Paragliding has become the big draw, and the excitement of the flight is all the focus; the inspection gets absolutely no attention at all. The flight is the exciting bit. The inspection is the bit that decides whether it’s a good flight or not.
My home town is in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, right near Bir Billing. It’s a launch site at around 8,000 feet and is often touted as the second-highest paragliding site in the world. I’ve been up there, so I’ll start with what a proper flight actually looks like.
I also do paragliding with Manoj, who is a paraglider in Bir Billing and is quite well known. The flight was absolutely smooth and excellent. I really enjoyed the way he went through the pre-flight equipment check with me; all the instructions were very clear. His level of experience is absolutely first class, as during the flight we do a back flip by rotating the parachute to generate a bit of G force, and it’s a brilliant experience. We were suddenly looking at one of the parachute wires on one side of the canopy caught in the other.
The pilot of the paraglider handled that situation extremely calmly, took it all in with both hands, and landed safely. Awareness and the pre-flight equipment check are absolutely paramount. There are a number of very good international paragliding services. Having checked out the service, I’m quite happy with the standard. I know of loads of paragliding services, but I don’t really recommend or promote any of them in particular here. Just for awareness purposes, you could go and do a bit of research to see which paragliding service would be best for you. Wolf, for instance.
Everything that went right on that flight was sorted on the ground before the wing even left the hill.
Start on the ground, not in the air
The pilot is responsible for every item on every flight, irrespective of who signed off on the gear last week.
- Lines: no tears, knots, fraying, or visible wear, and none tangled at the risers
- Risers, carabiners, and connecting links: no cracks, deformation, or loose fittings
- Harness: stitching, buckles, and straps in good condition
- Emergency parachute: container secure, pin in place, repack date within what the manufacturer and local rules require
- Wing fabric: no tears, no patches of damage, no sign of heavy sun or moisture wear
- Helmet: intact and fitted properly
If the pilot just races through that list because people are waiting, then you know precisely what the rest of the day is going to be like.
A wing that looks fine is not a wing that is fine
The standard assumption is that if a glider flew yesterday, it’s safe to fly today. It isn’t. Sun, moisture, folding, dust, and plain old use all have a negative effect on the fabric and lines in ways that are invisible to the naked eye. A wing can be spotless and yet behave completely differently from how it was designed to.
That’s why there is a scheduled service, and it’s not optional. The manufacturer sets their own schedule, so you’ll need to look at your wing’s manual to see what it is. The interval I hold pilots to is a full component check every 2 years or every 100 flight hours. Anything that’s torn or worn is replaced rather than patched and hoped over.
Here is where it stopped being theory for me.
I’m writing this blog to put across the safety guidelines that paragliders should adhere to. My hometown is Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, and in the immediate vicinity of that is the world-renowned, second-highest paragliding site of all, Bir Billing, where paragliders take off all the time during the operational hours. The authorities are not doing enough in terms of awareness or enforcement with regard to the paragliders. A few months back, I had a very close friend who was killed at the Bir Billing paragliding site. He simply went up in a paraglider as there was some air movement. The paraglider went out of control and crashed into a tree. That was when I realized that a paraglider should check his kit thoroughly, take every flight seriously, check his kit every 2 years or every 100 flight hours, and replace anything that is torn.
That’s why I treat the service interval as a hard and fast rule rather than as a suggestion.
What a careless flight looks like
A sloppy flight is unlikely to look dangerous from the outside. The line check is simply not carried out as the last flight “went fine”. The reserve has never been checked since last season. The buckles are just snapped on by rote. No one on the team actually calls the launch checks, and the wind is just a quick assessment by looking at the sky.
A careful flight looks rather slow and a bit dull. Everything is called out loud, the passenger is told what to do and what to expect, and of course, the launch will wait if the wind changes.
The sky and the team are part of the equipment
Check the weather before you go and keep checking at launch. Wind speed, wind direction, and air movement can all change in the space of a few minutes, and a good pilot is one who is prepared to either wait or cancel.
Teamwork is just as important. The pilot, the passenger, and the people on the ground should all be able to call it off. If anyone on the team wants to call it off, then it’s a launch that gets called off.
What can passengers ask before they fly
In my view, the awareness and the rigor around these flights are lacking. You can protect yourself by asking:
- When was this wing last serviced, and how many hours has it flown?
- When was the emergency parachute last repacked?
- Will you walk me through the equipment check prior to launch?
- What if the wind changes whilst we’re in the middle of getting ready?
A pilot who answers you calmly and shows you the gear is a good sign. A pilot who gets annoyed with your questions is a big red flag, and you can walk away. Manoj, the pilot I flew with, has done the record flight from Bir Billing to Manali via the Atal Tunnel and has done a number of flights to a client without any incident. The habit behind that is the one described in this article; he checks everything every time.
Where I land
My position after all of that is, in fact, very simple.
On my personal recommendation, prior to taking any flight in a paraglider, you absolutely must know the history of your paraglider. How much experience does he have? How much experience does he have in checking the gear that he’s going to be using for paragliding? You can go on the internet and check the brand names that they’re using for your flight and make sure they’re of the right quality. Once you’ve done that, you can then go on to do a bit of basic training prior to the flight on the correct posture and the correct angle that you should be in before, during, and after the flight. A little bit of basic awareness can get you out of a lot of disasters.
Check the gear, check the sky, and check each other on every single flight.
