How it all started for me

It started at Easter this year. When booking to stay at a campsite in Benone on the North Antrim Coast line over Easter, my missus asked me if I would like to try a tandem paragliding flight as we have previously seen Paragliders on the hill that overlooks the campsite. I once had a vivid dream about flying a hang glider, and I had kind of put the idea of actually doing an hang glider flight in to the "things to do before I get too old" pile. The two sports seemed closely enough related to make little difference to a layman like me, so I jumped at the chance. Prior to that conversation I hadn't realised there was such a thing as Tandem paragliding. My wife phoned one of the guys we found with a Google search offering tandem paragliding flights, she was told to just phone on the day to see if and where the weather conditions would be right.

View from takeoff overlooking Magilligan point, Northern Ireland

On Easter Sunday we headed to the coast and setup the tent, and went and sat with friends who had a caravan on the other side of the site. My wife and I told our friends that she and I planned to go Paragliding the next day weather permitting. Easter Monday around 11 o'clock the wife called Phil Barron from www.cloudsurferireland.com to check the conditions. He said he was setting up on the hill above us and to come on up as soon as we were ready. Within about half an hour we had made our way to the top of the hill, found where the tandem glider had been laid out. Phil seemed like a great guy, his first words to us were "Hello, who is going up first?" to which my missus replied "Ian is."

A brief few moments filling in some necessary paperwork later, I was given a run down on what to do and what to expect. My part in the launch procedures mainly boiled down to running and not stopping unless told to, even if we were off the ground.

I donned the provided helmet, gloves and sunglasses then I was strapped into a harness, and another kindly paraglider pilot checked I was strapped in correctly. After some incomprehensible pulling and pushing and being told to move forward and turn around Phil was telling me to "Run, run, run, keep running..." and in a very short distance I was running without touching the ground. I can only imagine the feeling is a bit like being on a ski lift (I have never been skiing). As we lifted away from the slope Phil told me to push myself back into the harness, which was impressively comfortable.

In a tandem paraglider the passenger sits at the front with the pilot sitting behind. I can see why some might not like the sound of this as when I speak about this experience some people assume you throw yourself of a cliff edge. This certainly was not the case with this flight as we gently just lifted away from the slope. The support felt from the wing and through the harness is very reassuring. In no time at all we were soaring along in front of the cliff edge amongst the seagulls. Phil was completely in control of the aircraft at all times and he started to explain what we were going to do before we did it, like leaning ( or weight shifting) to the left or right in the harness which helps the glider make more efficient turns. The views were amazing and I was easily able to see Portrush 10 miles away.

Phil pointed out different things such as when we were getting lift and explained which land features were deflecting the sea breeze up and that the glider was using this to stay up. We spent what felt like 10 minutes zipping backwards and forwards along the cliff face gaining height, then Phil asked if I had had enough, I said yes because I was keen for my wife to get up and experience this amazing feeling. It was only later in the day when discussing my flight with some of the observing paragliding pilots that I found out I was in the air for nearly 45 minutes.

One of my favourite moments was when we flew past a crowd of waving people that were out at the cliff edge viewing point. They seemed really close and I could hear them talking, it felt like they were about 10 meters away. I was so exciting I waved in what I thought was a cool manner, but I suspect it looked more like I was an over excited 10 year old.

Later in the afternoon, it was my wife's turn. While I watched her from the ground I was talking with the other pilots that were on the hill and I noticed how pleasant and approachable all these guys are. In fact they are the most friendly group to outsiders I think I have ever had the pleasure to meet. It kind of felt like they were all there for the love of flying, and they were more than happy to share their experience and opinions with anyone who was vaguely interested. I suppose there is a lot of sky to go around. At this point I thought that I was more than vaguely interested in paragliding.

Sharon very much enjoyed it, and although she said that the experience was a worthwhile one she was not as taken with it as I was. Sharon later commented on the fact that I appeared to be still on a high from the flight and we discussed what I wanted to do about it. I was at first reluctant to take things further because of the money it would cost and that it might involve going abroad for the training, but she assured me that as I don't exactly do a lot for myself it is something we should find the money for.

We left Benone on Tuesday and by the Thursday I had booked myself in for my first paragliding lesson with First Flight Paragliding. First Flight Paragliding is based a few miles from my house and is run by the man that brought paragliding to Northern Ireland 20 odd years ago.