Icicle: Alpine Paragliding Courses

Week long paragliding course
In France all paragliding instruction courses follows the FFVL syllabus (Federation Francais de Vol Libre), which is the local equivalant of the UK system called the BHPA (British Hang-gliding & Paragliding Association). Summer courses are run between June and September, but given a choice of dates, we suggest August and September for the most stable air conditions. It is too cold and snowy in winter for paragliding courses. By the end of the week in the summer you will have several hours of solo flights, made up of many short flights so that you get as much experience of take offs and landings as possible, as well as several longer flights. All new pilots fly in radio contact with an instructor who will be flying nearby. Our week long paragliding courses are run in conjuction with our partners at the leading paragliding school in Chamonix.

MONDAY & TUESDAY: The first couple of days are spent at the local training site, practicing on the training hill where you will be taught to layout and inflate the paraglider. Once you master these skills, you start running downhill to learn launching, steering and landing the paraglider. These are the essential techniques, and then you are finally ready to fly! On these first two days about 10 to 15 short training hill flights are made each day. Do not worry is all this running around sounds very tiring, as it is not too strenuous, but good basis fitness is very beneficial. The work on the training hill is a very important part of the basic flight training, and the more efficient you are with your running and launching of the glider, the more small flights you will initially get.

WEDNESDAY to FRIDAY: By the third day you will be flying from the high mountain where minibus transport or cable cars will take you back up to the launch area. During the next three days you will fly a minimum of five big solo flights, though often our clients have up to eight flights. These flights are from sites 700-1000 above the valley floor: the views are stunning. The take off area overlooks Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. You will study how thermals develop, their sources and trigger points, along with the techniques for finding and staying with them, allowing you to maximize your height gains. As the course progresses you will be introduced to cross country flying techniques, and will also look at the weather systems to develop an understanding of good and safe flying conditions. This five day course is a brilliant introduction into the sport and at the end of this course you will be presented with a French Flight Log book that details the work you have completed. Now it is possible to convert to the British license, please see below for details.

PRICE: £699. The majority of the flight training takes place at sites called Planpraz or Plaine Joux, very close by. These spectacular regions have a number of very good pure thermalling sites to work from. The sites have huge top to bottoms of between 720m - 2700m and access is by either road or cable car. At the end of the course you receive a French log book, the basic license that is easily converted to other countries license. Flying training insurance costs around 50€, and can either be arranged in the UK before you travel or in France (see section below for more details). The course price includes all instruction, and the French school provides all the equipment for training: glider, harness, safety helmet, radio, transportation to and from launch / landing sites during the training, but not cable car costs. As the equipment is of limited size there is a naked weight limit of 100 kilograms. Accommodation is not included, but can be arranged for £140 per person per week on a B&B basis, check in on Sunday at 18:00 and check out on Saturday at 10:00. All those who book their accommodation through us are welcome to attend the evening course instruction sessions.

INSURANCE: The French paragliding training course requires you to have a training insurance for which you will require a doctor's letter stating that you are basically fit. Please just take a basic health check for blood pressure, breathing and general fitness. A full medical check is not required unless you feel it's necessary to have one or you are over 50 years old. It's worthwhile obtaining this before you visit as you need it on the morning of enrolment. Please do this just a month or so before as it needs to be reasonably current. This training insurance is for the third party requirement whilst training. This insurance only covers a basic medical cover, unless you are a French citizen, so additional health cover is required from your own country for repatriation, hospitalisation etc.

EQUIPMENT: For your training you will require good ankle supporting walking boots, long sleeved top, trousers, a lightweight windproof top, sun tan cream, plenty of bottled water as learning can be thirsty work, and lunch, though there are restaurants at the training hill.