My intention with this website is to impart some of the vital knowledge you will need to become a competent paragliding pilot. I will introduce you to some of the aspects involved in paragliding, in an attempt to awaken your flying spirit. Your first stop in the pursuit of gratifying your flying need should always be to contact your local flying school, and not to throw yourself off a mountain with an eight cell parachute and hope for the best...

I believe it is important to acknowledge the work done by our pioneering forefathers in the field of aviation. A common problem in modern day society is the lack of respect for inherited technology. We often take for granted what others have done before us and in so doing move through life without a true understanding of all its magic.

Man has always dreamed of flying. This dream has been thwarted by the lack of knowledge and suitable materials to enable us to join the eagles soaring high above. Paragliding offers humans the perfect opportunity to pursue our dreams. A paraglider is a soft wing and is often confused with a parachute. A paraglider allows us to glide through the air and not descend in the same fashion as a parachutist descends. The paraglider is controlled entirely by the input of the pilot. There are absolutely no mechanical parts and the pilot relies upon skill and ability to remain aloft.

Take a walk with me from the present to the past. From modern day paragliding to flying mythology. Visit Principles of Aeronautics, for an indepth look at why a paraglider can fly and what enables us to remain aloft.

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MODERN DAY PARAGLIDING.

Paragliding has evolved into one of the safest of the "aerial" sports. The Safety and Equipment section will provide reassurance of this fact. People are drawn to paragliding, not only for its sense of exhilaration and freedom, but also for the overwhelming feeling one gets after floating out amongst the clouds and then returning safely to the sanctity of mother earth.

In the words of Leonardo Da Vinci: "For once you have tested flight, You will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, For there you have been, And there you long to return."

Paragliding is, arguably, the easiest way for humans to get airborne. It is also affordable to most of us (with a bit of saving). Take me for example - two years of saving and Bob's your uncle - a brand new glider. Gliders are also available second hand at reasonable rates.

A paraglider can be folded into a pack about the size of a regular modern-day backpack. With your paraglider on your back you can trek up a mountain to a suitable take off site and within minutes be aloft. Newcomers to the sport can become proficient at handling a paraglider within the first few days of training. Most other aerial sports require several weeks if not months to reach this level of competency. By joining up with your local club, you will be introduced to the rules and regulations governing our sport. It should be noted that paragliding is a self-regulating sport and hence it is the responsibility of each pilot to make themselves aware of the rules and regulations.

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THE EARLY DAYS.

Throughout history man has attempted to fly by leaping from various platforms. On most occasions this inevitably lead to the death of the "human bird". In 2200 B.C. the Chinese emperor Shin, in possibly the first recorded attempt to fly, jumped from a high tower wearing two large straw hats. He was fortunate enough to survive the ordeal. The next recorded jump was in 852 A.D. by a man named Armen Firman, who jumped from a tower in Spain wearing a huge voluminous cloak. His hopes were based on the theory that his cloak would billow out and thus allowing him to float gently to the ground. It did not, and he was fortunate to survive. A different technique was tried a few years later, in the Andalusians. A physician named Abbas ibn-Firmas tried to fly using wings. He covered himself with feathers, attached wings and, according to eyewitness accounts, flew for some distance. Trying to land like a bird he lost his balance and stability and crashed to the ground, severely injuring his back. He attributed his failure to not having a tail.

For the next several centuries attempts at flight by jumping, with or without wings, occurred throughout Europe and Asia. In 1678 the first article on attempted flight was published in a French magazine, detailing the experiments of a locksmith named Besnier who had attached wings to his arms and legs. Although unsuccessful, the record of his experiments came to the attention of scientists and inspired discussions that would further the development of aerodynamic principles. In 1797 a Frenchman,Andre-Jacques Garnerin, ascended in a hydrogen filled balloon to 6500 feet, then released himself in a basket attached to a parachute made of white canvas. Finally someone was able to jump, sail down and land safely on earth - 4000 years after Emperor Shin's stunt with the straw hats.

The lighter-than-air travel was limited. Man had to return to his study of birds to find the last thread to today's design of aircraft. Leonardo da Vinci made the first real studies of flight in 1486. He had 150 drawings that illustrated his theories on flight. George Cayley saw that people could not fly on their own because they didn't have enough muscle power to create lift. He turned to the invention of the kite that had been around for study for over 2000 years. Over the next 50 years Cayley added to and improved his principles for controlled gliding flight. He studied air pressure and found out the correct angle for the wing so that the air flow would lift the glider. Cayley built a glider that you could control. His coachman flew in it. He had made the first manned heavier-than-air flight in history.

The first real success at glider flight was done by Otto Liliental in 1891. He was the first person to be able to show that controlled flight was possible. He did studies of birds and learned how birds fly and used this understanding for flight for man. It is no coincidence that improved communication of ideas accelerated progress, as one experiment built upon another. From our vantage point we can look back through seemingly dark periods of history and see pinpricks of brilliant light. If these bright thoughts could have been shared widely at the time, the ability for us to launch ourselves skyward in our paragliders could have been possible many moons ago. Emperor Shin was, after all, essentially the first parachutist. The principles which he tried to apply were simply not sufficiently developed.

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FLYING MYTHOLOGY.

THE MYTH OF DAEDALUS AND ICARUS