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How Paragliding Works

So firstly lets get things straight….

Paragliding is not the same thing as Skydiving, we do not jump, ever! Although the perception is that we “jump” from mountains we like to think that we fly.

Well in fact that is indeed what we do, we do fly!

Paragliders are designed to fly, we call them Wings.

A wing has the ability to create a force perpendicular to the flow of air over it and against the force of drag, this aerodynamic is called lift.

An average paraglider gets a lift to drag ratio of about 8:1 with the high performance wings around 12:1

When we take off from the mountain the glide ratio enables us to glide around and look for more lift.

There are four types of lift :

1) Ridge lift / Dynamic lift

2) Thermic lift

3) Wave lift

4) Convergance

In this article we will discuss Ridge lift / Dynamic lift

Ridge lift on Signal Hill

Firstly for Ridge lift to form we need wind from a specific direction, a certain speed (between 15-25km/h and not more than 45′ side onto the ridge.

The only thing that keeps us aloft without finding lift is our glide angle, which means we are actually constantly going down.

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LIVING YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST

We all want to live life to the fullest, but how many of us still hold back from ever trying out new things?  Life is too short not to open up your world to new rewarding experiences. We’ve highlighted a few things that will help you to experience a fulfilled life!

BE COURAGEOUS

There is a quote which says: “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” We believe that this reinforces the fact that if we never rise up to face our fears, we can never soar up to the heights which we’re destined to reach. Every success of completing what may have been challenging at the beginning, like taking your first paragliding flight, starts with an “I can” mindset. Facing our fears brings fulfillment, and it all begins with the courage to take that step.

STAY MOTIVATED

After you have set your goal and have a vision for reaching your target, it is important to stay motivated until you achieve it. If your first paragliding course lesson does not go well, for instance, it does not mean you should quit; you need to keep on working at it until you finally get it right, and make it to the top, pun intented…

HAVE FUN

In as much as we need to focus and work hard in order to realize our dreams in life; it is also important to have some fun on the journey. We should never lose our youthful curiosity, never stop trying new things. Taking time out from your work schedule to try out random activities like bungee jumping is part of having fun. Such activities will not only give you an adrenalin rush, but they leave you with happiness, which brings a sense of fulfillment.

PUSH THE BOUNDARIES

You will find fulfillment in pursuing extreme activities – things that make your heart beat faster. Engaging in meaningful experiences adds value to our lives. Paragliding is one extreme adventure that is sure to give you the thrill of a lifetime! Check out this Hippo.co.za article where Fly Cape Town Paragliding was featured under extreme adventures.

KEEP YOUR BODY IN GOOD SHAPE

You only have one body, so take good care of it… it’s been said that “when you look good, you feel good”. And feeling good about yourself automatically gives you more confidence to step out and reach for your dreams. Try to eat healthily and do get some form of exercise, because you need a strong healthy body to engage in challenging activities!

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Paragliding Cape Town On My Ozone Enzo

So I decided to share the story of the great paragliding flight I was blessed with on the 9th August 2013 The forecast was saying Easterly wind which meant that it was not good for Tandem Paragliding in Cape Town and unfortunately we had to cancel all our bookings for the day.

The plan was to head out to Level 5 aka Raven’s Ridge. The take off site faces east and I knew for us to fly away from here, we would need to get there early. Jacques, Konstantin and myself met up with Long Pete, Niel Marx and Ian Cowie at the shopping centre in Steenberg at around 10 and headed up towards take off fairly soon after. Conditions at take off were perfect with a 15-20km/h ESE wind blowing up the front. Konstantin did not waste any time and he was in the air first with his porter Nicolas Majoni as passenger on the tandem paraglider. This was for experimental purposes to see if it was possible to take off from Level5 on a Tandem Paraglider.

Within a few minutes Konstantin was gone and away working the ridge on the left that was baking nicely in the morning sun. It was my turn to take off next and with an easy pull on the A risers of my Ozone Enzo I was airborne. I made an immediate left turn as well and was finding it very easy to climb in the smooth ridge lift. I headed down the ridge towards Constantiaberg where I found my first good climb topping out at around 1200masl.

