parachute with a

[luplowe]

Riding along the cliff top at barton on sea yesterday-- there are these guys flying up and down the coastline in wat looked like a parachute with a chair underneath it- sort of thing ive seen being towed by a speedboat--but they where up there on there own steam.. great control they seem to have.. anybody know what they are called? I was wondering how they get started-- they must have to throw them selves of the cliff and hope the wind catches them..

 

[Arch]

Paragliding. Saw a lot of them in Annecy, France, last year, it did look like a very cool thing to do. They were jumping off the top of a hill, gliding over the lake, and then landing in a field where a van waited to take them up the hill again...

I gather a lot of hangliders have gone over to it, because the kit is cheaper and easier to store. You can get tandem lessons in lots of places.

 

[Arch]

http://www.bhpa.co.uk/paraglide/index.php

 

[Arch]

I looked at a leaflet in France - you could choose between different tandem flights, from gentle beginner to aerobactics!

 

[TheDoctor]

Tis very easy to learn too...
You don't jump off a cliff, so much as run down a hill. It's very very good.

 

[Lardyboy]

Tis very easy to learn too...
You don't jump off a cliff, so much as run down a hill. It's very very good.

The art to flying, according to Douglas Adams, is the ability to throw yourself at the ground and miss!

 

[TheDoctor]

Quite so.
It's much easier when there's a good few square metres of canopy holding you up though.

 

[luplowe]

Thanks all it does look like fun. Althoiugh one scared the life out of me, i was sitting on the clifftop dreaming when all of a sudden i saw this big shadow of one coming towards me . for a second i thought the Terradactyls had returned

 

[upsidedown]

I nearly tried this as an extension of my kitesurfing exploits, until i read an accident report on the CAA website where a canopy collapsed and the pilot died from internal injuries.
They are very large versions of ram air kites, i was an awful kitesurfer so thought i'd better leave it at that.