Carmona Paragliding: Flying High near Manila

Paragliding in Carmona Cavite It’s amazing how these pilots can figure the knot speed of the wind, the direction and the incoming weather di...

Paragliding in Carmona Cavite

It’s amazing how these pilots can figure the knot speed of the wind, the direction and the incoming weather disturbance on the horizon just by looking at this simple flying device flapping in the wind and hooked on the pole. “The conditions are ideal for flying” I heard one of the pilots say that morning. “Window is open. We’re ready to launch!” I heard another voice from a handheld transceiver radio. Soon I saw a wing spread up to the sky from a ridge and soon I saw some guy soaring high. He was paragliding! We were at the Carmona Paragliding site to witness and experience the joys of flight just an hour away from Manila.

Me up in the air for a Tandem Paraglide (Photo by Kara of Travel Up)

Paragliding

[pullquote]Paragliding is the closest feeling of flying like a bird ~ Buko Pie[/pullquote]

It is one of those adventure sports in my bucket-list that I would like to try out at least once in my life. Paragliding isn’t as simple as opening a wing, getting strapped into a harness and jumping aimlessly to catch a wind. As I’ve learned from, Buko Pie (as people fondly call him since he loves buko), the only certified paragliding instructor in the country and a gold-medalist from the sport, paragliding entails discipline. To Buko, it is one of the safest adventure sport to try as long as the pilot, the one flying on a harness, is well disciplined. They have to undergo trainings and each flight is logged. The more the pilot knows, the more they put safety in what they do.

Carmona flysite

Launching from the ridge

Look at the wing

Marky of NomadicExperiences on his tandem flight

Sir Rolly Magpayo carrying his equipment after landing

Actor Ian Veneracion joins in on the paragliding fun

View from the top

Carmona Paragliding

When sir Rolly Magpayo extended an invite to try out paragliding, I didn’t hesitate since the site is near Manila. The Carmona Paragliding fly site is about an hour away without traffic. Found nearby a subdivision, the farm ground is vast and there’s a nice ridge where the launching site is located. We had to do a little hike to get to the top since the the rains the day before caused the road to be real muddy for cars to pass by except for 4WDs.

From above, we could see Mt Makiling and a race track nearby. Everything went fast when it was my turn to fly. They put on the harness and the helmet, I got a little briefing on what to do when landing. They handed me the GoPro I can borrow to document the experience and soon I was on air. So this is what it feels to fly. Personally, it feels like I’m on a very high swing being pulled by the air. Once riding the wind, it was simply soaring and I got into interesting conversation with my tandem pilot Ditoy from Saranggani. He said, depending on the wind, people can paraglide for hours to thousand meters high and even go cross country. There are so may factors affecting a flight aside from the wind. There’s the thermal heat from the ground and also the heat from the sun. The landing part was also the exciting part of the ride. It may look daunting but veteran paragliders can lightly descend on the ground, tiptoeing down like an angel quickly pausing mid flight for an effortless landing. Being new to this, I just followed the instruction to simply walk and turn left. And there we go. It was easy and fun and I would definitely do it again!

The launching site on the ridge

Fly for a Cause

The Carmona Paragliding is operated by AirSports Adventure Philippines. And this holiday season, from December 17, 2014 to January 16, 2015, Tandem Paragliding adventures in Carmona will benefit the Persons with Disability Educational and Assistance Program of Municipality of Carmona, Cavite. Weekday rates Php 3000/person and weekend rates Php 3500/person. Flight duration is usually 5–15 minutes depending on prevailing weather and wind conditions.

For booking, visit www.airsportsadventure.com

GoPro-ing on air (Photo by Kara of Travel Up)

To be up there in the clouds. A one-of-a-kind experience (Photo by Kara of Travel Up)