Hi all

I've recently relocated to Cape Town and I'm hoping the community on here can give me some advice. I'm currently on the look for areas were one can practice some ground handling techniques (Paragliding) - Does anyone know of any open public fields were I would be able to practice?

Thanks in advance

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to paragliding - I have been in a Swiss paragliding school for the past year. In the beginning, I struggled HARD with my fear of heights, but my fascination for the sport carried me through it. I was a lot slower than many other beginners and am still very proud of myself for actually fighting my fears surrounding paragliding and making it through the program.

However, I have since taken the practical exam in Switzerland twice and failed both times. This is obviously extremely discouraging. I do have to add that it was really close both times - in the first exam, I completed everything perfectly, but one of the required flight figures ("double circle") was too slow in both tries. In the second try, I only missed the maximum time span by half a second.

For the second exam, I practiced the flight figures a lot and completed them well. However, I messed up the landing twice - the first time, I was about a footwidth outside of the circle; the second time, I - apparently - touched the grass with my protector.

Both times I made sure to get further feedback from the examining experts and they assured me that I wasn't flying unsafely. In my second exam, the expert told me that some other candidates "just got lucky" and landed inside the landing space and even though I appeared to be a better pilot than them, there was nothing he could do about the regulations. This, of course, I understand.

However, I am terrible in exam situations and really struggle with my fear of failure now. From the very beginning of practicing this sport, my head has been my biggest problem (and reflecting on the exams, it was the same for these situations). I am so afraid of taking the practical exam again. Whenever I practice, I usually have no problems - my takeoffs, the flight figures and most landings turn out quite well. But the exam situation is really getting the best of me, especially now, after failing twice.

I'm seriously considering whether I should try again at all :( Has anyone here made similar experiences and can maybe give me some advice on overcoming this? Thanks in advance and have a good weekend!

Basically title; wondering what are the pros and cons as I heard different opinions about it, main theories being that holding only the centrals helps woth strong wind, while with lower wind both are recommended.

https://youtu.be/wQfcX1m1gDw?si=ZP5UrD_8AQh3Bnd3

Heading to Colombia in January 2025 with 3 buds. Our plan is to have non guide, no car and no hotel reservations pretty much fly, land, find a place to stay get up and do it all over again. So my question is what would be 3 or 4 sites you would fly that we could go xc and be able to get to another site the next morning with not to much trouble that may have lodging and transportation to the next flying site. I know tall order but why not go nomad. Thanks.

I'm a newcomer to paragliding (getting interested in taking my first course) I come from a background in General Aviation (private pilot) where I'm used to feeling a sense of security by realizing that a big percentage of my safety and risk management depends on me (good preflight, don't do stupid manoeuvres, fly in good weather etc.) and then the chance of something external going wrong (e.g. engine failure) is minimal.

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When looking into paragliding, it scares me at first to learn of the "collapsable" nature of the wing, and I'm curious to learn how dangerous these are, how many of them are pilot error vs how many happen for external causes (you flew into this invisible current and your wing collapsed) kind of situations.

Also, what is the percentage of collapses that are unrecoverable?

TLDR: Are collapses as dangerous as they sound and how often do they happen out of your control?
How much of your safety is in your hands?

Do you think listening to music while flying is a good idea? I am generaly of the opinion that having headphones on while driving, riding a bike etc. doesn't add significant amount of risk to the aktivity and it would seem like in paragliding it's the same, or even safer to do so (than while driving). I'm curious what do people think about it, and maybe you could share which headphones do you use and how ok/bad is the wind noise with them.

Hi! I am Norwegian pilot who will be spending a week or so in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the beginning of June (Never been there before). I was wondering if there are any locals or other pilots I could link up with?🪂🤘

Alright, I'm looking for a pod harness with a relatively small packing volume for travelling. I found the Ozium 2 and it's price and packing volume is very attractive. Does anyone have any other suggestions that might be better?

Thank you

Hey folks, I am a new P2 living in the US, and there is a ~200m hike and fly launch about 20 minutes from my house. When I am seeing people with 10s to 100s of hours it is staggering because I gotta hike 20 minutes for 3-5 minutes of airtime. I am loving it and having a blast (except for the spring weather angst), but I just don't see how im going to ever put together much airtime where I am at.
My question is, should I chill, kite, fly when I can and trust that I will start figuring out soaring and thermals when they are available and start to get more air time that way, Or should I be looking ahead to try and figure out more sites (possibly drive up sites) nearby, Or should I focus on figuring out some road trips (point of rocks or the coast) where I can do some ridge soaring?

