How Do Experienced Pilots Travel, Train And Live For Flying?
Three series about people rather than physics: local pilots on flying their home sites, the pilots at the top of the sport on how they train and think, and pilots who built their lives around flying. Each is written from the episode transcripts, with every claim linked to its chapter.
This comprehensive collection is divided into three main sections, each designed to inspire, equip, and build your understanding of free flight from the ground up.
The Three Series
Built from the episodesNavigators
What Should I Know Before a Paragliding Trip Abroad?
Our flagship series covers navigation and route planning for exploring new flying sites, with insights from experts native to each area.
- In-depth site breakdowns
- Local weather patterns & triggers
- Airspace rules and regulations
- Proven best practices (and mistakes to avoid)
Sky Gods
How Do the Best Paragliding Pilots Train and Think?
Meet the legends who have redefined chasing airtime in paragliding. True pioneers of free flight, in-depth profiles and stories.
- Career journeys and milestones
- Training philosophies
- Personal rituals and mindset
- Lessons from elite performance
Living The Dream
How Do Pilots Build a Life Around Paragliding?
Ever wondered how to break free from the 9-5 and make a living off the art of flight? Real career paths in paragliding.
- Career opportunities in paragliding
- Business and income pathways
- Lifestyle and work balance
- Long-term sustainability insights
Questions Across These Series
Each answer draws on the series pages and links to the chapters where the guests say it.
Is it worth hiring a local guide when you fly abroad?
Eddie Colfox thinks so. In his view a pilot with 100 to 300 hours is still a beginner, and with an experienced guide or a group you fly five hours a day instead of two, learn more and are safer. Chris Garcia builds his tours around local pilots for a similar reason: when the weather turns tricky or something goes wrong, locals know best what to do.
Eddie Colfox A short season, and a changing climateChris Garcia The first tour, and how destinations get chosenDo you need oxygen to paraglide at high altitude?
The guests differ. Antoine Girard recommends oxygen for pilots new to altitude: with less oxygen the brain slows down just as the wing speeds up, and at 8,000 metres a wing trims at about 60 km/h. Damien Lacaze does not carry it: after a week of acclimatisation, sleeping at 4,000 metres and walking higher by day, he finds flying at 6,000 to 6,500 metres fine.
Antoine Girard Where the air starts feeling differentDamien Lacaze Weight, and why people do not use itHow many hours a year do the best paragliding pilots fly?
A lot. Maxime Pinot says pilots who set out from scratch to reach the World Cup typically fly 400 to 500 hours a year, though experienced pilots can fly less; he has flown between 250 and 450 a year for about 20 years. Honorin Hamard now flies about 500 hours a year, has around 8,000 in total, and flew more than 200 in each of his first years.
Maxime Pinot Airtime, and whether anything replaces itMaxime Pinot What can I do differentlyHonorin Hamard How the setup actually worksHonorin Hamard The world record that came down to one momentCan you make a living from paragliding?
Some of the guests do, in very different ways. Honorin Hamard is now a test pilot. Benjamin Jordan built his career by cutting his living costs to almost nothing for about ten years, in a converted school bus, so he could say yes to projects. Shams turned his dog's unplanned fame online into brand collaborations, and Chris Garcia started a paragliding tour company in 2023.
Honorin Hamard Doing the work that makes the sport saferBenjamin Jordan The podcast project he is working onShams Starting Ouka's accountChris Garcia Convergence Paragliding, and why Cuba came firstHow do experienced pilots decide not to fly?
By setting limits and keeping to them. Maxime Pinot tells the young pilots he trains that if a race would cancel the task, they do not fly. Honorin Hamard abandoned a record attempt after three frontal collapses downwind of a mountain, and went down to try another day. Damien Lacaze warns that in a storm, the moment you want to land is already too late.
Maxime Pinot The cultural assumption about flying seriouslyHonorin Hamard What legendary actually meansDamien Lacaze The incident, and what happened