If you have not seen all that much of the sport before, or are not sure whether it is something you might want to take up, a one-day`Taster' course will give you the chance to try it for yourself and have fun at the same time. Given good wind and weather conditions you should achieve solo flights well before the end of the day. Students must be at least 16 years of age to take part legally in paragliding (except as a passenger on a tandem wing).

For the present I do not cater for anyone under 18 years of age at all.

Please note that these courses are normally run with groups of at least 3 and no more than 6 people, so that the Instructor/Student ratio is kept low, and you learn at a faster pace without overdoing it. Where a small group of friends wants to try paragliding together and can be available at relatively short notice, there should be no problem fitting you in together as the weather allows. Weather permitting, we can operate seven days a week. See this small sample.

So what will you be doing? The day will start with a little unavoidable paperwork - registration etc - and an introductory talk that I'll keep short since you'll be itching to get your hands on a real paraglider. You will be shown how to unpack the canopy and carry out equipment safety checks;handling the canopy on the ground, canopy inflation and launch techniques;launch, steering and landing practice; and parachute landing roll.

This is all done on a gentle slope with no chance of taking off until you have mastered the basic controls - they're really quite straightforward. If all goes well you will be brimming with confidence and ready to get airborne. This does not mean being faced with a large cliff and a man saying `Go for it!!' We simply move you further up the slope so that next time when you go through the techniques you have been practising while running on the ground, the paraglider gently lifts you -and you are on your first flight, just a few feet off the ground. Some people say that it feels like the ground drops away a bit.

You smoothly pull down on the controls as you approach the flatter ground at the bottom of the slope, and land gently on your feet with a big cheesy grin that's going to be on your face for a week! - you have just flown solo as the pilot of an aircraft! 

Of course there's no holding you back now, and the rest of the day is spent flying from further and further up the slope, getting higher each time and even getting a few right and left turns in before setting up your effortless landing on tiptoe at the bottom, to the astonished gasps of the other course members.Of course,they get to do it too! Sounds brilliant, doesn't it? This sort of flying is more than brilliant, it's fantastic! But its entirely dependent on good weather on the day.