Flying a paraglider has to be the nearest man has come to flying as free as a bird, so far. To look at a paraglider you may be tempted to see it just as a very large parachute. To a certain extent it is, but the big difference, apart from the size, is that it is an aerofoil that actual produces lift just like an aeroplanes wing. They originally developed from the square parachute you will be familiar with if you have ever seen a free fall display at an airshow. How they actually work is fairly simple in principle but is beyond the scope of my intentions for a home page. There are sites on the internet that cover all the technical stuff, the one I used to have as a link to has moved but I don't know where. If you know of one then email me and I will link it.
I have always wanted to fly and wanted to join the RAF and fly something fast like the English Electric Lightning, which was in service when I was a lad. One rather large problem though was Asthma, I have suffered from it from the age of 18 months and I've still got it. So, look for another career was the order of the day and get a PPL when I'm rich.
30+ years later and I'm not rich (too many expensive hobbies), I think I'll take up Hang Gliding. A weeks course for the latter, down on the Isle of Wight, and I was signed off with the Elementary Pilot Certificate. Actually this was all back in 1991. I did know of the existence of paragliders but had no idea that they were efficient enough to actually thermal. I was under the impression that you walked up a hill with it, took off, landed at the bottom and then walked up again. I wanted to go cross country and therefore the obvious answer to me was a hang glider, WRONG!
Whilst I was lugging this pile of aluminium tubing, bracing wires, heavy duty sail cloth, wheels and most importantly, me, up the training hill after every 30-60 second flight, this chap walks past me with a very large "bag of washing" over his shoulder. He got to the top of the hill and somehow converted this huge pile of material into something resembling a wing. He then took off and immediately got stuck into a thermal and off he went. The thought occurred to me over and over again for the rest of the week "I'm doing the wrong discipline"
At that time my only form of transport, when my wife had the car, was a Yamaha FJ1200. It was on this wonderful machine that I went to the flying school on. It occurred to me that not only was a paraglider capable of going up in thermals, they were also small enough to be transported on the back of my bike, whereas a hang glider wasn't. So, the scene was set, I will return later to convert to flying a paraglider. Later, turned out to be about 3 years when I started the Student Paragliding course.