They can fly 200 miles with no fuel. Here's how.

0:00 Rutland is the smallest historic county in England, about 25 kilometres across,

0:04 and a good chunk of that is an artificial lake.

0:07 I’m travelling through every county on my road trip,

0:09 and trying to film something interesting in each of them…

0:12 and I knew Rutland was always going to be difficult.

0:14 You can pretty much fit all of it in one camera

0:17 shot… as long as you put the camera in the right place.

0:20 So today I’m going to learn how paragliders fly.

0:24 I’m going to try and fit an entire county in one shot,

0:26 and I’m going to make this noise...

0:29 “Yaaaaargh!” (birds twittering) Which is why I

0:33 was at a former Royal Air Force base,

0:35 was escorted down a couple of the old runways,

0:37 and met Mick, who used to be a pilot in the RAF

0:40 and who’s now part of their Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.

0:43 -Tom, good morning!

0:44 -Mick!

0:45 Good morning!

0:45 -Hello, hello.

0:46 How’re you doing?

0:47 -I’m good.

0:47 Yourself?

0:47 -Yeah, very good.

0:48 Excited about this.

0:48 -Good.

0:48 Looking forward to this?

0:49 -Yes!

0:49 -So am I.

0:50 First time.

0:51 Yeah!

0:51 (both laugh) Er, yeah, the weather’s looking good.

0:55 What we’ve got to try and do is wait for this cloud to break so

0:58 we can get some sunshine on the ground and hopefully then we’ll get a climb out.

1:01 But first!

1:01 ...the safety briefing, which mostly went over my head.

1:04 Mick would be taking me up on a tandem flight.

1:06 I wasn’t going to be in control,

1:07 but there was one particular bit that I didn’t understand at the time… Yeah.

1:15 (laughter) ‘Going XC’ is going Cross Country,

1:21 perhaps hundreds of kilometres with no engine and no fuel.

1:26 And the folks there who wanted to do that weren’t certain.

1:29 They were tentatively raising their hands because the weather

1:32 that day was just on the boundary of making that possible.

1:35 XC wasn’t on the cards for me, though.

1:36 I was just trying to get all of Rutland in one shot.

1:39 As he went to set up, Mick explained where the lift for the flight comes from.

1:43 Sunshine is coming through and we just need a little

1:45 bit of solar energy to pop the whole thing off,

1:48 and then we’ll start to get some thermals, so… So basically,

1:50 the earth heats up a bit and the wind starts moving, or… -Correct.

1:54 -I don’t know much about it.

1:55 You get a spot, for example at this time of the year

1:58 a really good spot is maybe a field that’s just been harvested so,

2:02 all that nice kind of hard panned ground and you’ve got

2:05 all those bits of wheat or whatever that are lying there,

2:08 or maybe even straw bales.

2:09 -Yeah.

2:10 And that will heat up, and eventually it’ll heat up to a certain

2:13 mass that will be either shifted by the wind

2:15 onto some kind of a trigger like a building

2:18 or a tree line that will force it upwards, and then it kind of goes, “Oh,

2:21 hang on, I’m now warmer than the surrounding

2:23 air,” and it’s going to continue to go upwards,

2:25 and that bubble then releases and becomes a thermal.

2:27 Sun heats up the ground.

2:29 Ground heats up the air.

2:31 Air moves, air hits something, air goes up, lifts anything that’s in it.

2:35 And eventually, that lifting air will condense and become a cumulus cloud,

2:38 those cotton-ball clouds that look like a cartoon in a blue sky.

2:41 Paragliders can fly in other conditions sometimes,

2:44 but that would be perfect weather for paragliding.

2:48 On a good summer’s day, when you’ve got that cumulus cloud,

2:50 maybe about half the sky is covered in cumulus clouds and the rest are blue...

2:55 -Yeah.

2:56 ...then you’ve got enough sun being continually on the ground so,

2:59 they’ll spark off another thermal.

3:00 A paraglider pilot’s job is to read the sky and the clouds,

3:04 all the subtle signs of what everything is doing,

3:06 and figure out where that altitude is going to come from.

