Remy Heliot (UP Team Pilot France) has successfully combined his love of mountain sports and paragliding - and shared his personal tips with us.
1. "Make every flight a low carbon adventure: Planning a paragliding adventure without taking the car makes you enjoy the day and the effort even more. Bike-Hike-Fly routine is much more engaging. Travel using a train. Walk instead of taking the cable car. Or run uphill, if you can. Build up the strength for this step by step. The quality of a hike is not measured by how many meters in height you managed first try. If you keep at it, you’ll get fitter faster than you might think. When you notice progress, give yourself credit for it."
2. "Take a look around: Paragliding pilots become experts to read the sky and feel the flow of the air. But what about the ground? Do you take the time to listen to the birds? Ever get interested in knowing the names of a few flowers or trees? Have you seen the squirrel crossing your path or were you someplace else in your head while walking? Getting to know your surroundings helps you stay in the moment, and this connects you to nature even more."
3. "Don’t skip ground handling: Training launch helps you taking off from really nice places high up, some of which demand a level of commitment that you can counterbalance with the mastery of your wing on the ground. This will have a positive impact on every aspect of your flying. Sometimes launching facing the wing is not possible or implies more dangers than a classic forward launch. I guess I'm not the only one who stopped practicing this kind of launch after leaving school. Learn again to feel the wing behind you, the pressure on the brakes, the overall balance of the lift but also how to stop quickly when something's wrong."
4. "Find great resources to learn: The best resource I recommend listening to is the Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast. Gavin McClurg does a wonderful job sharing a ton of knowledge in each episode. If you're a French speaker you should look at the "Petit Manuel de Météo Montagne" to improve your understanding of the air. "Understanding the Sky" by Dennis Pagen is also a great option if you prefer English, but I can't say more because I've not finished it yet. In terms of piloting skills, one of my bedside books is "Mastering Paragliding" by Kelly Farina. There's a lot of high-quality content to read, watch or listen to out there and I'm sure you'll find some source that appeals to you."
5. "Choose the right gear: It takes time to really outgrow a wing. Stepping up too soon might not help you learn to fly better. Honestly look at your level of expertise, what you will mostly use the wing for (in my case Hike & Fly) and picturize what you want to achieve in paragliding. Then I recommend trying different wings that suit your task. Testivals are great to do just that. Lightweight gear offers more chances that you might actually carry it somewhere else, than the busy and easy to reach launch sites. The B-class has plenty of performance to go XC if I sometimes feel in the mood. That’s why I went for KANGRI X."
6. "Assess your mental state: Even a highly experienced pilot can make a stupid mistake or take a decision that seems irrational afterward. You may slowly get used to shitty conditions, that aren’t yours to fly in if you give it a second thought. My last crash was 100% my fault and if I were back on take-off right now, I would never have taken to the air. But I was blinded by being used to the grey sky and in a bad mood. Since then, I have been trying to routinely do mental and physical checks. How? By entering a bubble in my head before each flight where I can hardly be disturbed. Here I go through my list of pre-launch preparations and ask myself if this day feels right, my body fit and the prospect of launch relaxed."
7. "Be the calmest on launch: This advice is just the consequence of the understanding of both your gear and mental state. Don’t ever let anyone rush you while preparing for take-off. Focus on your routine. When you decide to launch in your own time, you can reach a level of calmness in your mind and precision in your gestures that will make every step of your start go incredibly smoothly. I clearly say in my head "I wanna do the chillest launch ever"."
8. "Chat with the locals: The Ubaye Valley holds a special place in my heart. There are a lot of things to know about this place before even thinking about a high, rocky and wonderful alpine take-off. The valley wind is highly powerful in summer and sets up quickly. The numerous mountains and passes around create a complex aerology that can be hard to predict. I used this example, because here I learned to take the matter seriously. Every valley is different and can hold an unbelievable flight opportunity and a potential threat at the same time. The locals will easily point it out to you. A short chat might make all the difference how well your day goes."
9. "Team up with others: Retrospectively, one of my beginner mistakes was to not have made enough effort to meet people in the club and fly with a group. Covid time of course didn't help back then. Reach out to your local club or school and find people of your level of experience with whom you plan your flights, analyze meteo forecasts, look at tracks, try new spots... I'm sure you'll all progress faster in the process. Or team up with more experienced pilots. Find yourself a mentor by reaching out to pilots that inspire you and ask them sincerely if they would help you. Being in company will certainly make you safer and speed up the learning curve."
10. "Join friendly competitions: Even if you don't have a competitive mindset, H&F comps are a laboratory to progress. Use your chance to talk with other pilots, to discuss strategy and identify tips for the task. By having checkpoints to reach you'll try moves you wouldn't usually go for, and by doing so most likely fly a bit further/longer. I'm not speaking about risk taking. More like overcoming the fear of simply landing in an unknown field or having to walk a bit if you sink out. You’ll see, it’s no big deal. Gaining the experience that you can handle it and make it back is a win."
PS: Follow Remy and UP Paragliders on Instagram so you don't miss the next adventure!