Friday, July 17, 2009

Paragliding: Engelberg from above

Yesterday our friend Kim came up to Engelberg with a tandem paragliding chute . He brought me up for two amazing flights from two different starting points on Brunni. We used his 46 m2 wing to cruise up and down the thermal winds created by the sun heating the land below us. You could stay up for almost as long as you wanted with those up-going winds. Hobby meteorologist as I am (our new weather station is hopefully up soon!) I’m really impressed by the skills of these paragliders, and how they can read the movements of the small clouds above us to find the right spots for thermal action.

The valley offers great paragliding possibilities, and has several local companies, including Flugschule Zentral , Outventure and Euroflugschule taking you up for tandem flights . Plus it’s a perfect destination for paragliding clubs schools from low land Europe (UK, Netherlands etc) to have summer camps. You can start from both the Brunni, Titlis or the Führenalp side, at various levels.


I managed to take a few pics and films below. And Kim let me steer the wing for quite a bit of the ride, but stopped my when I wanted to test a landing. Probably wise of him…


The 35km/h speed wind is causing the slightly noisy sound.


View flying over the village and our Lodge. Just above the train station in the middle it is - the small bright thing in the garden i our new sauna and hot tub deck.

View looking east into the end of the valley, towards Führenalp.

View from above Brunni, view the Flühmatt houses and village lake.


Slightly small helmet...




Happy after a smooth landing.

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