3:10 So a lot of it tends to be a little bit of luck.

3:12 You just kind of go, "It should be good, let’s go and see." -Right.

3:15 -And hopefully if you’ve got enough height you go, “That looks good,

3:18 that looks good,” and you’ll have one or two choices.

3:21 “That’s my first choice, that’s my second choice,

3:23 and then I’m landing.” (laughter) But hopefully that won’t be the case.

3:26 One of them will kick off and you’ll be at the right time.

3:28 I’ve been lucky enough to do quite a few air sports in my time making videos,

3:32 and one thing that’s always been off-putting

3:34 is the amount of physical equipment you

3:36 have to lug and the mental workload required before you even get in the air.

3:40 And yes, paragliding does involve some equipment and safety checks,

3:43 of course… but it was far less than I’ve ever seen before.

3:47 That can’t be an entire paraglider in one backpack, can it?

3:50 That is the entire paraglider.

3:51 So, you’ve got the harness set up, er,

3:53 my harness and the passenger harness in front,

3:55 and the paraglider, which… where has that gone to?

3:58 -It’s over there, isn’t it?

3:59 -Oh!

4:00 Oh yes.

4:00 He’s taken it out.

4:01 A paraglider is just a big ol’ nylon wing, about 42 square metres for a tandem.

4:07 Solo ones are quite a bit smaller.

4:08 I love giving people the experience

4:10 of flying because it’s just...it is phenomenal.

4:13 -I love it.

4:14 -Ooh!

4:15 Sorry, I’m going to just move away from you for a moment there.

4:17 We’ve got some parachutes up.

4:19 Para… -Paragliders.

4:20 Yep.

4:21 -Paragliders up.

4:22 There is an important difference, I’m guessing.

4:23 There is an important difference, yes.

4:25 A parachute is designed to fit in a small

4:28 backpack so you can descend safely from high altitudes.

4:30 A paraglider is designed to generate as much lift as possible.

4:34 Its aspect ratio, the difference between its width and length, is much greater.

4:39 That’s about a 6½:1, that one that’s going up at the moment.

4:42 -But there’s no real structure.

4:44 -There’s no structure to it.

4:46 -It’s a sling with a chute over it.

4:48 -Correct.

4:48 The structure is the air being rammed into the leading edge

4:52 and those are the leading edge cells that you can see there.

4:55 So, the air just rams in there and fills

4:57 up the wing and gives us some structure.

4:59 If we fly through some poor air and it

5:01 may actually hit the leading edge in a downward force,

5:03 it can actually collapse this and it ends up killing the actual opening.

5:07 -Oh!

5:08 -And basically, no air goes in, and the thing collapses.

5:10 -Yeah, I’m guessing that’s bad!

5:11 The tandem is designed to reinflate.

5:14 If you just went hands up and did no input,

5:16 it should reinflate itself within three seconds.

5:19 Wow, okay.

5:20 But if it doesn’t, then I’ve got to take some action to go, this is the problem,

5:24 this is what I think the corrective action is,

5:26 and then correct it to get us back to normal flight.

5:29 Mick checked the hundreds of metres of cords, made sure they were all untangled,

5:32 did his pre-flight checks and inspections,

5:34 which again were easier than on any aircraft I’ve ever seen.

5:37 He also explained how he steers.

5:40 This is what we use to control the wing.

5:41 So, if I pull the right hand brake handle down,

5:44 it will deflect the trailing edge of the wing.

5:46 It'll literally pull it down into a kind of a curtain which just

5:49 produces drag and it stops that side from flying or slows it down.

5:53 -Right.

5:53 That’s a really important safety thing,

5:55 while you’re turning a paraglider or a parachute,

5:58 you increase drag and increase your sink rate.

6:02 One of the leading causes of injuries

6:04 and deaths in air sports is turning too low.

6:07 So, when we’re flying today,

6:08 I don’t want to see your hands anywhere above this bar.

6:11 Okay, that’s fine.

6:13 I don’t want you going up here and kind of pulling on this.

6:16 -No, absolutely not.

6:17 -That would not be good.

