Imagine - standing on top of a hill, overlooking the valley, wondering what it would be like to FLY.

Well, get ready to fulfill man's oldest dream of free flying.
Now you can experience the joy of personal, foot-launched flight in its purest form - on a paraglider!

Paragliding is a brand new form of sport flying, which offers perhaps the easiest and most fun way for almost anyone to realize the age-old dream of personal flight.

The basic skills are easy to learn, the equipment is simple, light in weight, and relatively inexpensive compared to any other type of aircraft.

Paragliders have originated in Europe and were initially developed from ram air parachutes but have evolved over the years into high performance flying wings. Today's Paraglider is an elliptically shaped wing made of special non-porous material usually rip-stop nylon or the like.

The paraglider pilot launches by 'inflating' the paraglider canopy over his head and then running down the slope of the hill, into the prevailing breeze, until the canopy lifts him away from the surface of the earth. Also like hang gliding, paragliding is unpowered flight, with none of the complications that otherwise arise from the use of an engine. In the smooth, calm air of early morning or evening, a paraglider pilot can, with a few easy steps, launch himself from any convenient hillside or mountaintop and glide smoothly and silently to a gentle landing hundreds or even thousands of feet below. And even if this were the only experience offered by the sport of paragliding, it would well be worth it for those of us who have dreamed throughout our lifetime of imitating the simple, unencumbered flight of the birds.

But paragliding offers more.for in the more active air of midday, a paraglider pilot with more advanced skills and experience can launch into soaring conditions, where rising parcels of sun heated air can carry paraglider and pilot aloft, sometimes thousands of feet above the point of launch, and allow for sustained flights of up to several hours.

One of the greatest appeals of paragliding is the elegant simplicity of the sport; from the equipment required to the techniques involved. The paraglider wing itself is a mere 15 pounds of nylon or dacron cloth, fabricated into a series of ram air inflatable cells, to which is sewn an array of thin supporting lines which attach to the pilot's harness. The entire system will fit in a corner of the trunk of your car, or onto a backpack that you can take with you on a hike.

While beginning skills of paragliding are easy to learn and practice, safe flying on one's own requires a broad range of skills, knowledge of airmanship and weather as well as operating limitations of a paraglider. But all that properly taken into account, the paraglider is a wonderfully simple and elegant piece of equipment for the achievement of such lofty goals as personal flight, and remains probably the most accessible form of personal flight yet developed.

Most people have one of the two reactions after their first two-days. Either: "Cool! This is for me! What an amazing experience." or "Wow! I've wanted to fly like a bird all my life! I'm going to quit my job, sell the kids, buy a motor home and just fly full time."

Our planet has a treasure of remote and beautiful places just waiting to be explored. With nothing more than thin line and nylon cloth, something mankind has dreamt about since time began, can be yours. Free flight. To fly with the birds as they fly. To quietly explore your world from their view. There are no limits and let there be none, least only the ones you set yourself!

Want to paraglide through India or need assistance in getting more information about paragliding, paragliders, equipment, feel free to contact us at: paragliding@templepilots.com

Be warned -- paragliding can be quite addictive! To pursue the sport, you will want to take an Intermediate Course (Club Pilot level) that will prepare you to start paragliding on your own without the supervision of an instructor.