Paragliding

Paragliding

Paragliding in Turkey (Advance canopy)
Highest governing body	Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Characteristics
Contact	No
Mixed-sex	Yes
Type	Air sports
Presence
Country or region	Worldwide
Olympic	No
World Games	2013

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure.^[1] The pilot sits in a harness or in a cocoon-like 'pod' 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 five 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.