Motivation: the cornerstone for cross-country flights
In my opinion, motivation is the cornerstone for cross-country flights; in fact, motivation is the motor for everything in Life!
Take a pilot, give him the best paraglider ever, on the best day with cumulus clouds, with the best harness,... but if he is not motivated, he probably will land just a few kilometres behind the mountain.
On the other hand, take a very motivated pilot, with a standard paraglider, in a not very good day for cross-country flights and for sure that he, or she, will fly as far as possible.
Because of this, we had a very clear goal when we designed the XC Camp: we had to motivate the pilots.
But every pilot is different, and everyone has different goals. The first lesson in our cross-country masterclass is that each pilot needs to find his/her own motivation, and this can be different every single day.
What's the paragliding XC Camp?
Our XC camp is a training week specific for pilots who want to fly far away. It is an intensive Advanced Course for paragliding pilots - of all levels of experience - who come together to create an environment of camaraderie and friendship!
Each day, the pilots learn how to design a good cross-country route with the support of an experienced instructor, who suggests daily tasks to improve their capabilities and confidence. The main job of the coach is the safety, but also to keep a high level of motivation for the pilots.
We are very impressed with the results obtained, especially on the last XC Camp in May: most of the pilots in the group had not too much experience and some of them had never flown cross-country but at the end of the week all of them did!
During the week the pilots learned some technics for finding thermals, they improved the piloting in thermals and other tricks. Some of them flew from Algodonales to Montellano and the rest in the group flew a local mini-triangle.
The last day we had to fly from Algodonales to Ronda, 30 km: Hannu was the pilot who landed on the goal. Joonas and David also almost reached the goal and some pilots as Mike, Joan and Elain made their first cross-country flight, flying further than 20 km.
We are very happy with the results obtained and we keep working to improve the training system for the following Paragliding Cross-country Camp. Maybe you would like to join us!