How important is "Ground handling" in paragliding?

The most fundamental part of flying in the air, knowing how to get your aircraft off the ground successful.

The winds were gusting between 15-20 MPH. This wing wants to fly, you just have to figure out what strings to pull. Easy enough right?

There are many paraglider pilots who will agree that this is the single most important practice that you can do to understand your wing. Ground handling or kiting is like flying a kite, that is strapped to your body. The good news is that if you do it right you can fly. Bad news is if you do it wrong, it can fly-swat you on the ground and send you home to be with Jesus.

There are hundreds of videos in the YouTube archives on this subject.

• In Europe, most of the guys who paraglide professionally fly using whats called, "forward launch". This is widely acceptable in Europe. Most of the time, these guys have a very small launching zone. From what I am gathering, the "Reverse launch" technique is more popular here in the states.

I would say, that if you are going to be incredible at flying, the answer is yes!

I prefer the reverse launch, because using this technique, you can see your lines, the wing, and the direction of the wind. These are all very important things to look at before you suspend your body hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet off of the ground.

In the video below, I had very little experience in ground handling.

If you want to know more about the ground handling subject in paragliding, check out the link below.

Some truly great content about the subject.

Check out @paleotreats here on steemit. He was the one conducting the interview in this podcast.

http://www.cloudbasemayhem.com/episode-37-the-groundhandling-podcast/