6:19 I can 100% promise you I’m going to follow that instruction.

6:21 -Probably your hand will be here.

6:23 -Oh, now...

6:23 -Sorry, something’s…oh!

6:24 -Yeah.

6:25 In the background there is the first take-off of the day.

6:28 He’s called Nick.

6:29 -Yes, he’s got it.

6:30 -He’s got it.

6:31 And while it’s not obvious from that camera angle,

6:33 he was attached to a winch that was pulling him forward,

6:36 ’cos you might have noticed, there wasn’t much wind on the ground.

6:40 So, the initial altitude and speed comes from a mechanical

6:43 winch at the other end of the field.

6:45 You’ll hear some radio calls later between the winch and the launch site.

6:48 That winch cable has a little parachute on it, so,

6:51 there’s not hundreds of metres of metal cable slamming

6:54 to the ground after Nick gets to the top and detaches.

6:58 So, he’ll get up to probably about 700 or 800 feet on the release.

7:01 -Wow.

7:02 -And similarly for us.

7:03 He should be coming up to the top of the tow about now

7:05 and you’ll just see the parachute drop off as he pulls the release.

7:09 I think...there we go.

7:09 That’s the parachute off now.

7:11 -Yep.

7:11 -Parachute opens.

7:12 -And he’s free flying.

7:13 -Free to go where he wants.

7:14 Now hopefully he’ll find something and he’ll

7:15 climb out and he’s gone for the day.

7:18 The weather was starting to brighten up.

7:19 We could start to see some individual clouds off in the distance,

7:22 and more people were launching.

7:24 So, how many times have you rigged up a chute like this now?

7:27 Ah, it’s not a chute!

7:28 How many times have you rigged up a glider like this?

7:29 I corrected myself!

7:30 I got myself there.

7:32 -Paraglider.

7:32 Paraglider.

7:32 -Paraglider.

7:33 Not a chute.

7:34 -They’re obviously different.

7:35 -Rigged this up?

7:35 Oh, I don’t know.

7:36 I’ve been a tandem pilot now for six or seven years so,

7:39 I think I’ve done over 300 tandem flights and my own

7:43 personal flight log is probably over a thousand launches.

7:47 I’ve been doing it for 25 years.

7:50 I’ve got just coming up to a thousand hours, but I’m also an ex-military pilot,

7:55 so, I used to fly fast jets in the Air Force, so I am Maverick.

7:58 -(laughter) -Tom Cruise.

7:59 There’s no way…I’ve talked to a couple of RAF people.

8:02 There’s no way your nickname was as cool as Maverick.

8:04 No, it’s not, no, no, it’s not.

8:05 -The one I met was Bog-Eye.

8:07 -Bog-Eye, yeah, yeah.

8:08 My nickname is, well, my surname is Roche, and my nickname is Cockroach.

8:13 -Right, yep.

8:14 -There you go.

8:15 There’s Nick, just getting in.

8:17 Nick came back in to land because the thermals weren’t quite good enough yet.

8:20 So just not much up there today yet?

8:23 Not yet, because we still have that cloud cover.

8:26 We just need to get some clear bits of blue so, the sun can do its maximum.

8:31 We’ve got to have a day like today.

8:33 We’ve got to have a day where the wind is either nil to kind of light.

8:38 If it starts to get moderate and too strong,

8:40 we’re talking about maybe 12 to 15 knots of wind,

8:45 then you can’t fly because it’s too strong.

8:47 The wing cannot penetrate.

8:49 If you were to get airborne, you’d end up pointing into wind and actually

8:53 going backwards ’cos it’s just pushing you backwards.

8:55 -Right.

8:55 So, generally, it tends to be a nice summer’s day with a light wind.

8:59 More paragliders started to take off.

9:01 More clouds started to form in the sky and the day kept getting brighter.

9:05 I had a chat to Josh, who was one of the folks trying to go cross-country.

9:08 The beep-beep-beeping sound you can hear, that’s the variometer, the vario,

9:12 and I’ll explain that when we’re up in the air.

9:14 Potential for maybe a hundred-kilometre day, don’t know.