Climbing on Contantiaberg

I found that the wind above 900masl was now a rather turbulant 15-20km/h NE, so no time to take any nice pictures. I climbed on my speedbar and headed into wind towards Kirstenbosch, nursing my Enzo on the b-risers to keep her flying at maximum glide performance!

Looking over into Houtbay

At Kirstenbosch it was getting a little bit tricky as most parts of the mountain were now in the shade and lee-side on top of that, but on the other hand where do you find the best thermals?….in the lee-side of course!! I had to work very hard to stay up on every little sunny spot I could find and was slowly making my transition towards Maclears Beacon. At Maclears I was climbing nicely again and it felt like a bit of dynamic lift going up the vertical rock faces.

The Cape flats with the Hottentots Holland mountains in the background

The gap between Maclears Beacon and Devils Peak was now staring me right in the face so to speak and the choice to go behind Devils Peak onto Table Mountain front face was starting to look very appealing. I opted with the safer route, to push out front and climb on the Northern face of Devils Peak. Here I was rewarded with a mega climb back up to 1200masl, yay!

I have never had the opportunity to glide straight over the City Bowl and I was not going to let this one slip away. I pushed my bar and headed straight to the buttress of Signal Hill. I arrived at Signal Hill with plenty of height to spare but was rewarded again with probably the best thermal of the day. This thermal was drifting back towards Lions Head and I connected with the NE face of Lions Head. I ended up soaring this face for about 10-20 minutes trying to figure out what my next move will be. I was not very happy with the rather fresh NE and was not going to attempt to fly the lee-side of the Apostle’s towards Llandudno. I was happy with my flight and decided to call it and spiral down to land at the field in front of the Bungalow in Camps Bay. After landing I received a phone call from Konstantin, he told me that Jacques turned around and top landed back at Level5 and they were busy driving my vehicle back to come collect me. I could not have asked for anything else……Absolute bliss!

[aymgch-blog]

[aymgch-blog]

LIVING YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST

We all want to live life to the fullest, but how many of us still hold back from ever trying out new things?  Life is too short not to open up your world to new rewarding experiences. We’ve highlighted a few things that will help you to experience a fulfilled life!

BE COURAGEOUS

There is a quote which says: “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” We believe that this reinforces the fact that if we never rise up to face our fears, we can never soar up to the heights which we’re destined to reach. Every success of completing what may have been challenging at the beginning, like taking your first paragliding flight, starts with an “I can” mindset. Facing our fears brings fulfillment, and it all begins with the courage to take that step.

STAY MOTIVATED

After you have set your goal and have a vision for reaching your target, it is important to stay motivated until you achieve it. If your first paragliding course lesson does not go well, for instance, it does not mean you should quit; you need to keep on working at it until you finally get it right, and make it to the top, pun intented…

HAVE FUN

In as much as we need to focus and work hard in order to realize our dreams in life; it is also important to have some fun on the journey. We should never lose our youthful curiosity, never stop trying new things. Taking time out from your work schedule to try out random activities like bungee jumping is part of having fun. Such activities will not only give you an adrenalin rush, but they leave you with happiness, which brings a sense of fulfillment.

PUSH THE BOUNDARIES

You will find fulfillment in pursuing extreme activities – things that make your heart beat faster. Engaging in meaningful experiences adds value to our lives. Paragliding is one extreme adventure that is sure to give you the thrill of a lifetime! Check out this Hippo.co.za article where Fly Cape Town Paragliding was featured under extreme adventures.

KEEP YOUR BODY IN GOOD SHAPE

You only have one body, so take good care of it… it’s been said that “when you look good, you feel good”. And feeling good about yourself automatically gives you more confidence to step out and reach for your dreams. Try to eat healthily and do get some form of exercise, because you need a strong healthy body to engage in challenging activities!

[aymgch-blog]

[aymgch-blog]

[aymgch-blog]