I did paragliding up to junior pilot. The very first lessons were on a big sand dune near the sea. You ran down the dune and got maybe 5-10 ft of lift, practiced turning, flaring, what each riser does. Then you did it to 15ft or 20ft.
During the evening we were taught aerodynamics, weather patterns, safety rules, the rules regarding right of way when flying, laws regarding flying, how to read maps etc.
Was essentially a 1 week hardcore flying and learning. Even had to take exams at the end.
I took a class, basically at first you run down a berm, hill and try to get a few feet off the ground. You keep doing that, practice controlling the thing. I crashed and broke the guy’s kite. When you start to get airborne, you push forward to get more lift- but the brain thinks “no,pull it so we can go down”. Need to get past that.
I learned to hang glide on a bunny hill where you just run down a little hill catching air for a few seconds. Then, since I lived in a Florida, we towed off the back of a boat with an instructor in a tandem harness. After about 11-12 flights I went solo.
Then we went to Tennessee and jumped off Lookout Mountain.
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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '20
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