What Is Powered Paragliding?

Series Summary

Powered para gliding has been around for decades. Since the 50's man has taken leaps of faith in the name of physics and hurled him or herself off cliffs in desperate pursuit of that 'rush' or 'buzz' as the kids like to call it today. Crazy you say? You may be right but there is something to be said about the feeling of weightlessness and freedom a sport like paragliding gives its athletes. What a rush it must be knowing there is only a thin sheet and a few ropes between you and certain death. Sound like a blast to you? Lets attach a gas powered motor to your back and let you propel yourself through the sky like a drunken Superman. Now that's a good time!

This video series is a must for anyone thinking of para gliding at all but especially powered paragliding. Our expert, Hugh Murphy, is the owner of his own para gliding company and he will walk you through every aspect of powered paragliding from getting into the harness properly to how to stand up with the motor attached to your back to how to take off and land. Every aspect is covered here so make sure you don't go off your first cliff before checking them out! you won't regret it when you're 1000ft up dangling like a 5 year old who climber too high in a tree.

Video Transcript

"Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Hugh Murphy with Surf the Sky Paragliding. In this clip, we're going to talk about how to get started in powered paragliding. One of the best ways is to watch some of your friends or neighbors who are powered paragliding pilots and ask them how they got involved. Because you always want to start with a good school. One of the best books that you can read about powered paragliding is 'Running Into the Sky' by Chris Wolf where the pilot starts out and takes you all through from his first days and learning how to control the paraglider to actually his flights in a powered paraglider. This is one of the best, highest recommendations to really thoroughly know what the sport is about. And Chris Wolf talks about in his book 'Running Into the Sky' how important it is to find a paragliding instructor to teach you the basics of the paraglider and that can also teach you the motorized aspect of paragliding. Because if you're out there in the sky and you've ran out of gas or had another situation with your motor, it's nice to know how to control a paraglider without a propeller spinning."