.svg){kind=icon}
.svg){kind=icon}
GETTING BACK INTO PARAGLIDING
The winter season is drawing to a close... After months tucked away in the closet, your paraglider is itching to get back in the air, and so are you!! Whether you're a brand new pilot, or rebuilding confidence after a break or an incident, getting back into flying comes with its share of questions and doubts... No panic, we've got plenty of good tips for you!
Equipment maintenance and monitoring
Before running out onto the nice turf of your favorite launch, it's strongly recommended to make sure your equipment is in good working order.For your reserve parachute, repacking it once a year is strongly recommended by manufacturers. To have peace of mind for the rest of the season, we recommend doing this repack during the winter break, when flying is less common anyway!If you don't know how to repack it yourself, you can learn during a repacking session organized by your club, since this is something many paragliding clubs offer among their activities.A guided repack, or one done by a professional, is recommended to avoid connection or assembly mistakes.On the wing side, a service check is necessary to guarantee good behavior. You'll find the check interval in your wing's manual, but as a general rule, a simple annual check, or one about every 100 hours of flight/inflations, is recommended.
To carry out all these checks, we can only recommend an official inspection body! There are many inspection centers for servicing your paraglider wing.Ripair, based in Talloires, around Lake Annecy, is one of them.
On the ground
And there you go, your gear is ready to fly! Now it's time to think about yourself...First, you need to get back to basics, and you already know the formula that works: the training slope!! The perfect place to reassure yourself that you've still got it, or to bring back the technique and the right feel.On top of that, a good ground handling session, in a light breeze, to fine-tune your skills and keep sharpening your feel!Then, or at the same time, you'll need to make sure your head is in the right place too: are you mentally ready to get back in the air? Your mindset is essential to fly calmly and make the right decisions at the right time (whether to fly or not, positioning in the sky, performing maneuvers in flight, etc.)Of course, conditions need to be perfect for getting back into flying.Ah yes, but are the conditions actually right for you??
Aerology
One of the pillars of this sport is correctly reading forecasts and current weather conditions at any given moment. Between forecasts and real life, you can sometimes get surprises, good or bad!When getting back into it, and as your instructors have surely explained during your courses, we'll generally choose to fly early in the day, or sometimes right at the end, when the breeze is absent or fairly light.Here are a few sites to give you an idea of the forecast:meteobluemeteo-parapenteAnd also a few sites to analyze real-time aerology:spotair.mobiBalisemeteoDon't hesitate to contact us to find out the on-site aerological conditions, or by watching our webcams, which give a view of the Planfait site.
In conclusion, getting back into it requires real discipline and clear goals. Don't lose sight of safety, and don't take unnecessary risks!You can always turn to us for a few days of course, in a group or private lessons, to ensure a smooth return and even improve your skills.As our Alain would say: "When in doubt, there is no doubt"
