I is a paragliding legend... and I has my Soaring Australia articles and the titanium in my spine to prove it .

What would you like to know young grass hoper?

The #1 rule is, hight is your friend.
The #2 rule is, always land in to wind.

That's about it... as long as u've got hight the ground won't hurt you.

just make sure you steer clear of large thunder storms

sites.google.com/site/sahpgahome/

www.alpineparagliding.com/index.html

www.activeflight.com.au/

www.paraglidingforum.com/index.php

It costs about $1200 to get a licence. You can do a tandem flight for $100 and there are two day courses that you get to fly high in for about $200.

A new glider is $3500-4500.
Harness $800.
Instruments $500.
Reserve parachute $600-800.
Radio $100-300

Used gear can be quarter to half the price of new.

For coastal soaring you want 8-15 knots. For inland thermalling 0-10 knots.

The cliffs at Myponga are fantastic.

It's doable and the wings and motors are getting pretty good now.

Noise is a problem and so is wind.

People don't like dirt bikes on the ground so imagine how they feel when a noisy dirt bike sound comes chugging over their house.

Paragliders are not exactly fast so zooming does not really come into it. Flying into wind can be very slow, even with a motor.

I have a half size paraglider and that does zoom but that's a whole different story.

FlySurfer said...
...Step 4: Start your course, 2 day course??? ...

www.alpineparagliding.com/courses/introCourses.html

They've been doing it that way for the past 20 years. The most dangerous time for a paraglider is during launch and landing so once you get your feet off the ground it makes sense to be as far from the ground as possible. It's all done with multiple instructors controlling you and radio instructions and done at safe times of the day.

That doesn't get you a licence. You still have to do the full course and there's a heap of stuff to learn. Once you get your licence that's when the real learning begins.

PS. I have managed to surf in the morning, paraglide in the late morning-early afternoon as the seabreeze comes in, and kite in the late afternoon when the wind kicks in. It's a great way to earn your evening beer.

Paragliding is dangerous. Several people I have know personally, or acquainted to, have died.

However, it also seems to be very forgiving of ignorance and downright stupidity. So many beginners, inept, incompetent and downright dumb people fling themselves off hills time and time again and actively put themselves in dangerous positions ... and get away with it.

Generally people get hurt once they have acquired a bit of experience and start pushing things.

hey that was great. I am completely cured of any desire to go paragliding.

Hi Flysurfer. I'm just curious to know what the surgeon fixed using a spring, washers and zipper?

That's an impressive x-ray

I've been flying 20 years. Had a few bingles. No serious injuries though.

A friend fell off a ladder in his backyard and ended up a temporary quadriplegic. To make matters worse his teenage daughters decided it was a perfect time to play up. When dad tried to discipline his daighters they just taunted him. He's learning to walk again and should be right in a couple of years.

Paraglidng can be minimalist ... or not. I have a lightweight kit flying the coast and a full kit for inland thermalling. I can use both in either conditions but it's more fun with the purpose selected gear.

The lightweight kit is just a mini-wing and a minimalist harness. It seriously adds to the fun to just turn up with a little day pack, flip it inside out and go flying.

It looks better from the side. When the incident happened I was given 2 choices.

1.- Go with Medicare and have a "registrar" perform the surgery.
2.- Use my medical insurance (pay excesses for x, y, z, a, b, c, 1, 2, 3 and D) and have the "Super" competent American neurosurgeon the hospital was soooo luck to have.

I elected 2, and when I woke from the surgery my f**king right leg didn't work and it felt like it was pressure wrapped with wood chips.
Oh and both my thighs felt like they had been whacked with wet Crickets bats for 11hrs. God damn did it hurt.

... anyway I'm still f**ked, legs still hurt, and are numb but as soon as I could walk properly (not dragging my right leg) I got down to the beach laid out my kite crawling now and again... went kiting. Pretty much do everything again apart from Brazillian Ju-Jitsu.

Oh and how did the whole thing happen? I was ridge/beach soaring lost some hight and tried to make it back to lift when my bum impacted on a rock @ around 40kmh... so don't fly low over rocks, turn in to wind and land.

I only had around 1m height to play with, so either way I was gona have a nasty landing, but turning in to wind would have killed my speed.

OR if I had made it back to lift, I would of had more altitude to play with .

wholly **** Fly surfer. thanks for posting them pics. Man, that looks like it would cause heaps of trouble with pretty much all sports. You're a legend for kiting etc. That is one scary looking xray. Love your attitude man.

jeepers flysurfer, thats impressive, but why'd they give you a zip of penis?

Me in Perth;

wow, all far too loopy for me I'll stick to the board , boat and diving gear for now ,had to many close calls on road bikes in younger days and now realise that am not bullet proof!!,, good luck to you all
I'm stickin to the wet spot for now

I thought about PG but went the safer option in HG when I saw they had a powered harness. Last month I flew 35 km down the coast, landed on the beach at a cafe for lunch then flew 35km back to the car after climbing to 6000 ft. weaving through the clouds on 6 litres of fuel, what a bargain!
This was my first launch with the 120cc rotary toenail clipper on the back and then a rear view;