Paragliders – Information for Paragliding Fans

For information on our paragliding courses or tandem paragliding tours check our paragliding section.

Modern paragliders began as rectangular skydiving parachutes flown from hills. They have evolved dramatically in the last twenty years to be extremely high tech aircraft in both design and materials.

Paragliders are optimized for glide performance, turning behavior, and safety. Since they are not opened from freefall at terminal velocity) but rather launched from a hillside, they do not have to be as b as skydiving parachutes. They are lighter and larger, giving them much better performance gliding and climbing in thermals.

These paragliders have reasonable gliding characteristics and are quite controllable by use of cords which are held in the pilot's hand as he or she sits in the harness. Shifting one's weight also steers the paraglider.

The paraglider wing is a self-inflating structure. It consists of a row of cells, most of them open at the front and all of them closed at the back, joined together side by side. Moving through the air keeps them inflated because air goes in the front but can't get out the back.

The cells are cut into the same cross-sectional shape as an aeroplane wing and it is this "aerofoil" section that produces the lift. The pilot is supported underneath the wing from a web of lines, each with the strength to support the pilot. The lines are then attached to risers, straplike devices, that are attached to the pilot's harness.

Solo paragliders typically have an area of 20-30 m2 and weigh 5-7 kg. Glide angles range from 7:1 to 10:1 and top speeds from 45 to 65 km/h.

Tandem paragliders, designed to carry the pilot and one passenger, are larger but otherwise similar.

Some reffer to paragliding as parasailing, since a paraglider is made of a parachute like sail, so to paraglide is like to parasail.