Paragliding

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders, which are lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness, or in a cocoon-like pod, suspended below a fabric wing whose shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over its outside. Despite using no engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometres, though flights of one to five hours covering some tens of kilometres are more usual. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand metres.