Pat Dower explores pilotage and skills courses in Cross Country 145. Photo: Gudrun Ochsl
“Distilled to its basics, paragliding could hardly be simpler: two main control lines, one to go right and one to go left. Despite that elegant simplicity, if there was nothing else to it, it wouldn’t be half as interesting and fun as it is. We all take different routes during our flying career.
“Many get into thermal flying and XC; some get serious about acro; some are happy with gentle soaring on the dunes; hike-and-fly amongst the big peaks of the world; competitions; vol-biv. Whatever and wherever you fly, having a good skill level is central in helping to keep us safe and enhancing our enjoyment.
“At some stage we could find ourselves in a situation where we need to draw upon skills of a considerably higher level than we emerged from school with. How should we set about making sure those skills will be there when we need them?
“In this article we will consider how pilots develop the art of glider control. We will learn from some of the world’s best – and there may be a few surprises…”
So starts Pat Dower’s extensive exploration of how best to go about improving your skills as a paraglider pilot, which is the main learning article in Cross Country issue 145.
Pat has a long career as a pilot and a coach and used his experience of pilotage and SIV courses with some of the world’s best instructors to inform this serious article.
In the wake of the last Paragliding World Championships, the “attitude” of pilots towards continuous training was criticised. Pat addresses these issues and explores how best to go about progressively learning throughout your career as a paraglider pilot.
