Cloudbase Paragliding | Paragliding | Wilderness

Training Courses

Cloudbase Paragliding School is a SAPHA approved school.  All licenses issued are therefore internationally recognized as SAPHA is F.A.I affiliated through the Aero club of South Africa.  Cloudbase Paragliding has also established international partnerships to facilitate the conversion of the SAHPA license to your national body if required.

All the school equipment has DHV/ACPUL certification.  All school training gliders are rated for student use.  All school training harnesses comply with SAHPA regulations regarding foam back protection.  Each student is issued with a radio and helmet.

We offer introduction courses which comprise of a theory exercise and either a day on the training slope or a tandem flight.  In both cases all equipment is supplied as well as light refreshments.

After the introduction course you may decide to carry on and complete your Basic License.  Cloudbase Paragliding will provide all equipment, instructor time, Student License, manuals as issued by SAHPA, Logbook, a school manual and the first year’s membership to SAHPA.

After you have achieved you Basic License the school will support your ongoing endeavours to increase your flying skills. Pilots are encouraged to return to the school for guiding, information and the regular school nights.

We also offer Safety Courses (SIV) on our Alpine Tour, and for those pilots who wish to indulge in powered flying, we offer a PPG conversion course.

We have no fixed starting dates for courses as we are a full time school, with 2 full time instructors; this allows us to be flexible and fit in with what you require. As we are totally weather dependant, the winter months of May through September cannot be considered as reliable in terms of paragliding.

Paragliding Tours: Introduction

Cloudbase offers a number of different tours, as you are all different people!!

For those of you visiting South Africa, who wishes to fly but also have the opportunity to see some of our culture and interesting places, we offer the two week Garden Route Tour.

For those who live in the cities of South Africa and wish to have a weekend away, where they can fly, and be looked after, we offer the Weekend Fly Away.

For those who wish to experience flying on the Alps, and not have to worry about accommodation, food, where to buy cable car tickets, when is it safe to fly…… we offer the ‘Smile While You Scream Alpine Tour’, end of July and August.

And for those who wish to combine a bit of flying with a bit of skiing/snow boarding we offer the Ski/Fly Tour in Stubai in Austria, end of March beginning of April.

About Paragliding

Since the dawn of history, man could not fail to have been impressed by the mysterious phenomenon of flight. As birds and insects were constantly around for him to observe and admire, he must have longed for wings of his own so that he, too, might take off and experience the rush of cool air as he swooped and turned in the skies. Unobstructed and free, he would escape the constraints of his earth bound existence. The notion of flight would have seemed even more of a miracle then than it still appears today, so it is no wonder that wings, with their power, mobility and speed, symbolized the unearthly, the superhuman and the divine.

For man, the mastery of flight probably represents his supreme technical achievement, which, in less than a century, has enormously extended his domination of the planet.

Only in the past hundred years or so have we begun to understand the physical laws that govern flight, yet we are still moved or sometimes puzzled at the sight of a swooping peregrine, a dragonfly chasing a gnat, the humble housefly deftly outmanoeuvring the descending swat or 400 tons of jumbo jet ponderously rising into the air to weave its way freely through ‘space’, apparently defying the laws of nature.

To fly on the winds has been one of man’s most coveted ambitions throughout history. The 20th century has, to a large extent, realised that ambition. However, the simplicity of flight has always eluded man that is until now. Like no other aviation sport, Paragliding easily combines the excitement of flight with simple and cost-free preparation. To fly a Paraglider is a thrill beyond belief, and will give you many hours of enjoyment beyond your wildest imagination. Finally, a fun adventure sport has arrived that does not require the participant to be a superman.

Taking off from a simple hilltop or a mountain, pilots have been able to achieve remarkable flights, causing shock waves to ripple through the rest of the sport aviation community. The World Distance Record now stands at an incredible 502.2 km, and the Endurance Record at over 13 hours.

A Paraglider is a flexible, inflatable, ultra light gliding wing, not a parachute, but a genuine aircraft wing in every sense of the word. The pilot inflates the glider, raises it above his head and ensures that it is fully open before taking off from any suitable slope. We do not “jump” off mountains, but run down a slope in order to get airborne; using the slope exactly like a regular aircraft uses a runway. The pilot then uses a combination of ridge lift and thermal lift to stay aloft, and can choose to land at the bottom of the very same hill or mountain, or sometimes cover vast distances.