SIV Training

As a paraglider pilot, you know the feeling: a new training course is coming up, and excitement starts to mix with a flutter in your stomach. But what should a good safety training actually achieve, and what truly defines it? After 18 years as an instructor, I’ve accompanied countless pilots and learned one thing: the path to progress is never the dramatic one

Why this article?

I’m writing this text because something is important to me: I want to help create a better understanding of what a safety training really means — and what, in my opinion, it should not be.

My greatest joy as a paragliding instructor is watching progress. It doesn’t have to be a huge leap. A small improvement in motor skills, a newly gained piece of theoretical knowledge, or an emotional step toward greater joy in flying — these are the moments that make me love this work.

Over the years, I have gained deep insight into the expectations and fears of pilots, and developed a clear picture of what needs to happen for a training to have a truly lasting effect.

What pilots expect — and what concerns them

At the beginning of every training, I ask the participants what they hope to gain and what is on their minds. The goals most frequently mentioned are:

• Greater confidence in handling the wing
• Experiencing accelerated collapses
• Full Stall
• Spiral and Reserve throw

And when I ask about their expectations and inner concerns, I mainly hear:

• The desire for greater safety and control
• The fear of losing control 
• Getting to know one’s own limits
• Nervousness and respect for the training

These answers are completely legitimate. They show that the pilots come with a genuine concern — and that is a good foundation.

The real goal: you fly the wing not the other way around

It sounds simple, but it lies at the heart of everything: a pilot should remain fully in control of their actions and experiences at all times. The wing is flown not the other way around.

If, during a training, we end up with reserve deployments or uncontrolled situations, then both instructor and trainee have crossed a boundary we should not have crossed. What remains is shock, but not deep or lasting learning. Worse still, experiences like this can permanently diminish some pilots’ joy in flying.

What I wish for instead for every participant is more capacity:
capacity in body awareness,
capacity in movement,
capacity in the mind at any level.

This increase in capacity creates an understanding of one’s own limits and lays the foundation for real, lasting growth.

Ultimately, a safety training should nurture the joy of flying while also fostering humility the humility to stay within one’s limits, to choose risks consciously, and to know: I am ready for what I am doing.

My way: Less is more. Always.

Capacity grows out of relaxation. Only when we are relaxed can we use our full cognitive potential. Learning, however, happens within a narrow corridor: slightly tense, but still thinking clearly. Focused. Able to fully perceive and process a situation.

That is why, during training, we try to keep everything that happens around us and with us within a controllable range. In practical terms, this means: it is better to fly a maneuver many times in a relaxed and controlled way than to have a single rough experience in which the wing takes over. Moving slowly, repetitively, and just above the comfort zone is more sustainable — and ultimately even faster — than doing too much, too soon.

“Less is always more. A small step taken in control will take you further than a giant step taken in chaos”

Where do you stand?

Why are you doing a safety training? What should it include, and how do you want to learn?

Do you find the idea of a small, conscious step forward exciting — knowing that, over time, this step can grow into a solid foundation from which you can safely continue to develop? Or is it the adrenaline that takes center stage, the experience of the extreme above the water?

Both are possible. What matters most is one thing: don’t lean too far out of the window. Stay within your current capacities so that you can gradually expand them step by step. That is the difference between a training that truly advances you as a pilot and one that merely leaves you with an experience.

We at the paraworld.ch SIV team look forward to finding out where you stand and to accompanying you on your next steps.

Ueli