Andy Brown psychology of the midpack pilot

Fly Better, Techniques and Skills

The mid-pack rabbit

“Bunny keeps me from doing stupid things…” Andy Brown picks apart the mindset of a sports-class competition pilot – and shares how he stops himself from doing stupid things (most of the time).

20 July, 2026, by Andy Brown | Photos: Marcus King

Paragliding is a funny sport. When you start out, all that matters is airtime. Then you discover XC and suddenly all that matters is distance. Then you discover racing and all that matters is less airtime. It’s a strange progression from “please let me stay up” to “please let me get round this 60km task before my bladder gives out because I forgot my pee tube.” And with that shift comes a profound change in how your brain behaves in the air.

As a beginner, I obsessed over launches, landings, and whether the windsock was pointing in exactly the same direction as the forecast said it should and my pocket anemometer read under 16mph (25km/h). I soared back and forth over 400m of my home site’s coastal cliff like a demented metronome and felt like a hero for staying up an hour.

XC flying broadened my horizons, literally, and I started learning to take every thermal to cloudbase, always keep two landings within glide, and avoid airspace like it...

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