What is a Paraglider?

What exactly is a Paraglider?

A paraglider may look like a parachute but is an friendly version of a hang glider. It is compact and made out of rip stop polyester, weighs about 7 to 8 kg and packs neatly into a rucksack. It is your personal flying machine.

A paraglider is an inflatable wing. As you can see in the picture it has cell openings on the leading edge which are closed at the rear. As the wing moves forward air enters from the front opening but can't get out which keeps these cells inflated. These cells are cut into the same cross sectional shape as an airplane wing and it is this "aerofoil" section that provides the lift to our wings.

The pilot is supported underneath the wing from a web of lines, each one with the strength to support about a 100 kg. These lines are then attached to risers, a strap like device that is attached to the pilots harness. The pilot holds in their hands a control handle on each side. A line runs up to the canopy from this handle and pulling the handle changes the shape of the wing. With these controls one can make the glider turn, steady the glider in turbulent air and slow the wing down for landing. There is a foot operated accelerator system that can push up the wing to its top speed which is between 45 to 50kph.

What can one do with a Paraglider? To begin with once you learn the skills you can climb up a mountain and use the paraglider to fly back down again. Ridge soaring is the most common form of paragliding. When the wind blows directly onto a ridge or hill, the air is diverted over the top creating a "wave" of lift. We can soar this "wave" much like a surfer to stay airborne for hours. After your flight you simply fly out of the wave and glide down to land at the base.

In the right conditions and after understanding the sport one can often fly for about 2 to 3 hours hours in the air. Some of our students have flown for over an hour in their training flights itself.

The ultimate aim for a lot of pilots is to fly cross country using rising thermals of hot air to climb to "cloud base" and cover great distances over land. The current world record is over 400km. Thermalling is flying around in circles into the rising air currents to stay in the areas of best lift exactly the same way as the birds like eagles and kites.

Paraglider can be flown any time of the year as long as the weather is good. We don't fly in rain and need a maximum wind speed on the hill of around 20mph for training. One can also fly in no wind condition from a hill by simply running and inflating the wing for take off, once airborne the glider will glide down to the landing area. The alternative is to use our winch to get lifted up from the ground level - a preferred method to make a beginning.