Is this course suitable for you?

The course is aimed at pilots who have already totted up some flying hours (as a rough guide, CP+25hrs), and have some experience of thermalling. THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS COURSE ON HOW TO LEARN TO PARAGLIDE. To get a clearer idea of whether this is the right course for YOU, please read my guidelines below:

You should be able to launch well and unassisted. We aim to always have one of us on launch to see everyone off, and one of us in the air to fly with those that are already airborne, but we cannot guarantee this. At the end of the day your launch skills need to be reasonably good - not necessarily 'brilliant' - but you need to be able to launch unassisted fairly well and consistently. Also very important is that you need to know when to abort a bad launch. We will try to help and advise you wherever possible, but it is always your decision whether to continue with, or abort, your launch.

As the wind is usually (not always, but mostly) very light on launch, and the take-off run is fairly short, you should be able to forward launch in nil wind fairly consistently. As there is sometimes a nice breeze on launch also, your reverse launch technique should also be good.

You need to be able to make sensible SAFE decisions about flight plans, and fly safely with others.

We will be using radios to communicate, so you will need to have a radio and be able to hear radio guidance and keep in contact with the rest of the group. We try as much as possible to keep regular radio contact with everyone in the air, with pilots updating their positions regularly, and also the retrieve driver.

Although we will try to give guidance and advice on landing options wherever possible, you will need to be able to choose a sensible landing place on your own. We will brief everyone in detail on all the landing options around launch and some of the known landing spots along the XC routes (there are generally a great many good landing options available), but quite possibly you may find yourself having to unexpectedly land out somewhere on your own, and so you will have to choose somewhere to land by yourself.

You need to be able to make a good SAFE landing approach, and spot land reasonably well on your own. We will not usually be able to be there to guide you into your chosen landing field, as we'd have to land to do this, and then we wouldn't be much use to the rest of the group, who will still trying to fly XC! However, we do try to keep a very careful eye on everybody in the group, making very sure that everyone has landed OK, both visually and verbally(on the radio) wherever possible.

Is this course suitable for you?

The course is aimed at pilots who have already totted up some flying hours (as a rough guide, CP+25hrs), and have some experience of thermalling. THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS COURSE ON HOW TO LEARN TO PARAGLIDE. To get a clearer idea of whether this is the right course for YOU, please read my guidelines below:

You should be able to launch well and unassisted. We aim to always have one of us on launch to see everyone off, and one of us in the air to fly with those that are already airborne, but we cannot guarantee this. At the end of the day your launch skills need to be reasonably good - not necessarily 'brilliant' - but you need to be able to launch unassisted fairly well and consistently. Also very important is that you need to know when to abort a bad launch. We will try to help and advise you wherever possible, but it is always your decision whether to continue with, or abort, your launch.

As the wind is usually (not always, but mostly) very light on launch, and the take-off run is fairly short, you should be able to forward launch in nil wind fairly consistently. As there is sometimes a nice breeze on launch also, your reverse launch technique should also be good.

You need to be able to make sensible SAFE decisions about flight plans, and fly safely with others.

We will be using radios to communicate, so you will need to have a radio and be able to hear radio guidance and keep in contact with the rest of the group. We try as much as possible to keep regular radio contact with everyone in the air, with pilots updating their positions regularly, and also the retrieve driver.

Although we will try to give guidance and advice on landing options wherever possible, you will need to be able to choose a sensible landing place on your own. We will brief everyone in detail on all the landing options around launch and some of the known landing spots along the XC routes (there are generally a great many good landing options available), but quite possibly you may find yourself having to unexpectedly land out somewhere on your own, and so you will have to choose somewhere to land by yourself.

You need to be able to make a good SAFE landing approach, and spot land reasonably well on your own. We will not usually be able to be there to guide you into your chosen landing field, as we'd have to land to do this, and then we wouldn't be much use to the rest of the group, who will still trying to fly XC! However, we do try to keep a very careful eye on everybody in the group, making very sure that everyone has landed OK, both visually and verbally(on the radio) wherever possible.