9:17 As ever, get up there and find out.

9:19 -Do you know which direction, or is it… -Er, so north-easterly.

9:23 The wind’s coming from south-westerly so

9:26 hopefully blowing us downwind in that direction,

9:28 go with the thermals and see how far we go.

9:30 100 kilometres from here, that’s what, Skegness, somewhere like that, or...?

9:34 -Mablethorpe, next one along.

9:34 -Mablethorpe.

9:35 How do you get back?

9:36 -Er, that’s part of the adventure for me.

9:38 -(chuckling) It’s sort of 50% adventure going out there,

9:41 see what happens and then when you land and you meet all different people.

9:44 I’ve landed in the middle of nowhere before and walked

9:46 200 yards and then got a lift 88k back...

9:49 -Right.

9:49 -...with a really nice farmer,

9:51 and other times I’ve had to hike 15k and get a bus for five hours.

9:55 -Alright, well...

9:56 -So, it’s luck of the draw and that’s all part of the fun.

9:59 Did he make it to Mablethorpe?

10:01 I don’t know.

10:01 I never found out.

10:02 He certainly wasn’t back on the ground before I left.

10:04 As we got lunch, blue sky started to come through,

10:08 so pretty soon, it was time to go.

10:09 I switched to my 360 camera, and suited up.

10:13 While I'm doing that...

10:15 One of the things I’m trying to do with this new series is to tell deeper

10:18 and more detailed stories and to avoid

10:21 the constant pull towards short-form clickbait or rage-bait "content".

10:24 So when Ground News reached out to sponsor, I jumped at the chance,

10:28 ’cos it feels like we’re trying to do similar things.

10:30 Ground News’ platform pulls in thousands of articles

10:33 from around the world and organizes them by story,

10:37 to show you how the left, center,

10:39 and right are framing the same story differently.

10:41 Unlike some other platforms,

10:42 they don’t push– or suppress– stories to influence your perception of the world.

10:46 They simply collect all articles on the same story in one place,

10:50 along with a lot of extra information

10:51 that you don’t find in the standard media outlets,

10:53 so readers can get to the truth more quickly.

10:56 For example, when Meta and YouTube were found

10:58 liable for a user’s social media addiction last week,

11:01 Ground News pulled together over 700 sources, and sorted them by political bias,

11:05 how factual they tend to be, and by who owns them.

11:09 Normally that amount of information would be overwhelming,

11:12 but with Ground News I could filter by any of those criteria.

11:15 For that story, Ground News pointed out that left-wing sources

11:18 tended to emphasise corporate negligence and talk about momentum for regulation.

11:23 right-wing sources described it as a legal blow

11:25 to Silicon Valley and talked about personal responsibility.

11:28 With Ground News you can compare the headlines and the takes

11:32 instead of what one outlet wants you to see.

11:34 Is someone trying to enrage me here?

11:37 What’s the context?

11:39 Ground News also shows off "blindspots", where a story has mostly,

11:43 or only, been reported/i by one side of the political aisle,

11:46 which means you get to see stories that might be outside your bubble entirely.

11:50 I downloaded the app, and I moved it to the same place where

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11:56 You can join me, and subscribe to Ground News right now

12:00 with 40% off the Vantage plan by scanning the QR code,

12:04 or going to ground.news/tom.

12:06 During that break, I got fully suited up for the flight, ready to take off.

12:10 Safety equipment.

12:12 Several layers of clothes, because it’s gonna be cold up there.

12:15 Gloves, in case I have to grab some wires.

12:18 Helmet, and er, in case there are issues with the line snapping,

12:23 these very fashionable shades.

12:25 Looking cool.

12:26 (laughter) Backpack is your harness, your seat, your emergency pack, everything.

12:32 Everything is all contained in there so, we’re all good to go.

12:35 -Alright.

12:36 -And if I was going cross-country, I’d have some food in there, some drink etc.

12:40 -Yep.

12:41 But we’re not going to be up that long,

12:43 so, there’s no need for any in-flight refreshments.

12:48 We had the right weather, so, into the harness.

