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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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NO LESSONS FROM FEB 11-26
Utah Paragliding will be off the radar from Feb 11 through the 26th. If you need anything please email me at info@utahparagliding.com. Thanks!
Posted on Wednesday, February 10 at 02:30 AM
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Jan. 27 2010 Jealously watching Hal and Nate fly in the lightly falling snow with a Golden eagle...
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to Utah Paragliding\\\'s newest fledgling pilot, Jesse! Welcome to the flock. Jesse hit it hard and trained all December long and is this years first graduate. He will be flying his orange Skywalk Tequila 2... sorry, Jonathan, you are not the only one with that glider anymore. Jesse has already had a few great flying sessions on his own this year. And Josh is quickly ramping up the flights and hours and will shortly have the required numbers for his P-3. Way to go! Michael is trying to round up pilots for an excursion to AK this summer, if anyone is interested please let us know. Its cold but there is still some fun flying, but I cant wait for March!
Posted on Wednesday, January 27 at 06:50 PM
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Dec. 1 2009 Fun afternoon flying and cold air on its way!
This afternoon was suprisingly fun! As soon as a north wind hit airport #2 my phone began to ring… Glad Wesley and Josh got me out to the hill, even with airport #2 reporting only 340 @3 to 4 we were able to saty up for quite a nice flight up on top of the north side. This cold dense winter air is thick! Usually we need airport 2 to report 6 to 7 in order to get in a flight like the one we had today. I bet tomorrow afternoon may be good too. We had a weak dry cold front pass though today about noon. I was at the park with the kids and noticed the temp drop and saw the north wind hit all the flags. Unlike the last cold front that actually made us warmer because it wiped out the inversion… this one will make us really cold! I am 90% sure that the wind will be from the north in the morning Wed… spoiling our fun. And it is going to be extra COLD! Time for those little chemical hand warmers… you can get a box of them at Costco for only about $12 that should get you through until March. The northerly flow will persist until about Saturday when it will go more southerly and warm up ahead of the next storm scheduled for Sunday. Next week looks to be quite snowy…
Posted on Tuesday, December 01 at 11:16 PM
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Happy Thanksgiving! Thurs. Nov.26 2009
Lessons resuming... mornings have been good, afternoons not much wind. I have seen a few brave souls out in the cold, but if you can go skiing, you can still go paragliding, its just as cold! Bundle up! Some folks gathered this morning for a hik-n-fly off of Becon Hill, but my legs were too tired after an early am Thanksgiving 5K to join them. Weak snow storm for Saturday, anticipate the regular stronger south wind ahead of it to kick in on Friday sometime. Then early next week is supposed to be nice again.
Posted on Thursday, November 26 at 01:49 PM
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Friday the 13th Nov. 2009 Snow tomorrow, and NO LESSONS OR GUIDING NEXT WEEK.
NO LESSONS NEXT WEEK. This afternoon looked like a cold but great afternoon of flying on the north side. A nice break between storms. Round 2 will hit tomorrow bringing a few inches of snow to the valleys. I think Sunday morning will be north and Sunday afternoon may be good like this afternoon was. The afternoon after a front passes is generally a good north side, but often can be cross. Kind of depends when the front passes. Since it will come through Saturday morning, I have a hunch Sunday afternoon might be good. Then High Pressure sets in for the first half of next week, so I bet there will be some good southsides in the mornings and probably not good afternoons. In the winter when a High sets in, the afternoon winds tend to die down to nothingness unless they are being reinforced with an exiting High pressure, then the southside can be good. in the afternoon.
Posted on Saturday, November 14 at 01:00 AM
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Thursday. November 12, 2009 Michael finally left!
Farewell to a great student, friend, and helping hand… Michael, who has become a permanent fixture on the South Side, is moving on to bigger and better things after staying for almost 3 months. Proud to say that Michael has been the longest full time student Utah Paragliding has ever had! Michael logged 30 hours and 114 flights, and kited for 97 hours (most of those pre-dawn). When the conditions were sub-soarable, Michael volunteered to drive shuttle for me 87 times to retrieve fellow students so that they could have a quicker turn around and log more flights. For that I am very grateful. Michael truly left his mark on us and all over the South Side flight park… where he donated 2 full days of his time driving a tractor around grading and leveling and improving the roads, launch area and landing zone. THANK YOU! You are a true patron of the sport and deserve a metal. See you in the Spring and good luck with your new job!
Weather: Crummy flying today, the front and associated moisture are disconnected, with the front arriving before the rain. It should start raining/ snowing in the afternoon and linger into Friday morning. The wind will be from the north tomorrow morning, I think that Friday afternoon holds a 50/50 chance for flying being good on the north side, but I bet it is strong and cross and very cold. Another round of storminess hits us on Saturday, so no flying then either. Early next week looks promising, but cold.
