Tiggs

in my search for a hobby that my wife can do as well, she's not been to keen on bike racing, motorcross,etc , i thought i'd try jumping of a hill with a parachute.

anyone done it and know of a good school in the south, also is it fun/rubbish?

i saw some people doing it yesterday (while i was on a bike enduro!) and thought it looked prretty cool.

tiggs

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, its great. I did my "student pilot" license a few years ago. Nothing to do with being a student, it is just the first step to getting qualified. The course was a couple of hundred quid as far as I can remember and involved about 4 days instruction. One thing is that it is very weather dependent so you have to be prepared to ****** days when you can and accept last minute cancellations. To begin with you have to learn a bit of theory, then master launching the thing - a bit like flying a big kite. Then you get to run of the top of some hills. To begin with you end up gliding down to the bottom staying just a few feet above the ground and repeating many times. This is the hard work as you have to keep lugging the canopy back up to the top. By the end I could dabble in gliding and got to stay up quite high - really good fun. It is suprisinly relaxing, not really an adrenaline rush sort of a thing. The next stage would have been another course of similar cost/duration which qualified you to buy your own paraglider and join a club - sadly this is still on my list of things to get around to. Legally I don't think there is anything to stop you going out and doing it by yourself but lots of people get hurt or killed so stick to a good school then join a club. There is loads of info. at the BHPA (British Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association) You will be able to find a nearby school from here. I would say go for somewhere you enjoy looking at because the views from up in the air are magnificent, I was in the Peak District.

ianlove

your main problemn could be that you get the bug! With paragliding it's very easy to get airborn and have some fun, you just might not be able to give it up and even girlies do it. Check out a local club in your area and contact them so that you can go along one day.

Ian

Tiggs

thanks guys,

i've now booked with the local school for a two day induction!

tiggs

NM

Tell us all how it goes, a mate and I have been thinking about it for ages.

Cheers

Neal

NM

Preflight verbal training. practice this ten times b4 aech training session to sound like a pro.

Weeeeeeee, Wohoo

Oh Oh Oh ****

AA
A
A
A
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R

SPLAT !

Neal

Tiggs

neal,

very constructive, thanks

tiggs

NM

Hey Tiggs

Thanks mate. Your thread has got me off my ****. I have started searching for a local school for me and a mate to throw ourselves off a perfectly good hill strapped to a bit of nylon. I will keep you informed of our progress. We have been practicing our preflight vocal training over a few beers. Problem is its begining to worrying the wife a bit and shes not all that keen on me doing it.

See you in the skys soon.

Neal

jon hill

Used to be well into paragliding, you really have to have patience though as you'll spend days sitting on a hillside waiting for a decent wind.

checkout

Tiggs

jon,

why have you stopped?

tiggs

Stevie

Like BoostII I used to do it, up until 1997. It was great fun but I had to stop doing it.

At any of the shows the %age of people in wheelchairs was frightening. In each month's "Skywings" magazine there was always a report on a fatality and some other unpleasantness!! And then the one that took the biscuit.

Up until this time, I just thought in control of your own destiny etc.......

A chap in Surrey caught a thermal as a storm was developing. The clouds were coming in and he was climbing and reached 4000 feet or so and he wanted to be on the ground and out of the storm. He cleared the thermal and was able to start his descent. All of sudden, there is a bang and his wing shakes violently. This cannot be pleasant at a few thousand feet!! His wing is being attacked by a bloody big buzzard. Said bird keeps on swooping at him and nibbling his wing. The guy was lucky and got away with it but I thought that one variable too many.

I started gliding after this and that was a lot more fun.

This is not supposed to be a horror story, just my reasons behind stopping. At the time it was bloody fantastic.

BTW, my son was born in August 1998 and his birth was VERY relevant in my decision to stop.

Tiggs

with 4 days to go to my first lesson thats a marvelous story

think i`ll not tell the wife about birds of prey at 4000 feet.

tiggs (now more nervous than before!)

Stephen Read

Tiggs,

Wish me luck too as I'm also starting a 4 day course tomorrow, out here in Switzerland!

