The Art of Flying

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

Leonardo da Vinci

If flying can be described by just one sentence, the above quote would be it!

My love affair with flying started about 12 years ago. It took a further 3 years to eventually jump out of an aeroplane. That day was also my first plane ride! Yes, I NEVER landed in a plane until about 6 years ago! I also never landed in a hot air balloon, even though I had taken off in one... A story for another day! But back to my aeroplane ride, it was fun, but I loved the glide underneath the canopy the most.

Then 3 years ago I ran off a mountain with only a "plastic bag" above my head. The hang-gliders refer to our paragliders as plastic bag flyers, hence the description. I fell in love the very moment my feet left the ground and realised what true flying is!

Technical detail warning!! 

Skip this if you don't want to know how we fly with "plastic bags".

I am going to be very brief in the description, this is by no means a full detail description.

A paraglider wing design is a ram air design wing. The material of the wing is cut and sewn together so that it forms the same shape as an aeroplane wing. Big holes are cut in the front of the wing. These holes force air into the wing, ram air, that inflates the wing to give it its shape. Since you now have an aeroplane shape wing, air rushing over it generates lift. We use this lift to either glide or can even climb higher in thermals. Thermals are hot air rising which paragliders can utilise to climb higher. Using thermals we fly further and longer. The current world record flight is currently on 513km from takeoff to landing! 

We are just entering spring here in South Africa. Winter is not the best time of year for flying fun. Although we do fly in winter.

This past weekend, the weather gods played in our favour and we utilised every available opportunity! And what a lot of fun we had!! It is now mid week and I already long to play in the sky like a bird!

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