Today i finally got to go paragliding (Tandem). It was a tour organised by the USO, the same people we went on the DMZ tour with.
I started out early again, Sharon stayed at the guesthouse. There were 8 of us on the tour all together, most of them US army. We went by bus about 1.5 hours south to the paragliding base where we had a quick briefing, then waited about an hour for the wind to move around and pick up a bit. 3 people went up on the truck to start with while we waited for the other instructor. It has been raining quite a lot so the ground at the landing zone was a bit bogy.
The first guy came down without any problem other than getting wet. then the other instructor turned up so the rest of us went up the mountain. The road up was quite bumpy and a little slippery but you could tell the guy had driven it hundreds of times before.
The next guy got all strapped in and went to take off, unfortunately they went a little crosswind and ended up in the downdraft on the side of the hill, after a short flight of 17seconds they ended up in a tree. No one was hurt and we all had a good laugh about it. The next guy took off without incident although with a bit of adrenaline no doubt. They got another glider and we continued without incident. My go was 3rd last and was only about 5 minutes flight, most were about the same due to not much lift, the longest was about 10 minutes, the air was cool and the wind was more across the valley than up it. It was a good experience and i would like to do it again on a better day, it was not thrilling like skydiving but more of a relaxing float down to the landing zone.
The glider sail is basically the same as my power kites just bigger and with a harness.
Glider stuck up the tree.
Take off area.
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