Spread your wings

Have you ever stood at the top of a hill overlooking the valley below and wondered what it would be like to float like the clouds? Wonder no more.

Khanh Phuong cannot stop waxing lyrical. “I take the paraglider to the mountain and pick the prettiest part of the sky and I melt into the wing and then into the air, till I'm just a soul on a sunbeam”, says the member of the Mekong Paragliding Club (MKP).

“When I'm up in the air, it's like I'm closer to heaven; I can't explain the feeling,” she says. An unnamed aficionado quoted on the club’s website goes further. “If you are a woman, and are coming to the flying field seeking stimulation, excitement and flattery, you had better stay away until flying is a little bit safer.

If you are thinking that flying will develop character; will teach you to be orderly, well-balanced; will give you an increasingly wider outlook; discipline you, and destroy vanity and pride; enable you to control yourself more and more under all conditions; to think less of yourself and your personal problems, and more of sublimity and everlasting peace that dwell serene in the heavens - if you seek these latter qualities, and think on them exclusively, why - FLY!”

Pierre, a French member at MKP, says “I love to fly because of this very special and specific sensation of being in the sky. It is a constant technical challenge that improves my skills and patience. The sport brings together people with very different backgrounds, and it is always fun and interesting to share the moments.”

Paragliding is as close to the feeling of flying like a bird as you will ever get. It is free flight (non-powered) in its purest form. A paraglider is a foot-launched flying wing. It is convenient because it is easy to carry, easy to set up, and easy to fly. Paragliders are constructed from nylon and coated with silicone (for UV protection). The pilot is suspended from incredibly strong Mylar or Kevlar lines and flies in a harness positioned like a reclining chair for maximum comfort in the air. When flying, you can actually soar like a bird, taking advantage of rising air in the form of thermals or ridge (wind) lift.

Many people confuse paragliding with parasailing. Parasails are large parachutes generally pulled behind a boat at the beach or at a lake. Paragliders are launched from hills, mountains, cliffs, or from tow winches. Paragliders dynamically are a closer kin to the wings of a 747 than to a parachute. A parachute’s purpose is to bring you down to the ground slowly. The purpose of a paraglider is to go up higher into the air allowing you to fly for hours at a time, covering miles of terrain, by utilizing the upward movement of air to keep you afloat.

Paragliders combine the light weight and safety of sport parachutes with the convenience, low cost, and soaring capability of hang gliders.

They are similar to hang gliders in that they are foot-launched and foot-landed. The pilot lays the canopy out on the ground, puts on the harness, launches by running down a slope, and quietly glides down to the landing area below. With the right conditions and experience, it's also possible to make flights where one gains altitude and flies for many miles and many hours, the club’s website informs.

Just about anyone can learn to paraglide. Training classes are not very strenuous, and it doesn't take any unusual strength or skill to learn to fly. Both women and men enjoy soaring together, as there is no advantage gained from being strong or forceful.

People between the age of 12 and 70 can learn to be the pilot. More important than actual physical conditioning is physical and mental alertness. On the other hand if you are looking to lose a couple of pounds, paragliding is a great way to get yourself back into shape.

The required flying equipment is helmet, harness, reserve parachute, and glider. In other countries, this will cost the pilot between US$3,000 and $5,000 depending on what features they like. If properly maintained, this equipment will last you 3-5 years.

“But Vietnam can be possibly the most economical venue. With only $2,000, one can be sure to fly. The cost per flight is also much cheaper, especially with a group of more than five pilots. For a modest fee, you can soar with the hawks in warm thermal air currents rising from the earth”, says chair of Vietwings Pham Duy Long, who is also dean of paragliding at the Southern Aviation Club.

Tandem or solo?
“Many people ask me what the best way to experience paragliding is, tandem or solo? I would say that tandem is the necessary first step, in which a learner flies with her or his coach.

“You will learn to inflate, kite, run, launch, fly and land the paraglider wing yourself. In a tandem, all the work is being done for you, and you are just along as a passenger. For some, this may be okay, but the overwhelming response to the first day’s lesson is ‘Wow, I can't believe it was so easy to fly!’", says Long.

American pilot Martin says “paragliding is the purest form of personal flight, as easy and safe as aviation ever gets. The feeling of fluid motion, being disconnected from the earth and having an unobstructed view; it's even more than this, and not something that is so easily definable. It's sensational.” Vietnam has several places for your piloting pleasure. The most common are the resort cities of Da Lat and Phan Thiet.

Source: Thanhniennews.