Flying a paraglider, you're out in the open with the wind in your face.
Flying a modern glider, you're usually in an enclosed cockpit. If
paragliding is like riding a mountain bike, then gliding is like driving a
racing car. It's a personal preference.

Paraglider pilots operate more independently than glider pilots. A
paraglider is an aircraft in your rucksack that you can carry up a mountain
and launch on your own. Gliders require an airfield and other people to
help launch. As a glider pilot you need other people's help, you have to
get on with them, and you have to reciprocate.

The UK weather is not ideal for paragliding. There is a much smaller window
of conditions suitable for paragliding (especially for novices) than for
gliding. Paraglider pilots spend a lot of time - often enjoyable time -
sitting around on top of windy hills and not flying. Glider pilots also
spend a lot of time sitting around drinking tea on an airfield, but the
available flying hours are considerably greater.

The average age of paraglider pilots is younger than glider pilots, though
there are plenty of aging paraglider pilots and young glider pilots. All
flying is addictive, and divorce rates in both fields are consequentially
high!

There is a general conception that gliding is considerably more expensive
than paragliding, but it doesn't have to be. You can fly a glider by hiring
the kit from your club, and get free training. Paragliding instruction -
essential for all but the insane - is a commercial operation.

Once you've completed your training, a new paraglider is about half the
cost of an entry level used glider, but the paragliding kit will wear out
after a few years and need to be replaced. Whereas the old glider has had
all the depreciation knocked out of it and will be worth the same ten years
later. Even if you borrow the money for the glider, and take into account
the membership fees of your gliding club, you're no worse off financially
than the paraglider pilot after ten years. And you will have flown many,
many more hours.

Happy flying!

At 21:51 15 June 2015, wrote:
Kind of a biased crowd. Done plenty of all three. Soaring in anything
is
=
a weather dependent bipolar hobby. Nice thing about paragliding is it
woul=
d be fairly cheap to chase weather in Europe and bring your flying
machine.=
Sailplanes are going to get more out of the marginal days so if you
don't=
fancy travel that might be a better choice. Cost is an issue if you
don'=
t have sailplane money, sharing club gliders can be miserable as to time
sp=
ent standing around vs flying. Some clubs are much better then others.
Ti=
me to learn if you go to a sunny European training site learning to fly
par=
agliders you can get well on the way to being a solo pilot in a week or
two=
.. Sailplane training in England is through clubs, and it is the nature
of
=
the beast that most places it can take a year or more of weekends to be a
s=
elf actualized sailplane pilot. Not due to difficulty but due to limited
r=
esources. Try both, more importantly visit local sailplane and
paraglider
=
clubs and decide who you'd rather drink beer with then choose your flying
m=
achine accordingly.