The UK seems to be into it more than I had expected but out here they are mad for it.

I have been to places where you can see upwards of 50 circling in the sky at once (Annecy, France).

I have started flicking through a book which I got via Amazon.com by an English bloke called Nuttall and it's probably worth a look. "Paragliding - the complete guide".

The guy says that the design of the equipment has improved so much over the years that contemporary gear is so much better than what they used to use, that it has transformed the sport but there are still risk as with (almost) anything in life that give you a buzz.

I believe that you can now buy something called an 'air-bag' which looks like a giant sit-in rucksac that is attached to your harness which would protect your back (somewhat) if you were unlucky enough to come down a bit quickly.

You can have a tandem ride to see if you like it first (I haven't bothered yet) but I believe the basic course involves lot of running around in a flat and then slightly sloping field to get the hang of inflating the damm thing before you take to the air for progressively longer flights.

Out here you need to do 40 flights at least 5 locations and pass a 100 questions multiple-guess questionaire to get your licence.

Cheers,

Nb. A new set-up costs about the same as a PPP!


[This message has been edited by Stephen Read (edited 28 July 2001).]

Tiggs

stephen,

thanks for the book tip- ive just ordered it.

let me know how you get on- i drove by the site in brighton that the club im going with use for training- all the hills were huge and steep! but the few that were flying looked superb, despite tails of mad birds im looking forward to it!

Tiggs

ianlove

well I have never been attacked by a bird in 20 years flying hang gliders. Had an eagle or two cruise round me in a circle and flown with vultures and of course buzzards are regulars on the hills round here. Very cool.

jon hill

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Tiggs:
<B>well this all sounds very positive

hopefully it cant be any more dangerous than motor biking?

[/quote]

same ball-park i reckon (been riding bikes for years). Same kind of problems - new folk have little spills, then later get a bit of confidence and get out of their depth, etc, etc.

I wouldnt like to just ride my bike twice a year - getting on when you're rusty is never fun. Same deal (IMO) for pg'ing - you've got to keep on top of it.

But - you have to try it yourself rather than listen to all the horror stories

jon

Tiggs

well ive got through years of track days and off road enduros with nothing major so hopefully i can do the same with pg'ing!

tiggs

jon hill

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Tiggs:
<B>jon,

why have you stopped?

tiggs[/quote]

I had a good year or two, where I got a fair amount of flying in. Then I had a crap year - I spent maybe every second weekend driving out of london down to the south coast to sit on a hillside but i maybe got an hours flying that year. Just unbelievabley unlucky. My problem then was that I was so out of practise that I didnt feel safe.

So i booked up a week in granada with some guy who a pwc champion or something - 7 days, best time of year, etc, etc. There were four of us out for the week and I got the most flying - a single 500' zero wind, top to bottom. Absolute sh1t3. I've never had such a bad time in my life.

After that I tried once more to get into it with a few days on the isle of wight - again the weather was just bollox, so I spent three days criss-crossing an island looking for the right conditions.

After that i jacked it in, i just dont have the patience to deal with the waiting. Also, there are a bunch of other things i like doing - motorbikes,, sailing, etc, etc. Paragliding just tok up too much time for not enough reward & its (imo) a really really good way of making sure you dont walk again if you dont repect it. Not something you can comfortably do twice a year, like skiing or yachting.

Still, when it comes together it really is the dogs danglies.

Jon


[This message has been edited by jon hill (edited 30 July 2001).]

Luke

Spent my Birthday lasy year Paragliding in Turkey. Great fun. 3.days later Instructor and passenger killed. Same instuctor that flew with my Girlfriend. Gliding that's the daddy!!!

Luke

Spent my Birthday lasy year Paragliding in Turkey. Great fun. 3.days later Instructor and passenger killed. Same instuctor that flew with my Girlfriend. Gliding that's the daddy!!!

Nimbus

Tiggs,

Try gliding instead. Much safer

Not been attacked by any birds (gliders are a bit more of challenge for them), but shared a thermal with a seagull on my second ever solo flight. Excellent


Stevie,

Where do you fly from now?