12:50 Like with any tandem air sport, the passenger is on the front.

12:52 Mick checked and double-checked everything, and then we walked to the winch.

12:58 If you’re ready, we’ll just move to the middle...

12:59 Yep.

13:00 ...to where the parachute is.

13:02 That’s where we’re going to position ourselves.

13:03 I was going to have two responsibilities during the flight.

13:06 First, shifting my arms and camera after take-off and before landing,

13:10 and second, pulling the cable to detach us from the winch.

13:14 Suddenly my heart’s going.

13:16 I wasn’t nervous at all until this moment where

13:20 someone is clipping me in and clipping us in.

13:25 So that’s just connected to the winch, here, right?

13:28 So, I will have to reach down at some point

13:31 and I will grab the bottom of those two connection points.

13:34 Yes, we’d like to do a practice release, please.

13:36 -Yeah.

13:36 -Okay, so there we go, so, we’ll have a bit of tension on it.

13:38 It’ll be like that, down there somewhere.

13:40 -Yep.

13:40 So, the commands will be then, ‘prepare to release’.

13:42 So, locate the front.

13:43 -Prepare to release.

13:43 Release now!

13:45 -Lovely.

13:45 Perfect.

13:45 That’s it.

13:46 -Oh, simple as that.

13:47 Okay.

13:47 That easy.

13:48 Let’s get ourselves hooked up and let’s do it.

13:50 Ah!

13:51 Okay.

13:52 (laughs) Yeah, this went from zero to a hundred very quickly.

13:57 So, when the line comes into tension, I’m going to say to you,

14:00 “Walk forward,” and I want you to walk forward with purpose,

14:03 and leaning forward, okay?

14:04 -Don’t get… -Leaning forward, really…yeah.

14:06 Yeah, leaning forward all the time.

14:07 If we’re pulled back, just accept it but keep leaning forward.

14:10 -Okay.

14:10 -So, our last check then, let me just have a quick look at your harness.

14:13 -Yep.

14:13 -Everything’s good, you’ve got that done up.

14:15 You’ve got your gloves, you’ve got your glasses.

14:16 -Yep.

14:16 -Let’s go and do it.

14:18 -Oh...

14:18 -Green line...

14:20 -Oh, okay.

14:20 -Okay, upslack when you’re ready, please.

14:23 Take up slack on the green line.

14:25 [radio] Upslack, green line.

14:28 Right, so we can see our line of advance.

14:30 The line will come in.

14:31 -Yep.

14:31 -When I say walk, we’ll just walk forward.

14:33 -Okay.

14:34 Ooh...

14:36 -Happy?

14:36 -Yeah.

14:37 -Okay, good.

14:38 -Yeah, well...

14:39 (chuckling) -Okay, walk.

14:41 [radio] Tension.

14:41 -Walking.

14:42 -That’s it.

14:43 [radio] All out, all out, all out!

14:47 -(laughs) -Nice.

14:49 Nice, nice, nice.

14:51 -Wow!

14:51 -Just wait for it, just wait for it...

14:53 And relax, please.

14:54 So, arm, right arm behind.

14:56 -Right arm behind.

14:57 -Yeah.

14:57 Get your camera.

14:58 -Left arm behind.

14:59 -Get the camera.

15:00 Get it through that there.

15:02 We’re good.

15:03 (vario beeping) -Okay, so I can see there’s one guy here -Whoa!

15:06 ...on our right-hand side who’s in the thermal.

15:08 So, as soon as we come off, we’re gonna join him on the right-hand side.

15:11 -Okay!

15:11 -That’s the plan.

15:12 I hope my joy is coming through the screen here,

15:15 but what might not be obvious is that I’m not really sitting on anything.

15:19 Like, there’s technically a seat in the harness,

15:21 but it feels like just another layer of clothing.

15:23 -I know I can’t fall out of here.

15:25 -You cannot fall.

15:26 -I cannot fall.

15:26 -But I’m gonna just give you...

15:27 -Whoa!

15:27 -...a little bit of a push to get you a little bit more comfortable -Thank you.

15:30 Yeah.

