Cape Town tandem paragliding

Take to the skies

“The exhilaration of flying is too keen, the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport” Orville Wright.

Paragliding can be described as a form of unpowered flight in which rising air is needed to keep the glider aloft but what it comes down to is that for a short while you get to fly.  Cape Town Tandem Paragliding has been helping people experience the freedom of the skies for the last six years. Their mission is to share the joy, exhilaration, serenity and beauty of paragliding and their pilots are all highly experienced Tandem Flight Instructors (TFI) certified by the South African Association of Paragliding (SAHPA). Most of them have been flying for over 15 years and you can read about them all individually on the Cape Town Tandem Paragliding website.

It all started with model airplanes...

We chatted to Manu Wegmershaus, owner of Cape Town Tandem Paragliding, about his love of this extreme sport.  It was model airplanes that led him to paragliding, “I was 14 when I started paragliding in 1994,” says Manu. “My dad was in a hobby shop buying model airplanes and the owner of the shop was a paragliding instructor. By the time he left he had signed us both up for a paragliding course. I had no idea what paragliding was at the time but after doing the course and meeting some guys my age I got hooked and became a paragliding junkie!”

The great thing about tandem paragliding is that apart from the short briefing you don’t need any experience and can rely on your pilot to navigate you safely to the ground. How safe is it exactly? “There are risks but as a company and as professional, highly experienced tandem flight instructors we do our utmost to ensure that safety is our foremost priority. We do not take risks. We do not fly in conditions that we deem unsafe to fly and we only use the best pilots and the latest paragliding equipment. All pilots fly with emergency parachutes but we have never had to use one.”

Manu has done “several thousand flights” so you know you’re in good hands. If you’re up for it and the conditions are good your pilot will perform some aerial tricks to get your adrenaline going.

Fly through the air with the greatest of ease

The tandem flights take off from Lion’s Head or Signal Hill, landing in Camps Bay at La Med on a soccer field or on the grass at the Sea Point promenade. If you’re going from Lion’s Head then it’s a short 15 minute hike up to the launch, where you will be given a short briefing and do the paperwork for the flight. The pilot will then strap you into the harness and secure your helmet before checking the glider and lines and connecting you to them. Then all it takes is a short run and up you go!

What can you expect to see? “The beautiful Cape Town scenery; Table Mountain, the Twelve Apostles, if we get very high you can see Chapmans Peak and Muizenberg and the whole of False Bay on the rare occasion. You can see Camps Bay, Sea Point and Green Point - the views are endless, 360 degrees bird’s eye view of the world. ” The flight will last for 10-30 minutes depending on the wind conditions.

Manu’s checklist:

• good shoes like takkies or hiking boots.
• comfortable clothes for hiking.
• a shell jacket in case it is cold.
• a bottle of water.
• sun block and a hat.
• cash for payment unless you have paid beforehand on the website.

You can also bring a camera along to capture the experience but Cape Town Tandem Paragliding does offer in-flight photos and video using the latest HD sports cameras, mounted on specially made telescopic pole for panoramic in-flight action photos.

This is a great way to experience paragliding for the first time with a group of people who have years of experience and love what they do. It’s also arguably the best way to see all the natural and manmade beauty that the Mother City has to offer.

No age restrictions but people under 18 must be signed off by a parent or legal guardian. Passengers must weigh less than 120kg and more than 20kg.

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