It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but as I progress through my Club Pilot Rating new experiences in paragliding begin to stand out as significant in my journey to being a qualified flyer. Up until now, every time my feet left the ground I always had that “sinking feeling”. It’s great to take off from a hill with my nylon wing, but staying up in the air for any respectable time (like more than Read more…
The Redbull X-Alps It’s something of an understatement to say that I’ve become fascinated by the iconic X-Alps hike and fly competition. So much so that I’ve managed to convince my wife to align our family holiday with the beginning of the event in Salzburg in July this year so that I can witness first-hand the start and first flights of some of the greatest competitors in the sport. Gavin McClurg’s interview with Tom Payne Read more…
Insane, crazy and utterly inspiring is the only way I can describe Fledglings. Pro Climbers and Paraglider pilots Cedar Wright and Matt Segal take us on an adventure to fly off Mexico’s highest mountain Pico De Orizaba, and as relative new comers to the sport their enthusiasm is completely infectious. Watching the video is a bit like watching your 5 year old ice skating for the first time! But the great thing about these guys Read more…
So as I progress through my paragliding “career”, I’m with hit new terms and sayings unique to the sport. Skydiving is full of them. For example: Hop-n-Pop : low altitude jump where you deploy straight out the door. Whuffo: A person who doesn’t jump out of planes. (Derived from an odd mutation of the sentence “Whuffo you wanna jump out of a plane?!”) Horny Gorilla: (Yes this is a thing!) A small group of skydivers Read more…
“Voulez vous Vol Biv avec moi?”… I said to my wife one evening as we sat in the garden sipping wine. She rolled her eyes and glanced at me with the usual look of contempt sharpened over years of me convincing her that launching off a hill with a nylon wing attached to my body was a good idea. To be honest, it’s not been too long since I found out what Vol Bivouac actually is. Read more…
Reservations about Reserves One of the truly great things about paragliding is that it is a relatively cheap and accessible way of getting into the air and experiencing flight on very basic technology. The idea of being able to hike in the hills with a backpack weighing less than 10kg and then taking flight if the weather is suitable has always held a huge attraction for me. Thinking back to my years in skydiving, where Read more…
If you’ve ever taken part in parachuting at any of the BPA Drop Zones in the UK, you’ll have a reasonable idea that it’s a fairly tightly controlled sport, at least in this country. (!) There is, in fact, an eleven point checklist that must be in place before anyone can jump from an aeroplane and this was drummed into me during my instructor training. Getting a “check out” by another experienced skydiver is just Read more…
I’m a regular listener to Judith Mole’s excellent Podcast website theparaglider.com. I find there’s a lot of useful information for flyers of all experience levels and for me it’s a great mix of stories and advice. Her interview with Tim Bishop really struck a chord with me in terms of his prior experience in aviation and how he applied this to paragliding. After 15 years in skydiving as a competitor and an instructor, I can’t Read more…
Being new to this sport, I’ve been scouring the ‘net looking for interesting blogs and podcasts on paragliding and Gavin McClurg’s website popped regularly up as an excellent resource not only for learning about flying but also reading of the amazing adventures to be had. His interview with Guy Anderson was not only a fascinating insight into the competitive side of the sport but also a valuable lesson on survival in remote territory. If you Read more…
My First Flight After many years in the sport of skydiving I’d always had a desire to fly for longer and enjoy the experience of human flight, not fall like a lead balloon and be back on the ground in a matter of minutes. No disrespect to the wonderful and thrilling sport of free fall parachuting and all its variants, but for me, there came a time when I just wanted to stay in the Read more…