Why you should try paragliding

Few sports share the freedom in 3 dimensions that a paraglider does. A paraglider pilot is at one with his or her wing, exposed to nature and her elements. Paragliding is complete freedom in the air, soaring like a bird. It is an individual sport in the air (except tandem of course), but on the ground pilots enjoy a close common bond which bridges cultures and language.Age is no barrier to this great sport. Guys and Girls can fly from age 16 to over 80 years. Only 0.001% of the population fly paragliders, what makes them do it? A strong thrist for adventure and a taste for adrenalin.You may have considered other forms of light aviation, but most have drawbacks due to portability, storage and expense. Paragliders have many advantages, most notably cost and size, with a complete set of modern equipment fitting into a medium backpack.

Paragliding can only be done in fine weather, as rain adversely affects the wing. You can paraglide pretty much anywhere in the world, in France and Germany alone there over 60,000 paragliding pilots all enjoying the feeling of free flight, whether its smooth coastal soaring, thermalling in the Alps alongside birds of prey or acrobatic flying. Paragliding involved one of the lowest investments for equipment of all aviation sports, adding to its growing popularity. From Europe to Nepal, from Israel to Thailand, Bali to Hawaii, Australia to Brazil, Canada to Chile. I cant think of anything I would rather do on a fine sunny day. The world takes on a different feel from the air, the feeling of freedom is indescribable.

And when you have flown enough, touch down, pack your equipment into its backpack and hitch-hike home, or call your retrieval team.Over the last few years paragliders have improved in safety and performance. Paraglider flights have been made of over 500km All without the use of mechanical propultion. Thermic activity is harnessed by paragliders to gain altitude. Once sufficient altitude is gained, we glide off searching for another free ride to the clouds.The wings are extensively tested to ensure safety.

Making paragliding safer for all. Paragliding organisations around the globe govern the training and licencing of pilots. A great way to get a feel for the sport is to take part in an introductory flying day. If its something that you enjoy, you'll need to do licence training and then youre off. Some new pilots have commented that this is the best thing they have ever done in their lives! Go on, have a go. For more details, goto http://www.LetsGoParaglide.co.za

Ground handling - Practice Practice Practice

Here is one of the best and easiest ways to improve your flying: Ground handling. It is fair to say that most of the top pilots in the world have very good ground handling skills; this is not because they are gifted or super humans, it is down to practice. By practicing you improve your reactions and your understanding of the wing. Find a nice open space or the landing field and spend an hour or two just kiting and practicing both the forward and reverse launch techniques. Once you've cracked the basics don't be shy, experiment, play and learn how to recover your wing from all kinds of situations.
Mike Kung is probably the best ground handler in the world, he has taken control to another realm and I can tell you it is amazing to watch Mike as he buzzes around the launch area touching down where he chooses. His understanding of what to pull, how much and when is impeccable. This was all mastered with continual practicing.
There is lots of advice I could try to give but I think the best and most important is to be SMOOTH. It is very simple to understand, if your inputs (risers, brakes and harness) to the glider are smooth and progressive the wing will react in the same way, smooth and predictably. If however you are rough with your inputs, the wing will be much more difficult to control and react unpredictably.
Think of the wing purely as an extension of your body, don't be afraid to move around, forward and back, side to side to continually centre yourself under the centre of the wing. Kiting your wing on the ground is much harder than flying it through the air! So therefore it makes sense to practice, as it will help all aspects of your flying. By doing this regularly you will soon be arriving on take off confident you are in full control and will pull off a perfect launch. A feeling of confidence is the best way to start every flight as it means the rest of the flight is going to be good.
In the air your new learned skills will help you be more sensitive with the controls and more aware of the wings movements. This will make it easier to relax, when you are relaxed and confident the right decisions usually follow, which all adds up to more enjoyment and a better safer pilot. This does mean that you should practice and practice regularly until it becomes second nature, once will help a little but you will be amazed what ten times will do, transformation.
I personally enjoy kiting wings and being involved with design and testing we do quite a lot of it, I certainly know it helps my flying a lot.
So give it a go and don't get frustrated if you are struggling, just keep going at it until it clicks.
Good luck and successful ground handling.