Always fancied it and had a go several years ago on a one day intro – great fun but couldn’t take it further at the time.

Big birthday approaching and my lovely wife has asked what I would like….

Thinking of a course that gets me up to CP which takes 10 days to 2 weeks but can be spread over a few months

Questions to those that do this already:

Once I’m qualified, is it realistic to buy some gear (from a checked reputable source obvs, not ebay!) and go flying on the downs as long as weather is right (under 10mph wind I understand) on my own?

Can you fly throughout the year?

How long (how many flying hours) before I can ‘spread my wings’ so to speak and fly in more interesting areas like alps etc?

Can i get a checked chute and harness in good condition for under £1500?

Anything else glaring that I’m missing?

I’m going to just put this here, for you to consider before you commit to giving it a go.

One of my best mates has just come out of hospital having been repatriated from Les Arcs where he spent 3mths in ITU and 3mths in ITU here.

He’s a very experienced Paraglider and Stunt Paragliding instructor (12yrs) He learned his craft from very experienced paragliders, took to the skies and loved every minute of his flying. I’ve got reams of photos of him in the air, pulling stunts and in everyone of them he’s smiling and excited.

He was teaching at the time, a small number of students, the basics of take off and land.. simple run/hop/jump/hop/land stuff when a gust took him 30mtrs into the air and his wing collapsed and he plummeted head first into the ground. He’s lucky to be alive, broke numerous vertebrae, both knees smashed, shoulder smashed and his left hand has collapsed.. he punctured his left lung badly. During hospital he lost 6stone in weight, he’s now 9stone.

To say “he’s lucky” is an understatement.

He loved his sport, he loved his mates and his groups that he used to take but now he’s selling all his gear and on the long road to recovery.

He hasn’t fallen out of love with paragliding, but his comment last week was “I think I’ve used up all my luck this time”

I’m going to say, don’t skimp on the cost of gear nor the tuition nor any of the instructors. Buy the best that you can and I hope you enjoy every minute of the experience.

Sorry to put a downer on your thread, I’m simply passing on that it’s a very dangerous sport and skimping costs on any aspect of it is fraught with your own danger.

Feel free to delete this mods if I’ve overstepped the mark.

I guess its not as popular a sport as I thought.

As safe as driving according to most stats. Which isn’t that safe but then we all know someone who has come to grief riding bikes and we still do that.

I’d recommend you read “Touching Cloudbase” if you’re thinking of geeting into Paragliding. The author conveniently leaves “what can go wrong” to the last chapter though… :-). I remember he did make the point that launching from the downs and landing again can be quite dangerous due to confusion over your ground speed as a mix of air speed and wind speed. It is actually generally safer to launch from a high spot (i.e. an Alp) and descend to the valley bottom.

Out of both the people involved in paragliding I knew, one died and the other suffered life changing injuries that could have been worse. The only base jumper I worked with spent a year off work after a mishap on Table Mountain. Out of the handful of colleagues who built or owned aircraft/helicopters all of them suffered accidents of varying magnitudes.

I’m sure there’s plenty of people around who’ve been flying paragliders for years unscathed. But it’s not without its risks.

Sort of. I did a week long course a few years ago in the Pyrenees to get the basics. It was awesome, but I considered how often I would actually be able to get the right conditions coinciding with a day off work in Scotland and didn’t pursue it further at the time.

That said, I bought a second hand wing last year and I’ve been practicing my ground handling with a view to further training next year. Even if I can’t do it often, it’s so much fun I can’t just ignore it!

Edit: yes, it’s also probably a bit more dangerous than some other sports. We’ve got a new guy starting at my work tomorrow who is apparently just returning to work having broken his back paragliding.

I did a course many years ago to get my CP. I haven’t used it since. At the time there were no rules (beyond the ANO) on where you could fly but pilots flying outside of a club environment were considered a bit dodgy, and clubs will have experience of the local conditions. The CAA has cracked down on unpowered flight since then so things may have changed.

It’s a very frustrating activity, especially as a beginner, because you’re hugely weather limited, more so probably even than ballooning. You need to be fit when learning because you do a lot of carrying kit up to the top of a hill.

All sport aviation is dangerous, and you have to fiddle the figures to make commercial aviation look safe, but then so is mountain biking.

At the time there was a good market in lightly used second hand beginner kit, but the more advanced kit tended to be old and, because canopies were becoming more forgiving and harnesses more stable, less safe. Again the kit has almost certainly moved on.

Probably not any on at this time of year but theres some great events which would be a good place to get started. I went to Buttermere Bash at Easter with a friend who is into paramotoring. Full of friendly folk.

When I was in hospital with my busted spine, the only young folk were a cyclist (me – did it vs a car) a guy mid 40’s who slipped running down stairs at home, and a lady para glider who crashed into a stone wall. 3 younger folk out of 16.

See could happen anywhere !! I’m scared of heights, so no ta.

The rest were either old or some terribly sad cancer cases (60’s).

Any sport is a risk, just a little more risky to more ‘air’ you get.

