Paragliding Tandem/Solo

25th of April, 2013

Keeping with the canopy flying experiences, next on our schedule is paragliding. Paragliding is a little more relaxing than our adrenaline filled skydive. Like a bird soaring in the mountains, playing in the thermals.I was recently in Queenstown working with professionals in the industry to put together a paragliding system. Our first idea was to use the same harness system that we use for the skydiving, keeping our legs up. This worked perfectly; however the reason it worked perfectly was we had a number of paragliding instructors helping at takeoff. Looking more to the future into a bigger picture we needed to refine our system. That is exactly what we have done. We now have the availability of our paragliding buggy. View Gallery. On our first initial flights everything was done in tandem with a professional paragliding tandem master. For most people that experience is very sufficient. However we plan to go just that bit further. Gaining solo licences so wheelchair riders can fly solo, an extremely exciting step.Click here to hear of an experience that Fraser Kennedy, an international traveller, experienced with the paragliding buggy. 

I am a wheelchair user and first tried paragliding in South Africa in 2004. This was done without the buggy and it required a lot of physical effort by the instructor, but after seeing how the glider was controlled I became convinced this was something I could do. Consequently, I researched disabled paragliding and found a group of instructors and the UK who designed the buggy. The buggy gives disabled people the opportunity to experience the real the thrill of flying with ease. The buggy operates in the same way as an abled bodied paraglide, you take off and land on wheels rather than running with your legs. At takeoff,  two people tilt the buggy and run with it until you and the instructor takeoff. It is amazing sensation to be in the air and catch a thermal and feel the lift, most often than not you get to a higher altitude and takeoff. The flight can be tranquil and calm or you can ask the instructer to perform a series that spirals to lose altitude quickly (my favourite). The landing is smooth as the front of the buggy slides and the carbon axle attached to the wheels absorbs the impact. I have never done solo flights with the buggy,  I am sure this will follow in New Zealand. It is great the buggy and now in New Zealand, it offers different perspective of the magnificent landscape. I highly recommend paragliding and believe the buggy is a real testament to resourcefulness over resources by focusing on how it can be done.

Fraser Kennedy UK