Georgian Paragliding on Facebook

For the day-to-day things, check out Georgian paragliding on Facebook. They have an excellent site, with many photographs, videos, and as you can see the group is very popular. The moderator does a great job of bringing nice new material in.


We are keeping up the blog with tags & labels, for more site-specific information. It's a little more searchable for people who want to figure out the main locations, their flying conditions, and also directed at more experienced pilots.

Paragliding in Armenia

Armenia has a vibrant paragliding club, with a good dozen experienced pilots, and formalized instruction.

There are excellent flying sites close to Yerevan, and Armenian pilots also participate in the Leonardo cross-country contests. Cloud base often is quite high, offering excellent opportunities.

The club has a good website, with much more information than we can provide here.

It's a great group of people to fly with!

Find their website by clicking here.

Rustavi Soaring | April

Here are some impressions from soaring in Rustavi. Wind like this (NW, 300-320 degrees, 10-12 knots at TBS airport, frequency 138.500) is rare, but when we have it it makes for great flying.



You see Alexander flying, and Roland launching. We were in the air for more than two hours. Generally, we stayed well in front of the ridge line, to be ready to descend in case the winds get too strong. (A few weeks earlier, winds had increased from around 25 km average to about 50 km average, within 30 min.)

Flying in Tianeti

This has been a wonderful site for thermal soaring. No cross-country beyond 10-15 km yet, going East. We did our very first flight there in 2007, and Roland did the largest distance in a single flight towards Akhmeta, landing in a small clearing. In 2008 two further distance flights East, beyond Tianeti town, and in early 2009 one more flight East, also of about 10 km.

Here for the soaring, which on a typical day can last for hours.



An even better day was this:



Super easy takeoff and landing. This is a very forgiving site.

Gudauri | April Flight

Flying in Gudauri, in early April. Definitely some powerful thermals there, but way out in the valley, so they are not easy to catch. Also, it isn't easy finding a good connecting thermal. Definitely a reason for more people to fly together.

In the distance, you see Mt Kazbek.



The launch is from Kudebi, at 3000 m, through fairly slushy snow.

Gudauri | Winter Flying

Fun, and freezing.



You can fly all the way into the valley, about 1600 m of altitude.

Bakuriani | All the Basics

Bakuriani is a lush, beautifully situated resort town in central Georgia. At about 1200 m with mountains stretching to 2600 m it provides some beautiful flying opportunities, although it's unclear whether the cloud base ever rises sufficiently to provide good cross-country opportunities. Much exploration remains to be done.

So far the main flights have been limited, with some thermal soaring. About a dozen flights have been done in this region, primarily from the range to the south, which has about 600 m of elevation above the high plateau (see photo) that stretches down to Armenia. Typically, the plateau carries strong winds from the southeast, often beyond flyability for paragliders.

Likely, a week of staying here would yield some good flying. Nice guesthouses, great views, and attractive alternatives (hiking, cycling, swimming in Tabatskuri Lake) make this an inviting prospect. Flying in winter (ski lift) is possible, but altitudes are modest and winds not necessarily favorable.

Difficulty
Generally a friendly location, with many broad spaces, easy opportunities for landing, few obstacles, good launch sites, although the wind can become strong, and regional winds may become a little tricky (it is possible that there might be some regional windshear). But definitely flyable for beginners. On the plus side, good mobile phone connections everywhere.

Launch
The main launch site is a mountain range to the south, in the direction of Tabatskuri village. Once over the pass (often guarded by paramilitary personnel protecting the pipeline, requesting ID), straight up the mountain on the left (requires a 4x4), and once you are up on the ridge, looking down over Bakuriani again, pretty much anything goes as a launch site. Note that it's windy around here. We have flown over the ridge, leeside, and landed in the Bakuriani valley, but it's a rough ride.

Here is a basic video from a good soaring day, many years ago.