Posted on Thursday, November 12 at 11:05 AM
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Monday Nov. 9 2009 Southerly flow increasing...
Well, so much for the rain on Sunday! When the jet stream splits around us the forecasters have a hard time guessing and usually give the worse case scenario even though it tends to be more mild than anticipated... Both Saturday and Sunday afternoons looked great on the north side. Now the flow across the state will be switching from northerly to southerly. The south winds will gradually increase ahead of our next Storm on Thursday. That means good to strong south side mornings and nonexistent to crummy north side afternoons. I guess that we get a good south side morning tomorrow, but Wed. AM will be strong to blown out. as well as Wed afternoon. The afternoons probably will not be from the north, but will stay south like this afternoon was. The cold front and associated rain and snow are scheduled for Thursday morning. So, I bet Friday morning is from the north... and COLD!
Posted on Monday, November 09 at 10:37 PM
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Just added video!
Check out the video from Jeff, Jenny, and Josh\\\'s graduation hike-n-fly flight. Also, there are a few new photos up in the photo section.
Posted on Friday, November 06 at 01:24 AM
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Thursday Nov. 5 2009 Your guess is as good as mine...
Today was so windy that we didnt even try to fly. The next three days would say will be crummy for flying. A weak front is supposed to pass through tomorrow, and another one is coming through Saturday night. Generally flying is not good near frontal boundaries. It can be bumpy and gusty and unpredicatable. HOWEVER, if the front is weak then I have seen decent flying right up until the front passes. Tonight the winds are supposed to back off, so for that reason I think that tomorrow morning holds the potential for being fine. But the afternoon is forecast to be north. I think it will be a post-frontal north wind which tends to be strong and cross. So I dont have much hope for the afternoon. Saturday morning could very well likely be north. And the afternoon I dont think will be good with a front due to arrive. Then a weak storm will give us some rain in the mountains on Sunday it sounds like. Hmmmm... your guess is as good as mine.
Posted on Thursday, November 05 at 11:03 PM
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Wed. Nov. 4 2009 Great sunset flight last night! And weather pattern is shifting...
Yesterday afternoon Jenny, Jeff, Josh and I. The 4 \"J\"s all hiked up Lone Peak a few thousand feet and flew down for a nice sunset flight. It was the graduation flight for all 3 of them and they did great! Landed right smack in the middle of the landing zone with no problems. It was so fun! I will get some photo and video up that we took. Weatherwise: There is a disturbance in the force... Looks like our high pressure force field that has been keeping the storms away is beginning shift to the east. This means that the great hike-n-fly, doldrums, no wind pattern is gone. The great state of Utah will be under the influence of a southwesterly flow. So because of that we will get warmer and windier. I think that northsides will be weak to nonexistent and south sides will be great to too windy. Wouldnt be suprised to see the wind stay south all day long for the next couple of days. Then the high pressure ridge looks to flatten and we get a \"zonal flow\" which means the jet stream is coming in right over us straight from the west and the Pacific Ocean, instead of bending around us like the last few days. When it bends around us, storms go around us. When the flow is directly over us, we have no force field to protect us from storms in the Pacific and they just come right over. The forecast Sunday storm is looking to be not as big as they thought... but big enough to rain and spoil flying. This morning the south side was quite strong, so I think the southerly flow is already happening even though it isnt supposed to get windy until tomorrow. The next couple days look extra windy from the south but I i have high hopes for maybe Friday being good because the southerly flow will subside and it is far enough away from the windy pre-frontal conditions of the Sunday storm.
Posted on Wednesday, November 04 at 12:22 PM
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Monday Nov. 2 2009 Smooth sailing until the weekend!
This morning Josh and Jeff got a chance to practice their forward launches on the south side in very light wind. Then this afternoon Jenny joined us for a couple sled rides off the top of the North Side. Instead of landing at the flight park we flew about a mile north to the open space field and landed there. It was great fun to fly as a flock across the valley together. Tomorrow afternoon we are going for a hike and fly. This weeks weather will be great for flying! Temps getting up to 70! No storms on the horizon until the weekend. If anything, the wind may be too light for good soaring until about Thursday or Friday when the big High Pressure begins its shift to the east. So poor soaring means great hike-n-fly weather!
Posted on Monday, November 02 at 11:57 PM
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Wed. October 28, 2009 strong cold northerly flow...
They are calling for only a 20% chance of the wind being from the south in the morning Thursday. Looks to remain north for another day at least with a warm front coming in Thursday night... Fronts generally give us crummy flying. At this point your guess is as good as mine as to what kind of flying we will have on Thursday, but I bet its not good and flyable until Friday and Saturday.
