Online as a high-flyer

March 30, 2020

Profly offers special online courses with which even fully trained pilots can refine their flight technique. The program is called the high flyer. Michael Nesler explains the art of thermal flying, and why one should circle in thermal with as little braking as possible. // Source: www.überflieger.org In these times of the Corona crisis, many flight schools and others are switching their learning offers to web services. Most of them, however, are still aimed at student pilots who can learn the theory for A, B or winch light. For pilots with completed training there is little to be gained from webinars. An exception is the high flyer program, which is offered by Team Profly. Behind it are the paraglider designer and lateral thinker Michael Nesler and his partner and paragliding instructor Gudrun Öchsl. However, it should be noted: high-flyer is basically not a child of the Corona period. According to the Profly team, the idea of not only imparting their knowledge of good flight technology to small groups in special training sessions, but also presenting it online to a large group of pilots long before the new type of corona virus was demonstrably introduced into the world. Nevertheless, it currently fits even better with the learning opportunities of aviators. The high flyer program consists of a number of courses. They do not necessarily build on each other, but also work as a one-to-one course. I was allowed to have a look at parts of it as a test and thus got the impression: In each part a few basic things are explained in such a way that they can trigger a few aha effects even with more experienced pilots. Free trial training For example, course 1 deals with the correct harness selection and harness adjustment. This also includes the correct guidance of the brakes. For example, if you have ever wondered in Chrigel Maurer's YouTube videos why he always carries out his tax movements very close and parallel to the shoulder strap, you will find an answer here: This is the only way to prevent the tax fluctuations from becoming annoying and reducing pitch movements The harness and the glider. Michael Nesler and Gudrun Öchsl differentiate between the two and four-point suspension of the pilot on the glider. Anyone can find out what this means in a free trial training session of the high-flyer project. A second course deals with the "secret of thermal flying". Here, too, Michael Nesler and Gudrun Öchsl provide interesting insights into how you can use the special aerodynamics of a paraglider with its low center of gravity and the twistable cap to crank out a beard with as little braking effort and corrections as possible - and why you should ideally do so yourself should search and find his way to the best climb. Profly has announced a number of other courses for the coming months, such as the art of take-off and landing, unusual but efficient flight techniques or instructions on cross-country flying. Each course consists of several video modules, in which everything is explained theoretically and also demonstrated with examples in the air. You can also download the audio tracks as a kind of podcast. There are also special worksheets for each module to deepen what you have learned. Of course, all the knowledge is not given for free. Like normal flight school courses and safety training, the online courses also have to be booked and paid for. Depending on the course, you can expect around 150 to 350 euros for high-flyer training. If you do not want to spend quite as much, but still want to benefit somewhat from the world of thought and the knowledge of Michael Nesler and Gudrun Öchsl, you can do that through various books that the two have published. Some of them are currently available at a reduced price ("because of no flight"). This also includes the book Nestflucht, the first edition of which I recommended on Lu-Glidz a few years ago.

This article has been translated for your convenience and was originally written in alemán.