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As many lessons as you need! The United States Hang Gliding Paragliding Association has outlined a rating system and the requirements to become a certified paraglider pilot. It takes the average person about 10 to 15 lessons to acheive those requirements to a P-2 certification level. It may take you 10 lessons or it may take you 25. With purchase of the full certification course, Utah Paragliding's program is structured to allow you HOWEVER MANY LESSONS YOU NEED in order to achieve all P-2 requirements. Last season, many of our students finished their P-2 training with almost enough flights and hours for a P-3 rating. If you are like most people, you may not have $1200 to pay all at once. That's okay! You can pay $80 per lesson. Once you have paid for 16 lessons then you are all paid up, even if you need more lessons, you wont pay more than the $1200. |
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Chatter Box. Check back here to see what is going on in the near future with Utah Paragliding.
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July 2 2009 Virga Mania! Monsoon already?!?
This type of weather pattern isn\'t supposed to happen until late July and August. Super early monsoonal flow gives us afternoon thunderstorms and spoils our fun. However, the mornings have been pretty good and we have still been flying. Brad came out extra early for an hour lesson before work and got in 12 flights and top landings before having to go! There was a slight break in afternoon thunderstorms and everyone was flying cross country everywhere. Ken flew 72 miles from INSPO to somewhere past Yuba. Marshall launched from the new Mahogony site and got up to the top of Mt Timpanogos and ridge soared it all afternoon. Dave made it to Alpine from INSPO and many pilots flew to the POint from the B and Mt. Olympus. Holly benched up with me taking her Mom tandem, that was fun even though she got airsick a little. Then a group went to Randolph and flew for 2 hours last Sunday. The season is in full swing!
Posted on Friday, July 03 at 12:24 AM
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June 16 2009 What a rainy month!
June is supposed to be the 3rd driest month of the year, but we have been getting soaked! Despite the rain, Jessica from New York finished up her certification with flying colors! Since June 2 she got in 40+ flights with 6 of them over 1000ft. We had a nice morning yesterday at West Mountain. Jim and Jessica got in 2 great flights each. Camera battery died so we couldn\'t photodocument it.... bummer. So sad, we could have gotten some phots of Jessicas last flights yesterday evening as she floated around 2000 ft + high over the valley in the famous North Side glass off. She didnt want to come down and was the last to land, basking in the last embers of the sunset glow. This week end is looking promising and if all goes well, Roman, Ryan and Neil and I are hopong for a good flight off of the B or INSPO.
Posted on Tuesday, June 16 at 03:11 PM
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June 6 2009 Last week was great!
So, the mornings have been great, but the afternoons leave a lot to be desired. The highlight of this past week was a trip to West Mountain last Saturday May 30 2009. Gavin, Alan, Kelton, Dr. Disco Dave, Radon Dave, and Warren from BC all had a great flight. It was so pituresque! Check out some of the photos in the photo section. Ken came out for lesson #2 and got to fly off the top of the South Side. Warren finished up his certification and headed home to Vancouver and Jessica from New York arrived and is progressing rapidly thanks to the great mornings we have been having. Cant wait for this SUPER SLOW storm to go away!
Posted on Sunday, June 07 at 12:01 AM
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May 27 2009 This week is gonna be so FUN!
So, the last weekend was rainy and crummy, but the first part of last week and most of the AAA Sprints weekend were great! High lights have been Lisa\\\'s first time at INSPO where she out flew me and got up as high as the Cascades and flew for over an hour just thermalling around in perfect lift. Jim benched up again solo on his new wing. Scott got to soar the upper bench on the North Side for an hour in glass off conditions one evening. Alan and his son Kelton have been flying off the top of the South Side now for 2 lessons. Mark from Tahoe came out for the wekend and got in a couple good sessions of soaring despite the rainy weather. Warren and Dave both had a fabulous morning this morning on the South Side, racking up 7 more flights each. Last night Warren adn I benched up tandem for a nice almost hour long training flight and watched the sun set and then came down to warm up. This week is going to be really FUN!! West Mountain trip is in the works for Saturday morning.
Posted on Wednesday, May 27 at 01:22 PM
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Super FUN weekend planned at the Point!
Everyone should come out this weekend for the festivities. Everyone is invited and the club is throwing a BBQ for all! The competition will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. GPS and Vario classes for the Sprints will be Friday @ 1:00pm. Saturday will be the super fun day:
The Flight Park dedication will be at 2pm
Club sponsored BBQ from 3-6pm
Competition during the flying session
AND Cloud 9 will have all Ozone makes, models and sizes available for demo!
Posted on Wednesday, May 13 at 10:11 AM
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May 13 2009 Crummy North Wind...great looking weekend for the competition!
NORTH! The wind has been strong and gusty from the north for days! And yet again, this morning we awake to a north wind, thanks to the cold front that pushed through yesterday morning....and ANOTHER dry cold front will push through tomorrow night sometime. This next one will be weaker though. So, my guess is that we should finally have a good north side session today, and we may have a south wind tomorrow morning, followed by another north morning Friday...and then an awesome weekend right in time for the AAA Sprints! Despite all the extra wind and virga, Jason and Jim managed to sneak in a couple of good little flights on the North Side Monday afternoon. One off of the lower bench and one off of the upper bench from the 3/4 launch for a sunset sled ride. It was a first for both of them to launch from the top of the North Side.