I am thinking SIV late summer and hopefully latin America thermal clinic this winter.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Edit: There's a few guys here, they have been pretty great; I would say I have a mentor of sorts. They are just on the next level where I am hoping to get eventually.

So I've been noticing from the forecast that the days when thermals are good, that's when the winds are super strong (20-40kts). I live in texas flatlands and for HG, we dont fly when it's higher than 15.

Two questions that I'd like to hear your opinions on:

1. What are usually your wind speed limitations for flying? Especially interested in HG, but love to hear about PG as well

2. Do you feel my observations about thermals are accurate? I know that thermals happen during unstable environment (where there is more vertical movement in the air. Does it also increase wind speeds? If that is the case then it really sucks for us (bcz you gotta find a day when there is low wind speeds but also good thermals)

I'm a relatively new pilot so maybe rookie questions, but thanks in advance for responding!!

Has anyone tried to spot thermals using a thermal imaging device? Something by FLIR maybe? I was just thinking about the different devices we use for tracking flights, varios, weather prediction, and communication (radios). Does the technology exist to 'see' hot air? I was thinking about a device I used to use in my corporate engineering days that could see heat differentials. (In that case I was looking at mechanical equipment)

I was just daydreaming thinking about what technology would make cross country flying a little easier...

At the moment when I’m looking at speedflying lines or hike and fly lines one of the things I’ll work out is the glide ratio needed between my chosen launch and landing. It gives me a good idea of how much exploring I can do while flying (totally weather dependant obviously and in this I assume nil-wind). At the moment I find the difference in height on Fat map and then the horizontal distance on Google using the measure distance tool.

Is there an app or webpage which gives me this info by just selecting two points on a map? Sounds incredibly lazy but it would be nice to not have to go into the calculator and unit converter while I’m doing this..

Cheers!

Hi, i wonder if there is some good spot ( soaring or xc) near San Francisco and Monterey. Is the french BP enough to fly legaly in the US?

Hey everyone! Im currently in the middle of getting my P2 (i wont be finishing up till September since im a wildland firefighter and had to move for work). I was hoping to save up some money this season to go on a trip down somewhere warm in December, more specifically somewhere where I would be able to get some flights in. Does anyone have any recommendations on areas with lots of easier flights for me, I dont think I would feel safe doing something super hard in a foreign country. I was looking to go somewhere in Europe or South America but I am open to any suggestions. Thanks yall!

Hi everyone,

Recently had a discovery hang gliding flight.

Almost immediately as we got up after aerotow I started getting runny nose during my flight. I have some pollen allergies. Have any of you dealt with this? What do you guys do?

I stopped taking nasal sprays (flonase) a while ago as I didnt feel the need to take it but may have to start again

I thought my winter clothing game was strong... until today.

Today I went flying on the swiss alps and I had to land after 60km on a 150+ potential km day simply because I felt like I was freezing to death. I'm used to flying in cold weather, but today was simply too much to handle for me.

For reference: today we had 0° at 1500m and I mostly flew between 2600-3100m so I guesstimate I've been exposed to -10/-15°C most of the time.

The biggest issues I had today were:

• frozen balaklava, to the point it got all rigid and stuck to my beard
• frozen camel bag tube
• frozen pee tube

Regarding the camel bag tube I found they sell some insulation I can apply, so I will go for it, but I'm looking for suggestions regarding an effective way to keep my face warm and a way to pee in below zero degrees situations...

In november 2022 I bought second hand gear from my school.
Now I have decided to stop with flying, what would be a reasonable price to sell it?
I am located in the Netherlands.

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https://preview.redd.it/bjx0hy6ablwc1.jpg?width=797&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59ec60d133e5a241854a739608debafb80059140

Had a nice glass-off flight at Lookout this evening, and I wanted to share a shot from it. 🦅

I’m curious if anyone here knows of some flying sites in Japan that work in early June!? Always looking for XC but I’ll take what I can get. I’m planning a trip for work and want to make sure to fit some PG in on the company’s dime:)

Thanx