Posted on Thursday, October 29 at 01:27 AM
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Tuesday October 27, 2009. Snow!
Looks like more snow tomorrow and the wind will continue from the north for a while. I bet the wind is from the north tomorrow morning for sure and will remain that way all day. But I would not plan on the afternoon being a good north side. We have a low pressure off to our east and we are on the backside of it, or the western side of it. The counter clockwise flow around the low gives us a northeasterly flow over northern Utah which almost always translates into a very cross north wind on the north side. It it often strong too. And besides, it will be freezing cold! Our high temp will be 38 degrees! This northerly flow will also give us snow squalls coming off of the Geat Salt Lake... lake effect snow. Also, the north east wind often brings snow squalls off of the Wasatch Mtns that will spoil our fun. We will be locked into this northerly flow for a while. My hunch says that we will have a weak south wind on Thurs. morning, but I would not be surprised if it were still from the north. I bet Thursday afternoon is good but still cold. then Friday and Saturday should be nice. Sunday a weak system will brush northern Utah, and that usually is enough to just make it extra windy from the south for a day. Then it may be north Monday morning... it all depends on the timing of the front. Its a bit far out to guess now.
Posted on Tuesday, October 27 at 11:02 PM
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Friday Oct. 23 2009 Looks like unsettled weather until next week...
Looks like we will have a stretch of crummy flying weather until after this next storm passes on Tuesday of next week. Looks to be windy and unsettled until then. This morning turned out to be a strong south wind due to a passing weather \"disturbance\". My guess of light south wind was wrong. The afternoon brought a great mellow north wind. We had to drive up to the top and Jeff, Jenny, Josh and Michael had the whole mountain to themselves for about half an hour until everybody else drove up. It was nice smooth gentle air until the sunset and it died off to nothing and everyone floated down to soft sunset landings at the flight park. Possible rain tomorrow early, the afternoon is supposed to clear out a bit and be windy from the north. We are stuck on the edge of a high pressure and have all sorts of little \"weather disturbances\" brushing by Utah. This kind of weather pattern is not very good for flying and tricky to predict. If the high pressure would just move over us, it would give us great flying weather! But, it looks like the high will be pushed away gradually by these little storms, opening the way for a big cold snowy one on Tuesday. After that, I bet we have good flying again next weekend.
Posted on Saturday, October 24 at 01:19 AM
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Thursday Oct 22, 2009 Northerly flow continues...
Looks like my guess of a north wind this morning was wrong... we had a really light south wind. And the afternoon was extra strong from the north. We waited around and after it backed off we had a great 30 min. soaring session. Today Jeff, Jenny, and Heather got in about 8 flights each and ended the day with big air soaring on the north side. The northerly flow continues as we are stuck on the leading edge of a clockwise-rotating high pressure that is centered over the Pacific coast. So... That means we will continue to have weak south winds in the mornings, and stronger north winds in the afternoon. A few weak cloudy storm systems will pass over the state over the next few days, but our High Pressure force field will keep them at bay.
Posted on Thursday, October 22 at 11:38 PM
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Wed. October 21 2009 North , north, north... and another front tonight!
Looks like a north wind this morning will probably not turn south. The afternoon holds the possibility of being good, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it will be strong and cross... typical of the day after a storm clears out. High pressure building in but... Guess what? Another front dropping through tonight! This one will be dry, we will be only catching the tail end of it as it grazes Northern Utah. But it will ensure a north wind tomorrow morning too, I bet and a repeat of a stronger north wind tomorrow afternoon. We will probably get our south wind in the AM back on Friday morning is my guess.
Posted on Wednesday, October 21 at 09:03 AM
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Monday Oct. 19 2009 Northerly flow this week...
The front that was previously forecast to cross this afternoon has already crossed the Salt Lake Valley, giving us a north wind. Rain will spoil our fun this morning and probably the rest of today and tomorrow. The northside might be good to fly Tues. evening if it is not raining... But I wouldnt plan on good flying conditions until Wed. morning. And even then it looks very possible that the wind will be from the north Wed. morning. We will be locked into a northerly flow over the state for most of the rest of the week... that means weak south winds in the mornings or most likely no south wind in the mornings, and good to strong north winds in the afternoons. So... I think that most mornings may not be so good, but the afternoons should be great.
Posted on Monday, October 19 at 08:37 AM
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Friday Oct. 16 2009 Another AWESOME afternoon!