15:30 -...into our business class seat.

15:32 There we go.

15:33 (laughter) You can just see the other paraglider off to our right,

15:39 although he’s just a few pixels on the camera.

15:41 We were getting to the top of the tow,

15:43 so it was time for me to pull the release cord.

15:45 -Okay, Tom, prepare to release.

15:47 -Preparing to release.

15:48 Release now.

15:49 Pull.

15:49 Pull.

15:50 -Lovely.

15:50 We’re done.

15:50 -Oh, my God!

15:51 -Let go.

15:52 We’re now free.

15:53 -Oh!

15:53 Oh, wow!

15:54 Oh!

15:55 (gasping) And we’re off!

15:59 Free as a bird.

16:01 -(laughter) There was suddenly nothing between me and the ground.

16:07 That winch had felt like a connection in my head, and I guess it was,

16:10 but I was now flying in a way that I have never felt before,

16:16 and it was staggering.

16:18 There’s something just on our right here.

16:20 -Here we go, it’s starting to chirp.

16:21 -How can you tell?

16:22 Here we go, there it is.

16:23 We’re now in lifting air.

16:24 But it’s very, very small.

16:26 -Oh!

16:26 Let me explain the beeping from the variometer.

16:28 It’s pretty simple, high-pitched beeping means you’re ascending,

16:31 low pitched means you’re descending.

16:33 The faster the beeps, the faster the climb…or the fall.

16:36 There are no visual cues for rising or falling when you’re up there,

16:40 so, after a while, you don’t really hear the beeps anymore.

16:44 It just feels like you instinctively know,

16:46 okay, this is what my altitude’s doing.

16:49 Mick was now trying to find his way into a thermal, into an updraft of air.

16:53 -He’s in lift so I’m gonna go to him.

16:55 -Okay.

16:55 -I can see he’s climbing.

16:56 -Yeah.

16:56 -We’re gonna go to him.

16:57 -Yes, I can see that!

16:58 Now we’re gonna come left.

16:59 I want you to put your right leg over

17:00 your left please and lean on your left hand hip.

17:02 -Ha!

17:03 That’s it.

17:03 Now we’re in lift and we’re still in lift.

17:06 This is good.

17:06 If we can get another circle in lift, we’ve now got the core of the thermal.

17:10 -There we go.

17:11 -Yes, we have.

17:12 I can feel that!

17:13 -You can feel it.

17:13 You can feel it’s just being lifted up gently

17:15 and we’re gonna try and outclimb that solo glider.

17:17 Oh, yeah.

17:18 (laughter) -A tandem out-climbing a solo?

17:20 -Here we go.

17:21 Why not?

17:22 It’s been done.

17:23 -Oh, I can feel that!

17:24 Yep.

17:26 This is looking good, Thomas.

17:28 We like.

17:29 (laughter) We like.

17:32 Yep.

17:33 We’re now going up, let me see, about one metre a second.

17:36 So that’s good.

17:37 I realise now I didn’t quite follow Mick’s instructions there.

17:40 I didn’t put my right leg over the left,

17:42 but the reason I’m holding that position and leaning is to alter

17:46 both the drag and the centre of gravity so we can turn faster.

17:49 Apologies if the shot is a bit dizzying, but there is a good reason,

17:52 Mick is trying to keep us inside the thermal,

17:55 inside this little patch of air that is going

17:57 up so quickly and taking us along for the ride.

18:00 Just a gentle lean on that side, that’s all.

18:01 Ah, okay!

18:02 That’s...

18:03 Wow.

18:03 -Nothing major.

18:04 Just helps the efficiency.

18:06 And we’re now going up at 1.8 metres per

18:09 second and we’re passing 1,200 feet above the ground.

18:13 And this is just a chimney of air going straight up.

18:15 That’s it.

18:16 Just a bubble of air which we are

18:19 in the middle of, taking advantage of all this free,

18:22 absolutely free, God-given lift.

18:25 -(laughter) Oh, I’m just looking down at how,

18:29 um, how small everyone looks down there.

18:31 They’re gonna get much, much smaller, Tom.