I did a tandem flight last year in Canada. I was completely underwhelmed by the experience. Yes it was exhilarating running off the hill, but once up there it was not an adrenaline sport like I thought it would be (could well be very different once you have control yourself)

I asked the guy to do a few tricks, at which point my stomach told that paragliding was never going to be for me

No direct experience but I do know a couple of guys who were into it. Very weather/location limited. Also one of them got out of it after witnessing a series of very close calls at a flying competition. Said he got out before his luck ran out.

Not for me.

My mate took some leassons with some instructor that was a top tier competitor.

He went to do some more the next year but found that instructor had killed himself in a paragliding accident.

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/on-line-wills-are-they-sufficient/

i looked into it many years ago. The general comment (i cant spell concensios) was that its not worthwhile in the uk. Youll spend all summer waiting for a couple of days where you can safely fly.

Sorry but no…

I dabbled in hang gliding when at uni. I say dabbled, what I mean is I drove 1.5hrs into the Peak district, sat on the top of a hill waiting for the conditions to be just right, then after 5 hours went home. Over the period of 2 years I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I got airbourne.

The weather window is very narrow. This often leads to people taking off in marginal conditions which ultimately leads to accidents. My instructor used to say “You’re better being on the ground wishing you were flying rather than flying wishing you were on the ground”. But then rattled off several situations where he had found himself in a situation where he was flying in conditions that were dangerous and he struggled to get back on the ground safely, so on that basis I eventually called it quits. Way Way too much risk for way to little gain.

Paragliding has its pro’s and con’s relative to hang gliding. People think its safer because it looks a bit like a parachute so if it goes wrong you just parachute down to the ground, but the flexible wing introduces a whole load of new potential problems and things that need to be thought about.

I’ve been paragliding since 1987 (so that makes it 32 years) so I reckon I know a little about it.

It can be a very frustrating sport. Getting your CP (Club Pilot) qualification, which means you can be let loose to join a local club can take anything from a few weeks to a couple of years depending on weather conditions. It can be either too windy, no wind at all or perfect wind but in the wrong direction etc etc. Most pilots survive about 5 years in the sport before giving up due to being frustrated by the weather, family commitments, etc.

If you want to do it, find a good BHPA school and have a chat with them. Maybe just go along and watch. Learn on school kit, no point in trashing your own at this stage (at least until doing CP). Trust your school to recommend the right kit (they will probably have second hand stuff to buy). Don’t be tempted to buy off ebay as there is a lot of tat out there (sometimes being sold by people who gave up years ago and kept it ‘just in case’ not realising that things have moved on). Do not be tempted to move up to the next classification of glider (a beginner wing these days (EN-A, or low EN-B) is perfectly capable of doing early cross country flights on and it’s always best to fly a wing you’re 100% confident on, rather than being a petrified blob under a bag of washing).
Don’t fly in marginal conditions, it’s always best to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, rather than the other way round.
Learn to ground handle properly, it’s embarrassing (and painful) to be dragged through brambles at 20mph (trust me on this one, I’ve got the scars to prove it).
Things that can kill you – overconfidence, water landings (avoid!), poor assessment of site and weather conditions, mid-air collisions. It is very rare to have equipment failures these days.

Budget should be roughly £2000-£2500 for decent second hand kit (wing, harness, reserve chute, basic vario)

I think that covers most of it !

To reiterate bikebouy

My Father in law has been paragliding most of his adult life, hes 56. November last year he was on his last take off of the night, lovely sun set runs. On his last winch, the cable snapped, no time to deploy the parachute and plummeted to the floor, landed arse first, police estimated he fell from around 50-60m. Hes only just come out of hospital recently and learned to walk again. Broke both ankles, back in 6-7 places, broke ALL his ribs, punctured lungs (both), ruptured heart valves, descended and bruised all his internal organs. Doctors said he should not have survived.

He now has a titanium rods holding his ankles together and his spine.

Obvs worse case scenario but he’s hearing more and more incidents like this happen.

Good Luck.

I’d always looked at paragliders local to me and idly thought “one day…”

After reading this I’m thinking “screw that!”. Was lucky to be able to walk again after a mountain bike crash last year, just not worth the risk IMO.

What about proper gliders, that’s got to be safer?

My hometown, millau in France, used to be a huge spot for paragliding. Mountains all around so easy to take off in different wind directions.
Nowadays 95 % of people flying use parasailing, much easier and safer I guess.
In the summer there are 100 plus in the sky. And only one serious accident.

I guess its not as popular a sport as I thought.

Sure looks like it…

I learned to paraglide several years ago near Manali, in the Himalayas. It was totally exhilarating. I loved it. Unfortunately, my girlfriend crashed on takeoff and broke her back which required complicated surgery and the insertion of a titanium rod.

Fast forward several years and we went to a party hosted by my (now) wife’s boss. Turned out her husband was a mad keen paraglider. He spent most of the evening showing me GPS tracks of flights and regaling me with paragliding stories. I thought – great! Here’s a good contact to help me get back into paragliding.

A few months later I asked my wife for their contact details and she said – oh! Her husband had a terrible paragliding accident, he’s been in hospital for two months.

So it’s a great sport but if accidents happen they’re gonna be bad. Falling out of the sky is never going to end well. Coupled with the unsettled weather we suffer in the UK that would frustrate the hell out of me I decided to give it a miss.

