Paragliding is a lifetime experience. We went paragliding for the first time with the most breathtaking, jaw-dropping views EVER. Paragliding was a present to my hubby’s birthday, and making long story short, it is a lifetime experience, that is worth any money.
Paragliding is a fun, safe way to experience open sky, whether you are able to experience it once, or fly every day. At the beginning we were in doubt whether to choose parachuting or paragliding. We wanted an intense, extreme activity, but after long thoughts, we decided that paragliding is safer. One of these thoughts came up, because we are not paragliding alone, but with a specialist, and the second reason, the parachute is already open, and we just lay in the air.
Usually tandem paragliding is considered not an extreme thrill-seeking activity. But, even though, we had our adrenaline to high levels. The beauty of paragliding is that you fly like a bird without the noise of the engine, feel the high altitude, uninterrupted panoramic view of mountains and the surroundings of the world around you.
We went one hour away from Barcelona by car, close to Igualada city, where we went up high, where the views are priceless, and a great place to paraglide. Paragliding needs an open area to fly smoothly. Typically, paragliding take-off point builds on top of the hills and mountains. Tandem paragliding needs more safety clearance like proper wind measurement, clear launch-pad without bushes, trees, no heavy clouds, and other safety equipment.
Paragliding involves using the human body to launch yourself in the sky. It was an interesting experience to launch myself into the air, and be ready to fly like a bird. Tandem pilots usually give you proper instructions before flying, like about equipment, the right way to run and hold in case of emergency and how to seat while flying. Following every instruction of your tandem pilots will make your fly memorable.
Once you are in the air you’re sitting down in a relaxed position, you float gently through the air and there’s no free fall drop.
Tandem Flight is specially designed for two people, a well-experienced pilot and a passenger (me or hubby). The glider for Tandem flight is specially designed to carry the weight of two persons. The pilot and the passenger have separate harnesses, attached to each other and to the wing. And this thing makes you feel even better and not to worry about your safety.
A little bit of history of paragliding
In 1950s Parachutes – the forerunner to the paraglider – were first used in World War 1 but remained relatively unchanged until the 1950s. It was then that the paracommander was invented – an oblong parachute with vents to give the jumper more control.This design was subsequently improved by the Rogallos, who invented the Rogallo wing for NASA rocket recovery. The design introduced more rigid sections to the parachute design, leading eventually to the design of both hang- and paragliders.
You could say that any brief history of paragliding should really start with Frenchmen Jean-Claude Betemps, Andre Bohn and Gerard Bosson. They refined the technique of self launching from the side of a steep hill. The slopes where they tried it out, at Mieussy in France, are the closest thing paragliders have to a Mecca. It wasn’t long before paragliding was added to the hang gliding world championships in 1979. Ten short years later the first paragliding world championships were held in Kossen, Austria. Ever since then, paragliders have been refining the equipment and techniques used. They’ve been setting new records and trying ever more adventurous things in the air. However, the basics of the sport remain essentially the same since the day three Frenchmen flung themselves off a mountain.
About our tandem pilot.
Fernando is a certified tandem pilot, with 18th in ranking on PG tandem, he won different prizes with his friend, here in Spain and Europe.
https://www.xcontest.org/2019/world/en/ranking-pg-tandem/
Every tandem pilot must take various training courses, need hard skills, complete various examinations, and safety tasks to become a certified one.
If you can read in Spanish, then you will find out interesting this information in the article about Fernando.
More you can find on their website: https://parapentbarcelona.com/
Or on their socials: https://m.facebook.com/parapentbarcelona/
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Final thoughts.
Paragliding is an amazing experience, I think that everyone at least once has to try it and enjoy the way of flying like a bird in the air.
Here are some beautiful pictures from the experience:
