A few weeks ago, Leslie told me about paragliding in Carmona. I was interested so I looked it up which led me to Our Awesome Planet’s paragliding article which in turn led me to Buko, the paragliding instructor. I got in touch with him and yesterday was able to scheduled a tandem flight. For today.
Around lunch time, I drove to Petron NLEX and waited for Buko. I grabbed a quick lunch and coffee. A bit later, Buko arrived along with two others doing the tandem flight. We drove off in a convoy to the site in Carmona.
It was drizzling when we got to the site. It cleared pretty quickly but the wind was still too fast for flying. So we waited for it to slow down at the landing area. A student of Buko, arrived and while they were doing ground control lessons, I flew a kite along with some local kids.
An hour or two later, the wind slowed and we drove up the hill on a pickup and an SUV to the launching area. But when we got there, it was raining. And hard. We we’re almost ready to go when one of the guys spotted sunlight in the horizon. We waited and, indeed, after 15-30 minutes the sky cleared.
It was flying time! One by one, we did our tandem flight. Buko strapped on my gear, strapped on his own gear, gave me some basic instructions, and up we went. So that was how it felt to fly. Everything was quiet except for the wind and the occasional flapping from the canopy. We glided to the left of the hill, then went around to the right of the hill, hovered, then went around again.
After a while, it was landing time. To avoid having to drive up the hill again, Buko attempted to land back at the launching area. But the wind was too strong so we had to go around and try again. We tried for three, maybe four times, to no avail. So Buko decided to just land at the landing area near where we parked the cars.
But even then, we were just hovering there apparently (to me) not getting any closer to the ground. The wind was very strong at that point and Buko said it’s around 60-65 kph. It was at that moment that I sort of got apprehensive. I noticed that Buko folded the tips of the canopy. I asked if he’s trimming and he confirmed. Soon enough the ground got closer and closer and we went in for a soft landing.
It was an absolutely fun experience. If you’re interested in also trying it out, you can contact Randell “Buko” Raymundo at +63 917-8167820 or [email protected].