Hmmm

To be honest its the weather frustration thats putting me off rather than all the tales of instant death. I rang up my local school which is pretty highly regarded and they said they flew 106/365 days last year. last year was pretty good weather if I remember and I assume many of those days were weekdays in the summer…..not especially convenient for me. On the other hand the flying site is only 10 mins from my house so easy to get a quick couple of hours in before work etc

last year was pretty good weather if I remember

Don’t forget, their idea of good weather might not be the same as yours.

Like Kenneth above I did a week in the Pyrenees and loved it but the unpredictable british weather made me realise that I was far better off sticking with the MTB which I can ride whatever the weather rather than sitting waiting for just the right conditions.

The importance of the weather changes a bit if the launch site is 10 mins away. You can sit at home, look out of the window and decide to fly. Equally if it’s unsuitable you just go home. So you aren’t sat on a hill all day and it’s not like a sailplane club where you have to man kit for other members.

Do you work 9 to 5? If so I’d have expected before work unlikely to be suitable for prolonged flight (but I’m not sure what a modern paraglider will stay up in).

This thread sounds like someone who’s never ridden a bike before saying they like the look of 50ft gap jumps and should they give it a try?
I quite fancied paragliding before reading this.
Not any more.

Not sure that’s true. Only a handful of people have the skill to make 50ft gap jumps no matter how much training given. Pretty much anyone can paraglide after a short course.

My work is fairly flexible and when cycling past the launch sites over the summer on way to work it looks like pilots start flying around 7am so could fly and be in work by 10 which would be fine. But only in high summer.

Not sure I really want to drop 4k on a course and gear only to use it 1 or 2 days a month…

Was hiking the Coledale circuit in the Lakes earlier this year on a glorious day – saw a paraglider take off and soar above the ridge, till he was above Grizedale pike then headed clear across to Catbells way (actually thought does he need to come back to where he started, or has he arranged some sort of transit?). Looked like the most awesome thing ever, so impressive. But perhaps that was his one boss day all year.

The progression seems a bit spikey like – it’s not like I’ve done the blue, so now I’ll try the red. Or I’ve dropped two foot, think I’m ready for four. Just totally different elements of control at work.

Friend of mine learnt in Australia when he was out there for 6 months, was flying most days. He came back to the uk flew a few times and sold his kit as the weather too often not good flying conditions.

Out of the handful of colleagues who built or owned aircraft/helicopters all of them suffered accidents of varying magnitudes.

Do you hang out with world war 2 carrier pilots or something? That’s not normal for light aviation.

To the OP, I’d hazard a guess that glider pilots die less than paragliders – take up that instead, it’s good fun. Then maybe move onto light aircraft – the best (and by that I mean blows mountain biking away) day I’ve ever had was a flight in a T-6 Harvard. It’s like doing coke, heroin and ecstasy whilst smashing back a 300 quid bottle of bourbon at the same time as **** Jennifer Lawrence.

I watched a couple of guys launch off the dunes on Saunton Sands beach once. They literally walked off a 15ft dune and just circled gaining height in the breeze/thermals. That was it…. they didn’t come down for hours. It did look like an amazing sport for the brave.

I dabbled with hang gliding at uni but was frustrated by the lack of air time I got due to weather. Paragliding is a bit more forgiving from what I understand, but not much. Would be different if you were located very close to decent places you could take off from rather than trekking 1.5hrs into the Peak District to sit on the top of a hill waiting for that breeze that is not too weak nor too strong, that the wind is coming from the right direction and the temperature is right so its not sinking (can’t remember the technical term) and after 4 or 5 hrs calling it a day. Still, at least it kept me out of the Student Union bar.

However It’s one of those sports that relies on good decision making. When things go wrong you have very little time and very little opportunity to make the right decision, and if you get it wrong the time constraints and consequences multiply exponentially to make the next decision even more critical. So it’s perfectly safe until you make a dodgy decision and then you spiral down that funnel of doom where the stakes get raised very quickly, and that is why very experienced pilots die routinely. It’s definitely not a sport for risk takers…you need to have a cool head and make considered and sensible risk based decisions 100% of the time and stick to them.

I personally wouldn’t let that put me off doing it if I were so inspired – it looks like an amazing sport. Buy you need to be on your A-game all the time.

I did a fly in a day thing with the local school a couple of years ago and loved it. I was gathering up my wing and trying as best I could to run back up the hill to get as many runs in as possible. I doubt i was ever more than 50 ft from the ground  but it was great fun and an experience I’d recommend to anyone. At the time I thought if I had the time I’d like to do a full course but the practicalities and the fact that it has the potential to go horribly wrong put me off. I can mince down any slope on my mountain bike and mitigate the effects of gravity with my brakes, that’s not so easy mid air.

Whats the differnce between paragliding and parasailing?

I have some acquaintances who jump of mountains attached to kites – dunno if its gliding or sailing

Looks utterly fantastic and terrifying at the same time. I guess they are very skilled as they tend to climb mountains the fly down again. NO accidents reported by them

parasailing = towed by boat wearing a parachute

Ta.