For wing and package planning, you are in a great spot. I sell most of the top 10 brands in the world. For wings, below you will find the companies I represent and below that a list of Harness companies. Each brand has a link to their home page to help you look at them and do research.
If you purchase a gear package before your 6th lesson, you will be able to apply a $800 discount for the package. After the 6th lesson, the discount is still a full $500. An estimate for a gear package is (including taxes) about $4800 – $6600 before the discount is applied, so $4000 -$5700 including the discount. For a full gear package and the discount, you need to include the following list of items:
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- A new Paraglider (for “used equipment” no discount is included)
- A new Harness
- A new reserve / rescue Parachute
- A new anemometer (wind speed gage, unless you have one already)
- A Helmet (this can be waived if you have a suitable helmet already)
- A Hook knife
Choices for a first wing include wings certified as “A” wings and wings certified as “B” wings, but not the high B wings. The lower B wings are usually referred to as “low B” or “mid B” wings. A wings have the highest recovery from any wing event like a collapse or a spin, spiral etc. Mid / Low B wings are close, but often have a little more nimbleness and a tiny bit more glide.
Occasionally a student asks to try out equipment. The two problems with this is that only a couple manufacturers have demo gliders available to try, and students do not have the experience to be able to compare. I am a very trustworthy source for helping each student choose a proper wing. After you have done a little research, we can spend an hour or two helping you with your choices (I call this a Gear Discussion). Below are the considerations:
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- Sizing your wing correctly – Sizing Discussion Article
- Checking availability
- Type of flying you want to do. Example: Are you going to hike an Fly and need lightweight gear? Do you plan on flying in the mountains mostly, or just want to fly at coastal ridge soaring sites? Are you at a consistent weight, or do you have a target weight that will soon come to be? Etc.
- Harness fitting (I often have several models that you can try in a simulator in my shop)
Top Choices that I sell and often stock
 Advance Paragliders |
 Air Design Paragliders |
 BGD Paragliders |
 Gin Paragliders |
 Nova Paragliders |
 Ozone Paragliders |
 Skywalk Paragliders |
 Sup’air Paragliders |
 U-turn Paragliders |
Harness Manufacturers
* = Sometimes stock on hand
Open Harness Models that are not reversible. Non-reversible harnesses tend to be a little lighter and do not have the complexity of engineering to enable the backpack to be built in. You can get a lightweight rucksack of your choosing and many wing manufacturers allow you to choose one with your wing choice.
Model Price Description
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- Gin Gingo Airlite 4 * $920 list Self Inflating airbag
- Sup’air Pixair 2 * $840 list Self Inflating airbag
- Skywalk Breeze * $920 list Modular, airbag
removable
Reversible Harness Models. A reversible harness is one which has an integrated backpack inside the storage area. With this type of harness, you do not need a factory rucksack (backpack), it is built into the harness. Many of the wing manufacturers allow you to swap a regular rucksack to a stuff sack, since you do not need one with this type of harness.
Model Price Description
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- Sup’air Altirando 3 $910 list Lightweight reversible airbag
self inflating - Ozone Solos + $1090 list Lightweight reversible airbag
manual inflation - Ozone Solos Lite $1200 list Extra Lightweight
manual inflation - Ozone Switch $990 list Modular, airbag removable
- Sup’air Altirando 3 $910 list Lightweight reversible airbag
Gin *
Sup’air *
