Once we will reach the takeoff place, a bit of tension will to rise; it’s normal. I would worry if it were not so! The takeoff is a grassy lawn, nice to have a picnic; you never thought it could be a runway, eh? First I will spread the paraglider on the ground and control the cables, so that everything is in order for takeoff. I will put your harness on and the helmet and then you will be given a briefing on what you will have to do for takeoff and I will explain the flight plan.
Takeoff is a delicate phase because it is a phase (the only one of flight) in which the passenger is required an active collaboration: in other words…. RUN! In fact, to take off we have to reach a certain speed, like planes: they can take off from the airport because they have engines, but we don’t have engines so we have to take speed running downhill. So you have to run, sometimes fast, and keep running until the pilot will tell you to stop. Once we have reached the necessary speed, the paraglider will lift us from the ground.
Takeoff is a delicate phase because it is a phase (the only one of flight) in which the passenger is required an active collaboration: in other words…. RUN! In fact, to take off we have to reach a certain speed, like planes: they can take off from the airport because they have engines, but we don’t have engines so we have to take speed running downhill. So you have to run, sometimes fast, and keep running until the pilot will tell you to stop. Once we have reached the necessary speed, the paraglider will lift us from the ground.
In this and many other ways paragliding is very different from skydiving, in which instead you jump (I write it for the sake of it, but I know you would never get confused).