Posted on Wednesday, May 13 at 09:36 AM
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Scott got high at INSPO and Jonathan tested out the new Skywalk Cayenne 3!
Last week on either Friday or Saturday, Scott and I joined up with Ken, Bob and Dave and some Colorado pilots at INSPO, the Squaw Peak overlook, for a great flying session. It was Scott\'s first time to fly there and he went into outer space and flew around for over an hour on his APCO Vista in sustained thermal lift! He took to it like a fish to water! Way to go Scott! It was a beautiful day and the only really exciting thing was that little fast airplane that flew right underneath everybody. I got to really test out the new much anticipated Cayenne 3 from Skywalk. I was a bit nervous because I am quite a conservative pilot, and fast sporty wings scare me. So it was with a little butterfly in my stomach that I lunged into the sky. I was pleasantly surprised however, to find that despite an aspect ratio of 6:1, and superb glide and handling, this wing was docile and always wanted to aright itself even in turbulent air, with no collapses at all. I have flown other DHV 2 wings which would have given wing tip collapses and required much more active piloting to keep the glider overhead. Docile and dampened with a great sense of security and performance is what I would sum it all up as. In light lift or strong lift, I had no problem maneuvering and climbing right back up. Loved it!
Posted on Wednesday, May 13 at 09:34 AM
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May 7 2009
A ha! Finally, the weather has cleared! Yesterday morning, Jason who came out for a brush-up lesson after a year + hiatus, flew for over an hour, got in a couple top landings, multiple flights and figured out the traffic pattern. It was a beautiful morning. Yesterday afternoon left a lot to be desired however. The wind went cross and everybody sunk out after only flying for a short time. This morning the wind was from the north because a weak cold front passed last night, so we canceled lessons. I have high hopes for this afternoon and the rest of the week! The next storm will start to impact us next Monday or Tuesday. The only problem with our current weather pattern is the very strong winds aloft which are keeping us from flying the mountains...but the Point should be great!
Posted on Thursday, May 07 at 02:41 PM
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April 28 2008
Looks like we are in for bad flying weather for a while. A series of disturbances will brush Northern Utah over the next couple of days giving us gusty strong winds from the South and then from the North as these cold fronts pass. There wont be much rain, but the storms are close enough to spoil our fun. I wouldn\'t plan on good flying until maybe Friday, and that even looks like a long shot.. And then we get rain on Saturday it looks like.
Posted on Tuesday, April 28 at 10:54 AM
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April 23 2009
Greg and Cody came out in the afternoon on Tuesday and benched up on tandems with me. It was Cody\'s first flight and now he is hooked. Check out tandem photos in the photo section. Greg patiently waited while we flew all over the place. After we landed it was shutting down, so Greg took a sled ride to the bottom of the hill for a perfect landing in the L.Z. Then we caught a ride up to the 3/4 launch for the evening glass off. Greg flew solo and I followed him around for about half an hour in the SUPER smooth warm glassy sunset air. Steve came out for lesson 1 Wednesday morning and lesson 2 on Thursday morning and had a great time! He is already up to 12 flights, and forward launching on his own. We thought it looked like it was going to be too windy and almost aborted mission, but Steve insisted, so we went out and sure enough it turned out to be a perfect morning on the bottom of the training hill! Check out the great photos in the photo section...there is one that I think is possibly one of my all time favorites! Just goes to show, sometimes you just need to go out there and see whats going on. We were there so early that we got in about 5 flights before anybody else showed up. It was nice having the place to ourselves. We decided to meet a bit earlier than normal, but now that the sun is coming up earlier, I think we will start lessons at 6:30am! I know, I know... its easier said than done, but it sure pays off to be out there before the crowds show up AND we get to fly in the smoother air longer. It is already starting to get thermally around 9:30- 10:00am. It is light enough to begin at 6:00am actually, if any of you die hards want to start that early, Im game!
Posted on Saturday, April 25 at 12:26 AM
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April 21 2009
HORRAY! Spring is finally here! This morning was great, Mark and Greg got in some great soaring, kiting, crabbing and soft landings, for their longest and highest flights yet. Yesterday afternoon patience paid off! Dale dusted off the rust and flew all over the place and turned into a top landing machine, I lost count of how many flights he got in. Holly got up high and stayed up for a long time, getting used to the North side and traffic...went for the bench, but was too low...maybe tonight! Jim benched up and went into outer space for over an hour! I finally had to make him come down because the sun was setting. Lots of 360\\\\\\\'s and great photo ops! Last Satuday morning we all slept in because the wind was from the North, but the afternoon was good...a bit on the stong side. Jim and L.D. both got up high and stayed up for a while...no reason to sink out that night! Last Monday Holly came out and battled high wind and got in her first top landings, Oh and I have some photos to prove that she paraglides. (She has no photos of her skydiving) Check out the photo section for the proof.
Posted on Tuesday, April 21 at 03:31 PM
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