This morning was mellow sled rides on the South Side. Great practice launching in light winds and getting spot landings. The afternoon brought some good flying at INSPO unless you were me, in which case it was a quick ride to the L.Z. Nathan took an site intro tandem to learn the ropes there. We got to share a thermal with a juvenile Golden Eagle! Thanks to Michael for driving shuttle so that we could get back in time for the afternoon at the POint! The North Side again was FABULOUS with anyone able to bench up with their eyes shut. Michael told me he counted 49 gliders in the air! Student Paul and Trevor both benched up again and hung out up there for an hour+. Jeff, Jenny and Josh all got in some great soaring flights on the lower bench and then all top landed when it got a bit crowded once the wind started to lighten up. So, it looks like to morrow should be a repeat. With Sunday looking better than previously thought, at least in the morning, but I bet that the afternoon is no good. It will be south and windy. Then Monday looks crummy as well as Tuesday. There is a very high probability that the wind will be from the north on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon may be okay though...
Posted on Saturday, October 17 at 12:43 AM
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Thursday October 15, 2009 Primo Flying until Sunday!
Tonight was one of the best North side afternoons I have seen in a long time. Anyone that wanted to bench up could, and it looked like at least about 20 people did. Student Trevor benched up for his first time and couldnt stop smiling the rest of the time after he landed. Jeff and Jenny\\\'s grins were pretty big too. Jeff soared around for about an hour on his 3rd lesson, and Jenny and I followed him on tandem. Jenny steered while I snapped some photos. Also, Ken and a crew went to Inspo and said they were boating around in fabulously big thermals up to a few thousand feet over launch for hour + long flights. The weather is looking excellent for flying until Sunday when it will get extra windy ahead of the next storm which will arrive on Monday.
Posted on Friday, October 16 at 02:23 AM
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Monday Oct. 12, 2009 We are still flying! Students bring gloves to lessons! And weather flying forecast...
I have had many students and pilots request that I start putting up my forecast for flying conditions. This way Wesley can save some gas instead of driving all the way down from Park City to get skunked. And students from out of town can maybe plan their return trips accordingly. I will try to update this daily so people can check back for my \\\"opinion\\\" on future conditions. I am only right about half the time! So take it with a grain of salt! Also, I only trus the forecast for 3 days out, beyond that it usually changes. Here goes... I would not plan on flying until Thursday morning Oct 15 at the earliest. We have some unsettled weather and rain forecast until then. However, I think that there is a good possibility of the wind being from the north on Thurs morning... typical of the day after a storm... so that would spoil our fun for the morning, but give us a potentially great afternoon. Tuesday morning has a slight chance of being good to fly, it is in between a couple of disturbances. But I would not take work off for it. Tuesday afternoon is definitely going to be crummy as well as Wed. morning. and most likely afternoon. This storm is coming in from due west, unlike the last one that hit us from the north, so we wont be getting snow down to the benches again, it should stay up around 8000 ft. Also... students start bringing gloves to lessons!
Posted on Tuesday, October 13 at 12:39 AM
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Sept. 22 2009 The rest of the week is looking great!
This morning was chilly! I had to pull out the warm jackets. But within the hour had shed them and it wasn\'t so cold. Reggie and his son Tommy from Arkansas finally got tofly after waiting around for 3 days for that cold front to blow through. I think that the rest of the week is looking Primo for flying! The only concern is that our winds aloft are from the east because a low pressure has detached from the Jet Stream and is spinning around to our east. So flying anywhere high in the Wasatch wouldn\'t be too good probably. The Point should be fabulous!
Posted on Tuesday, September 22 at 01:30 PM
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Sept. 18 2009 Time flies when you are flying!
Whoa! We have been flying so much the past few weeks I haven\'t even had a chance to update the blog. No rain for three weeks made for great flying weather. Some highlights... Alex from New York set a record for hiking up the training hill 14 times for 14 flights in one morning session! And he is 50 yrs old! Those Chinese are tough. Michael, Doyle and Madhu all finished up their course with flying colors, over 40 flights each, 5 hrs + airtime and multiple flying sites under their belts. We went towing up to 3000 ft. Flew Stockton Bar all by ourselves top landing over and over... Madhu and Doyle benched up on the Northside... That was a fun week and a half, but boy was I glad for the rain! Those guys wore me out! Laurie finished up her course and ran off to B.C. with her boyfriend Mitch for some epic flying adventures and just got back with some good stories of big air. Clancy from Idaho, graduate of years gone by, received his T-1 and is building up tandem flights for his tandem certification.... but had to go back to school.. ahhh priorities. We have welcomed Brian to the nest and he is already soaring and kiting like a champ. Days are shorter and the weather is cooling off but the flying is still HOT!
Posted on Friday, September 18 at 05:16 PM
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