Fly as a seagull, fly like an eagle, fly like a hawk!
It is possible that you have already gone through a beach or a mountain and felt dazzled seeing a spectacle of one or several colored wings in the breeze, taking a paragliding pilot, and that such a vision has awakened some questions. Perhaps you even felt the desire to experience freedom and immense joy that only birds know. Birds and the people who dare to dream and seek to reach these dreams.
FAQ
What is Free Flight?
It’s flying using the forces of nature and the pilot’s own strength to take off and land using his lower limbs.
Paragliding is an adventure sport, both recreational and competitive, within the glider class: it is a light, free-flying aircraft launched on foot, without a rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a chair or harness, or lies inside a cocoon-like “canoe” suspended under the wing, made of fabric. The shape of the wing is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of the air entering the openings at the front of the wing and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing out.
Despite not using an engine, paragliding flights can last many hours and cover distances of many hundreds of kilometers, although flights of one to two hours and covering a few dozen kilometers are more common. By knowing how to exploit the breezes and rising air currents, the pilot can gain height, often climbing to altitudes of several thousand meters.
Can it only be done by experts and highly trained people?
It’s actually not very difficult to become a paraglider pilot. The first thing you need is the will. As long as you’re of age, you can think about joining the group of pilots who share the skies with seagulls or eagles.
Is it safe?
It is, just as it is safe to drive a car or a motorcycle, knowing how to do it!
But is that all paragliding is?
From the base of simple, peaceful hillside flying, he may want to acquire skills for higher flights. For example, advanced thermal flying. There, the pilot takes advantage of rising currents of hot air, soars through them like an eagle, and can finally decide to turn his back on the wind and launch into distance flight and cover many kilometers!