Army Paragliding Tour

Have you ever thought of flying? Real Flying! You against the elements, with a wing that can be packed away into a rucksack when the sun sets? That’s paragliding.

Just imagine your own aircraft capable of being stored in the bottom of your wardrobe, but also capable of transporting you in silence for many kilometres with the ability to rise on thermals and achieve heights of several thousand metres.

On the 29th April a team of Army Paragliders took  off to Tolmin, Slovenia, with the aim of developing cross country flying skills through international competition flying and progressive exploration of the Soca valley.

The Army Team were joined by the Royal Navy Paragliding Team, the Royal Air Force Paragliding Team and Slovenian pilots of the Društvo Gornje Posoèje (Slovenian Paragliding Team).

Unfortunately the weather was against us on day one, which meant plenty of time for landing field briefs and our chance to see the launch site, a 'small hill' called Kobala, 1058m above sea level and 4.5 km away from the landing field. This is a ridge where take off is possible from both sides depending on wind and thermal conditions.

The next two days were spent free flying with the experienced pilots coaching the novices and learning where the house thermals were. The thermic activity was very strong across the whole area, with pilots rising on thermals going up in some cases at 10m per second. Nearly freefall, but upwards!)

Over the next few days the international competition took place, with three categories of competition: Open; Intermediate and Novice. The Open class pilots competed against the Slovenian Team on tasks up to 38Km. Paragliding Tasks are set around a series of turn points. These turn points are programmed into the Pilot’s Global Positioning System (GPS) as waypoints. The pilot navigates the course, flying within 400m of the waypoint to score, with the GPS unit tracking his flight. Upon completion he hands in the GPS and the track is downloaded into the competition software. The pilot is then scored either on time, if task completed, or on distance if he had to land out somewhere on route. The main factor that decides what type of task is flown is the weather conditions at the time.

Meteorology plays a big part in learning to fly safely and is a constant learning process. Having a good understanding of the weather, what it is doing and, more importantly, what it is going to do, can save pilots' lives. The Competition Director, Wing Commander Colin Hermon, utilised local knowledge from the Slovenian Guide, to set tasks that were achievable and safe, yet demanding enough to encourage pilots to push that little bit harder.

The last day was taken up with the usual team photos and free flying where the support drivers were taken for tandem flights. The Army team came home victorious in the international competition, with the Navy second, the RAF third, and the local Slovenian Team in fourth place.

The Army was also represented in the individual international competition, Capt Andy Rudd placing third overall.

Within the main international competition the Army held it’s own internal competition. Capt Andy Rudd was crowned Army Champion, WO2 Billy Diamond second and Maj Martin Baxter third. As you would expect, inter-corps rivalry for very much in evidence, with the Royal Engineers coming first, REME second and the Army Air Corps third.