Extreme sports
Paragliding
Paraglider pilots sit beneath an air-inflated fabric canopy controlled by lines. The portable wing supports cross-country, accuracy, and aerobatic competition using rising air to stay aloft.
At a glance
- The source dates the modern activity to Alpine launches in 1985.
- FAI ranking systems cover cross-country, accuracy, and aerobatics.
- Paragliders are more portable but generally slower than hang gliders.
Player profile. Pilots need meteorological judgement, canopy control, spatial awareness, patience, and conservative decision-making. Pilots manage the wing through brake and weight inputs while reading air movement, maintaining enough height and positional awareness to avoid narrowing their safety choices.
Where it happens
A launch slope or tow site with controlled airspace, suitable lift, turn points, and safe landing areas. A fabric wing launches from a slope and uses rising air to travel, making terrain, clouds, wind, and safe landing options part of every route decision.
Dimensions vary by discipline or are not published in the current reference.
What you need
- Ram-air canopy
- Harness and reserve parachute
- Helmet
- Control lines, variometer, and GPS
How to play
- Inflate and inspect the canopy.
- Launch into suitable air.
- Use thermals and ridge lift to complete the task.
- Land in the designated area.
- Rank by distance, time, accuracy, or judging.
The essential rules
- The canopy is inflated and checked before the pilot commits to launch.
- Canopy, harness, and reserve system must comply with the entered safety class.
- A helmet, reserve parachute, and required navigation instruments form part of the flight setup.
- Unsuitable weather or launch conditions override the competition schedule.
- The pilot must respect declared turn points and airspace boundaries.
- Task completion includes a controlled landing in the required area.
- An airspace breach, missed control, unsafe manoeuvre, or equipment failure may invalidate the flight.
- Cross-country, accuracy, and aerobatic formats retain separate measurement and judging methods.
How the result is decided
Cross-country uses task completion and speed; accuracy uses landing error; aerobatics uses judges' marks. Competition tasks compare speed and distance around declared turn points, while accuracy and aerobatic events use different measures that cannot share one score.
Fouls and penalties
- Airspace breach, missed turn point, unsafe manoeuvre, or equipment failure can invalidate a flight.
Techniques
- Forward and reverse inflation
- Thermal circling
- Ridge lift
- Speed-bar and brake control
- Accuracy landing
Tactics
- Select lift that advances the course.
- Maintain safe landing options throughout the task.
Disciplines and variants
- Cross-country
- Accuracy
- Aerobatics
- Parahawking
Competition landscape
- FAI World Championships
- FAI Asian Paragliding Championship
Records in the reference
No stable record table is published here. Records change; use the current governing-body source before acting.
How the sport developed
Modern paragliding emerged in the Alps during the 1980s and quickly developed international task and aerobatic competitions. Paragliding developed from parachute-based slope launching into a distinct form of soaring, supported by lighter wings, specialized harnesses, and cross-country competition.
Not published in the current reference.
Play it in India
Caution · No pathway, recognised federation or public facility for this sport was found in India in KhelPath's current sources. You can learn the sport here; you may not be able to practise it competitively in India today. This is not evidence that the sport is absent from India; it is a gap in current public evidence.
- Organisation reference
- No dated organisation reference found
- Recognition state
- Not established by the current MYAS snapshot
- SAI NCOE discipline rows
- No matching centre row found
- Khelo India discipline
- Not established
- Olympic programme
- Not a current core-programme sport
- India Olympic medals
- No sport-level total in current sources
Evidence and currency
This is an original KhelPath explainer assembled from editorial research. It is orientation, not an authoritative rulebook.
Current governing-body rules link: not yet verified.