more torture was to follow. On the way to the stake or gallows victims were flogged, burned, branded and had their hands and tongues hacked off.

Fillippo Sassetti , an Italian merchant from Florence,  has chronicled everything. He was the first European to learn Sanskrit. His views were NOT the jaundiced views of a white man. Between 1578 and 1588 he had sent a huge number of letters to the grand ducal court in Florence –all about the Portugese inquisition and the Indian view point.



"The fathers of the Church forbade the Hindus under terrible penalties the use of their own sacred books, and prevented them from all exercise of their religion. They destroyed their temples, and so harassed and interfered with the people that they abandoned the city in large numbers, refusing to remain any longer in a place where they had no liberty, and were liable to imprisonment, torture and death if they worshipped after their own fashion the gods of their fathers." wrote Filippo Sassetti.( below )




A French traveller by the name of Dr.Charles Delone had got himself imprisoned in the Sultan's palace (1674-77) and saw things for himself . His observations are in his book published in 1687 and is named "L'inquisition de Goa".  Charles Delone was an eye witness to the atrocities, cruelty and reign of terror unleashed by priests. He published a book in 1687 describing the lot of helpless victims. While he was in jail, he had heard the cries of tortured people beaten with instruments having sharp teeth.





Dr.Claudius Buchanan's  (above )  a Scotsman of the Church of England , witnessed some gruesome burning scenes in Great Hall of Goan Inquisition in 1608,  and wrote about the Portuguese Inquisition in 1812.


Voltaire wrote on the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa— Quote " Goa est malheureusement célèbre par son inquisition , également contraire à l'humanité et au commerce. Les moines portugais firent accroire que le peuple adorait le diable , et ce sont eux qui l'ont servi. (Goa is sadly famous for its inquisition, equally contrary to humanity and commerce. The Portuguese monks made us believe that the people worshiped the devil, and it is they who have served him.)".

Historian Alfredo de Mello described the Portuguese in Goa : Quote—" nefarious, fiendish, lustful, corrupt religious orders which pounced on Goa for the purpose of destroying paganism (ie Hinduism) and introducing the true religion of Christ"  Unquote.



In 2007, the Portuguese Government initiated a project to make available online by 2010 a significant part of the archives of the Portuguese Inquisition currently deposited in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, the Portuguese National Archives


Traditional musical instruments were banned and only western music was allowed— a tradition seen even today. A Goan Christian marriage MUST have a live band playing pop music .




Now let me get back to our honouable saint Francis Xavier.

All over the world churches and schools are named after him . This temple destroyer was canonized by the Vatican in 1622. ( but when the Taliban shot off the Bamiyan Buddha,  they found it necessary to cry foul )

On 11th Dec 1553 , Xavier's dead body was shipped from China to Goa.

The Pope's  propaganda has caught on that viewing his dead embalmed body can bring miraculous good fortune and can heal you of all your ailments. Why not? He has converted more people to Christianity than any of Jesus's disciples.



The "Vatican Poster boy's"  embalmed body lies in Goa and is exposed to the public every 10 years—the last was in Dec 2002.  Two million of the faithful has descended on Goa for a month.



The Vatican has been ignoring demands from the descendants of a Buddhist monk for a DNA test --who claim that the body is of  a Sri Lankan monk .  The body was switched after the arrogant Captain of  the Portugese ship threw it overboard. The monk had died due to consumption of a rare herb. The preserved body of the monk was snatched by Portugese soldiers , dressed up in catholic priest garb and brought to Goa. There is a witness to this-- Francis Xavier's own converted servant he took from my hometown Calicut, by the name of Christopher.

Xavier was a tall white man-- the body is of a small dark man . The bullshit given is that his body was put in lime , in China-- so the great appearance change. DNA test never lies!!

And lime does NOT convert white skin to a uniform brown texture!!!





In Hindu and Buddhist traditions , all are cremated.  Only liberated saints are buried in salt and lime.





When India became independent in 1947, Goa remained under Portuguese control. The Indian government of Nehru insisted that Goa, along with a few other minor Portuguese holdings, be turned over to India. Portugal, however, refused. France, which also had small enclaves in India ( Pondicherry ), gave them up. On December 16, 1961, Indian troops crossed the border into Goa. Code named " Operation Vijay ', the move involved sustained land, sea, and air strikes for more than 36 hours; it resulted in the unconditional surrender of Portuguese forces on 19 December.


A United Nations resolution condemning the invasion was proposed by the United States and the United Kingdom in the United Nations Security Council, but it was vetoed by the USSR.


Despite this Portugal tried sending their Navy ( with blessings of USA and UK ) —and President Nasser of Egypt promptly shut the Suez Canal.


Indians have still NOT forgotten such favours.
Even today the mother language of Konkani binds all the people of Goa.

How many of you know that Roman Italian Inquisition started only in 1545, with the Indians in Goa, when Francis Xavier impressed on Pope Paul III, the urgent need to punish the filthy pestilent Indians, worshiping evil back stones and following false doctrines . The same Inquisition blinded Galileo in 1633.. All under investigation had to wear a huge red X symbol on their dress .




It was Pope Paul III who restarted slavery in Rome , by repealing a timeless law that slaves could claim their freedom at the Emperor's statue at Capitol hill . After this all Muslims, man and woman , became slaves, automatically. This sick man made his grandsons cardinals even before the age o