<B>N</B><I>i</I><B>m</B><I>B</I><B>u<I>S</B></I>
(Glider Pilot and loving it )

Tiggs

well this all sounds very positive

hopefully it cant be any more dangerous than motor biking?

tiggs (sort of looking forward to 1st lesson

ps- gliders dont get me excited im affraid.

Stephen Read

Tiggs,

Just back from 4 days training in Champoussin, in the Swiss Alps and it was a blast!

Conditions were near perfect so learning was accelerated.

Day 1: Spent the day in a field, walking back up the slope after each 30 second flight, which could be up to 100m or more in length, but never more than 5m off the ground. Nice'n'safe.

Day 2: 4 flights of 3 or so minutes from an altitude of 2-300m above the landing zone. Now you are talking!

Day 3: 3 flights from 4-500m above the landing zone. Feeling pretty good. Hard to wipe smile of face!

Day 4: Culminated in an 11 minute flight from 2,100m down to 800m. Unbelieveable!

We were always solo but receveing instructions from the gound via radio. You feel a bit like the ballast in a giant remote controlled aircraft as the instructor guides you down.

Our instructor had 20 years experience and was very careful but I was surprised at the rate of progress we were allowed to make. He told us that he had soared for over 6hrs continously before near the Dents du Midi.

To be honest I was close to touching cloth on that last flight when I found myself 1,000m above mother earth with less than an hours total time beneath the wing.

When I got back in the Scoob I remembered what a decent seat felt like as the harness I was using was little more than a childs swing seat. I think I'll go for one of the more supportive ones the next time!

I am going back on Saturday, weather permitting, for my 5th day. So far I'd say that there is a lot more to is than meets the eye and it would take a long time to pass the 40 'grand-vols' needed to get you licence. You have to fly undersupervison, complete certain tasks and then land within 30m of the target zone to pass each flight.

We were told that you could easily take 60 flights to pass 40 and that means a lot of weekends if you only manage 4/5 a day.

PS. I had a manic flight as a passenger in a microlight near Insch, Aberdeenshire once. That was something else man! Chasing rabbits down the hilside and between the trees in forest tracks! Soaring in a paraglider close to mountains would be great but it's always nice to have a motor to get you out of trouble!

Tiggs

stephen,

something of a contrast to my day then...

saw the weather looked iffy so i called the school yesterday to conf. it was still ok, they said it would be unless i heard otherwise.

waited all evening expecting a call as the forecast was poor, didnt get one so this morning me and the wife left for the coast.

i had a feeling it was going to go bad as the weather looked like rain but the schools policy was that if they dont call then its on and if you just dont show you lose your money.

drove the 70miles there via morning rush hour traffic, when we got 5 mins from the school i called for directions (they were just opening up, 9am) only to be told they had cancelled all lessons and thought they had called everyone last night.

opps sorry, we must have missed you they said!!!!!!!!!!!

not a happy man and bearing in mind i had to pursuade my wife to ggo in the first place she is an even unhappier bod.

bad day

tiggs

Tiggs

cheers jon

wouldnt have minded if they had called the day before, was pi55ed at driving down there only to be told they'd called everyone but me.

mother nature i can deal with- incompetent, unproffesional, rude, thoughtless, forgetfull idiots i can't.

tiggs

ps-dingys here i come, they can shove there thermal lifts where the sun dont shine.

jon hill

i hate to say i told you so....

NM

Tiggs

Sounds like Swingball might be on the cards and paragliding flushed down the pan.

Hope all goes well next time

Neal

ianlove

Hi Tiggs,

if your Wifey doesn't like it now do not invest any more time or energy. You will always have grief and arguments about flying. You will never have enough brownie points, you are probably not familiar with the AIDS acronym...
Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome.

Tiggs

AIDS- very funny

bought a kite for the kids at the weekend, thought i could recapture some of my wind based sport excitment- NO BLOODY WIND!! spent 10mins in the field then went home.
now the kids are pi55ed as well.

anyone know how to annoy a dog then i've got the whole family hacked off!

tiggs

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

Tiggs,

You could try kicking the dog in the *****