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Home \ Tuition
Read this before committing to a course of instruction here in Taiwan.
Good instruction is vitally important for our progress as pilots, and our continued good health. Although we call this a form of sport aviation, I think the latter term is more important than the former when considering safety and training.
It's not especially difficult to launch, fly or land a paraglider and given a good coach, good weather, and an ideal training location, the basics can be learned very quickly. What takes more time is acquiring the knowledge and experience to do that safely and consistently. A carefully prepared and delivered training course is needed to develop skills and good habits, and it's the professional instructor's job #1.
Some of the controls are counter-intuitive, so it's not one of those things you might watch a few times and have a go at. Some basic principles of aerodynamics, weather and how they work together are necessary. We need to learn how to describe the equipment, understand what it does and how to look after it.
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With these ideas in place we can start learning how to inflate the glider, how to turn it from a mess of nylon and string into a flying wing. As the glider operates on ground much as it does in the air, we learn how to control and handle the canopy while still firmly attached to terra firma, learning how to inflate, pull up, kite and deflate the canopy until we understand something about it's nature. |
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Next comes instruction on how to launch the glider safely and reliably into stable flight. Often referred to as 'boot camp', this is about as tough as it gets in training. Long days, high temperatures, high humidity and heavy equipment can make this a hard obstacle for some people to overcome. For some light relief we look at ways in which we can analyze the site and the sky and learn some useful things about the air before we commit body and soul to the sky. The air we fly in is not an inert medium, but has its moods and habits. We need to learn much about the ways of the sky to be successful pilots. Now we have to learn to turn and direct the glider in the air, and how to get ourselves to our landing area. The task of setting up a landing approach is much like that the pilot of powered aircraft faces, with one exception. We very rarely get the chance to 'go around' and try again, but have to get it right first time. Much time and consideration has to be spent on this phase as every site and every day has its quirks and we must understand the principles well. Rote learning won't help much. Actually landing the glider is relatively easy and quickly learned.
Further training hones these basic skills and adds new knowledge on air traffic rules, more advanced weather concepts and airflow. We learn to soar and the short training hops expand into longer flights and more is learned from each flight. The glider can fly at varying speeds and we learn how to fly fast or slow, and why we should do that. More safety considerations are learned including how to fall well, how to use the reserve parachute and how to deal with strong lift, tree and water landings, equipment malfunctions and so on.
Finally with enough flights and understanding we reach the milestone of readiness for flight free from direct supervision, although under significant limits. At this stage progress comes largely from experience, but your instructor should and will offer guidance in case things are unclear or some bad habits show up. It's also useful to get help at this phase in maximizing efficiency if your goal is to soar as high or as long as others and especially if your goal is cross-country flying. Most pilots will at this stage graduate from their training equipment to having their own gear.
From here most pilots will build up their experience in the form of number of flights, hours of air time, as well as flying different sites and even different gliders. To fly completely free of supervision (in most countries) requires knowledge of air space and other federal aviation law. This level would in most countries be full Pilot, though in the USA it's known as Intermediate.
Beyond this stage there are more options opening. You might choose to share your skills and take further training to fly a tandem glider or become an instructor. Aerobatics, or acro, is becoming very popular and offers a high adrenaline alternative to more 3D-chess like cross-country flight.
The key to all the fun the sky can offer is training, so get real tuition!
Training locations available here in Taiwan aren't the ideal smooth shallow
grass slopes you would hope for. Some of the places which are commonly used
for training are in fact quite advanced flying sites. There is not a single
flight school in the country that has an internationally certified flight instructor
or offers a program up to international standards. So much dangerous and foolish
behaviour occurs at local sites that it's very difficult to maintain an environment
conducive to safe training. I very strongly suggest you take an introductory
tandem flight with a qualified pilot to be sure this sport is for you, before
committing to traveling overseas for proper training at a professional school.
Personally I recommend Switzerland, Australia, NZ, the USA, Canada, Germany,
and Austria as training is first class and certification from those countries
is accepted everywhere without question. There are a few instructors operating
in Asia who are certified by these organizations and I'd suggest them if a trip
out of the region isn't an option. Check the bottom of this page for more info.
Next off there are some proficient and internationally recognized schools in
Japan and Korea, though language may be an issue.
As a minimum a novice course will take ten-days and include minimum 8 hours each of ground handling and theory lessons, plus at least 25 high flights.
Training in a tropical environment can require a lot of strenuous running around with heavy equipment on flat fields in hot, humid conditions. Taiwan has no perfect training hill where you can easily progress from little hops to longer glides and finally to high flights without fear or stress. Only flat areas are available for ground handling, with unpredictable winds, and all sites feature either a launch or landing that is considered intermediate or advanced. When you are choosing an instructor, make absolutely sure you see credentials issued by an internationally recognized body that is affiliated to the FAI. It will be a good indicator of the standard of training you will receive and and save you the trouble of having to repeat the whole process when you want to fly in another country. Note that although some clubs in Taiwan are affiliated to the FAI, Taiwan was for many years not a member and even though it recently rejoined, there is no evidence to suggest the clubs are teaching to international standards. See this page for more information on this. Ask when the instructor last flew a paraglider. There are 'coaches' out there who have been flying for just a few months, those who haven't flown in ten years, those who only have novice licenses, or none at all, and those who have never even flown a paraglider, yet they will take your money and yell encouraging things as you huck yourself off a cliff. There are more unlicenced 'instructors' out there than real ones, and there are foreign imposters as well as locals. It takes a minimum of two people to safely teach in the beginning high flight stages, one to see you launch and one to see you land. It is not acceptable to do this with only one instructor, or one and a untrained buddy who happens to be in the landing area.
Lee Scott has been running High Adventure paragliding school in Australia for 15 years and is considered one of HGFA's top instructors. He also runs courses in Bali between July and September every year with great success. Check his website for more info.
Ted Jenkins is the chief flight instructor at Alpine Paragliding in Bright, Australia. Like Lee, he runs courses in Bali every year. Ted also has many years of experience as an instructor and serving on the HGFA board. See his website for course details.
Another Bali option is Bernard, a French instructor of 17 years experience who lives there full-time. Info on his website.
Ivan Longland is an BHPA instructor and close associate of Jocky Sanderson, living and teaching in Thailand. Rather shortsighted BHPA regulations prevent it's instructors from issuing ratings overseas however... More info on Ivan's website.
Those wanting to learn to tow launch or do aerobatics would do well to contact Dave Russell in Brunei. His website has lots of info on tours, lessons etc.
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