just what is a typical paraglider pilot? The short answer is ‘there are none’. The slightly longer answer might be ‘well, a lot of them seem to be men in their 30s or 40s’. Surprised? Isn’t paragliding one of those frightening, risky and exaggerated activities that are all the rage among the young and daring? No, it really isn’t, although there is some potential for danger as in any form of flight.
So don’t expect to go to a paragliding place and find pilots who fit some kind of extreme sports stereotype. Being more of an aviation sport and relatively cheap and easy to practice, paragliding attracts a wide variety of participants. You too can learn to paraglide and surprise your friends!
Europe is where it all began, and it is there that you are most likely to spot some interesting wingers in the sport. In that corner of the world, children’s camps sometimes include paragliding as an activity! At the other end of the spectrum, there are many older drivers. That is, those who have already passed the retirement age! What better way to keep life interesting.
Heck, I’ve even seen a video clip of a dog taking a walk, attached to a special harness for dogs next to the pilot. I wonder how much flight time does a German Shepherd need to log before flying alone? Hey, don’t laugh, paragliding is almost that easy!
Pilots from many angles
Just for fun, let’s do a quick review of some possible categories for paraglider pilots.
age is one, definitely. I have already mentioned how they can fly from very young to very old. Weight is another one. Little men or skinny ladies who fly their undersized XXS wings. Sounds like a shirt size, doesn’t it? Even people of substance who are too much for anything but a tandem glider. Yes, a wing built for two. What other thing? Nationality of course, since this is a global sport. Although he was born in Europe and is more popular there, every continent on the planet has its paragliding fans.
What’s happening disability? Probably not! Oh yes, some companies are actively helping people in wheelchairs get on the air. After all, all you need is a pair of working arms to use the glider’s brake levers. Maybe just one more category, gender it’s obvious. As usual in flight sports, there are far more men than women in paragliding despite the fact that gender does not bring any special benefit to flying. If anything, women are quicker to learn the careful and precise style required to use the controls.
That pretty much covers the main angles of the variety found in paraglider pilots. Now for some real examples, some details.
age
Particularly in Europe, you can see people in a wide range of age groups flying their paragliders. Even in 1994 there were some young drivers. In that year, a 14-year-old boy in Bulgaria became its youngest paraglider pilot. He had 29 flights under his belt at that tender age.
In Israel, paragliding has some history, beginning with the pioneering efforts of Yair Shachar’s Zoom Club. He, in turn, taught a certain Baruch Gurwitz to fly, at the age of 70! In fact, in 1998 Baruch earned an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest paraglider pilot. He was 77 years old. However, that record has not lasted! Since then, a short film has been made about the exploits of a 79-year-old Polish pilot. Miroslaw Dembinski produced the film, which won an award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.
Being a pilot is one thing, but of course age is even less of a barrier when you’re just a passenger. I came across a paragliding school that registered the names of two exceptional passengers. 95-year-old Hannes Taugwalder for one, and also a certain Zoe Schmid, a 2 ½ little lady!
Weight
Just to give you an idea of the weight range available to glider pilots, here are a couple of real glider designs to illustrate. First of all, the Nova Rookie wing is available in 5 different sizes. The smallest is the XXS. Extra Extra Small Just right for a featherweight pilot, probably female, weighing 55 kilograms (about 120 pounds) ready to fly. That’s right, that weight includes harness, helmet, and any other gear she might be wearing.
At the other end of the scale, really big pilots can use a tandem glider which is normally used to carry passengers. So, in theory, Big Bertha or Gigantic Joe, who weighs 200 kilograms (about 440 pounds), could put on 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of flight gear and go gently floating on the Bio-Air Bi-Bio 42. This it is a typical tandem paraglider.
Now a bit of trivia. The largest sport glider of all time was a unique design with a wingspan of 20 meters (66 feet), used to film a car commercial! This very special reinforced wing had to carry a whopping 600 kilograms (over 1,300 pounds), after being dropped from a Lama heavy-lift helicopter. A real Audi A6 Allroad vehicle was filmed floating in the sky under this paraglider, against a spectacular mountain landscape.
Nationality
These days, it’s hard to think of a continent that doesn’t have paragliding activity. There are excellent flying schools and locations all over the world. Also, I know that my paragliding website attracts visitors from over 60 countries!
Paragliding is particularly well known and visible as a sport in England, France, Germany and South Korea. Of course there are others, but these 4 have caught my eye so far.
Disability
Organized paragliding for the disabled exists in the UK, Australia, South Africa, the US and probably many other countries as well. Not in vain, tandem paragliders are widely used in this area.
The British seem to have done a very good job of promoting paragliding for the disabled. Just look at Airways’ airport activities, they’re not hard to find! This company sometimes uses specially modified paragliding ‘carts’ to give a wide range of disabled people access to fly.
Another notable company is Handiconcept, which offers a variety of activities for the disabled, including paragliding. They operate from a Swiss alpine resort and serve people with physical and mental disabilities.
By moving to the US, an innovative company called Team Thor has established itself as a public charity. They cater especially for the physically handicapped and focus on coastal tandem paragliding. Not just any old coastal flight, but the very impressive and well-known Torrey Pines ridge flight experience on the Pacific coast.
Gender
Paragliding offers no barriers at all for female participants. The minor problem of very light weight, in some cases, is easily solved by carrying ballast. Some of the larger paragliding schools even offer paragliding courses specifically for women. One example is Peak to Peak Paragliding, which operates out of Boulder, Colorado, in the US.
Particularly in Europe, a select few women have achieved the highest standards in the sport by becoming active racing drivers. Such is the participation rate there, that there are even women-only events on the CIVL sports calendar. CIVL is an international body that governs aspects of paragliding and hang gliding, much like the FAI in general aviation.
Now a quick mention of 2 remarkable women in paragliding. First of all, Azar Mazru’ii Farahani from Iran is the director of the Tehran Women’s Air Sports Federation. A professional paragliding instructor, she glides through the air with the greatest of ease dressed in traditional Islamic clothing. That is different.
Second, one of the UK’s best pilots is Nicky Moss. She was good enough to win the women’s event of the British Open Paragliding Championships when it was held in Àger, Spain. Not only that, Nicky also holds a British record in paragliding.
In conclusion
You may never get the chance to become a professional pilot. But paragliding, even as a passenger, is surely within your reach!