Paragliding

Paragliding

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventurous sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harmness suspended below a fabric wing. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.Despite not using an engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometres, though flights of one to two hours and covering some tens of kilometres are more the norm. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand metres.

The paraglider wing or canopy is usually what is known in engineering as a "ram-air airfoil". Such wings comprise two layers of fabric that are connected to internal supporting material in such a way as to form a row of cells. By leaving most of the cells open only at the leading edge, incoming air keeps the wing inflated, thus maintaining its shape. When inflated, the wing's cross-section has the typical teardrop aerofoil shape. Modern paraglider wings are made of high-performance.The pilot is supported underneath the wing by a network of suspension lines. These start with two sets of risers made of short (40 cm) lengths of strong webbing. Each set is attached to the harness by a carabiner, one on each side of the pilot, and each riser of a set is generally attached to lines from only one row of its side of wing. At the end of each riser of the set, there is a small delta maillon with a number (2 - 5) of lines attached, forming a fan. These are typically 4 – 5 metres long, with the end attached to 2 − 4 further lines of around 2 m, which are again joined to a group of smaller, thinner lines.

In some cases this is repeated for a fourth cascade.Paragliding takes place in Pokhara. Your launching place is at Sarangkot, a hill station 25 minutes jeep drive above Lakeside. Sarangkot is 1600m above sea level. You launch by using the thermals and rise up above Sarangkot to see the stunning panorama of Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, and Manaslu.