18:33 -Yeah?

18:34 -Oh, hello!

18:34 -And here’s the other guys joining us.

18:36 ’Cos we’ve spotted the thermal and they’re coming to join us.

18:39 Oh, wow.

18:40 And note, he’s turning left ’cos we started it.

18:42 -’Cos we’re turning left.

18:43 -Yeah, and we’re at the top.

18:45 And it’s a hell of a lot easier

18:47 to avoid collisions when you’re all going the same way.

18:50 -Oh, absolutely.

18:51 Yep.

18:51 There’s no risk of an oncoming paraglider.

18:53 -Nope, nope.

18:53 Here he is.

18:54 Oh, we’re being outclimbed by the solo here.

18:56 I know.

18:56 So, he’s got a better part of the thermal,

18:58 so we’re gonna move over towards his area.

19:01 -Yep.

19:01 And we’ll join him.

19:03 Alright, I’m gonna stop leaning to the left.

19:05 The weather was near-perfect, and we just kept climbing.

19:08 Two and a half metres every second.

19:10 Two and a half metres a second up.

19:12 -Yeah.

19:12 That is genuinely, like, elevator speed.

19:14 Yeah, we’ve gone out one side.

19:16 So, we need to just extend slightly towards the lake, I think.

19:19 Because I think it’s just a little bit more over on this side here.

19:22 So that’s the town of Stamford you can

19:23 see down there just past the big cement works.

19:25 -Wait, that’s Stamford down there?

19:26 -That’s Stamford down there, yeah.

19:27 Oh!

19:27 I’ll wave to Colin Furze.

19:29 He’s down there somewhere no doubt.

19:31 (laughter) Mick read the sunlight, the other gliders,

19:34 the feel of the wing and how we were moving about in the air,

19:37 and he was able to find thermals through what seemed like magic.

19:41 And what really surprised me was:

19:42 it’s not a gradual change at the edge of a thermal.

19:45 The lift doesn’t slowly go away over a few seconds.

19:48 When you move out of a thermal,

19:49 it feels like you’ve passed through some magic wall.

19:52 You feel like you’re dropping down just

19:54 because the updraft goes away like (snaps) that.

19:56 And then you get back into the thermal and, hup, off you go.

19:59 Find out exactly where the sweet spot is of the thermal.

20:02 -Right.

20:03 -To maximise our climb.

20:04 -Oh, so we’ve just to go… -Oh, I felt that.

20:06 Oh, we just got out the front.

20:07 A little bit too far forward.

20:09 -(laughter) I felt that, though, we… -Here we go, we’re back into it.

20:11 Here we go, we’re back into it now.

20:13 Then something happened that… (sighs) I hadn’t realised that there was

20:17 something different from every other time I’ve been up in the air,

20:20 every time I’ve been fortunate enough to do something like this.

20:27 This is incredible!

20:30 Wait, it’s quiet.

20:31 Yeah, nothing.

20:33 It is beautiful.

20:35 I mean, there’s the vario going, there’s us talking to each other,

20:38 I’m making the whole thing a bit loud.

20:39 -Yeah, that’s it.

20:40 But for a solo pilot up here, -That’s it.

20:42 Nothing else.

20:42 he was able to shout and ask how I’m doing and we heard him,

20:46 from, you know, a good distance away.

20:48 Yeah.

20:49 It was…quiet.

20:51 There was just the rush of air and the beeping of the vario, and that was it.

20:58 If you’re on your own up there, you’re just flying like a bird.

21:02 This is now going up at three metres a second.

21:04 -Three metres a second!

21:06 -Free, gratis.

21:06 No fuel used.

21:08 -No fuel.

21:09 -No.

21:09 Just natural energy from the sun.

21:13 We’re so high up.

21:15 We’re now coming up to… we’re over 3,000 feet.

21:18 3,100 feet.

21:21 -Ooh, hello!

21:22 -Wheyy!

21:23 What was that?

21:24 We just got a collapse, though.

21:25 We went out to the edge of the thermal and the… Right,

21:27 and the wind just deserted us.

21:29 -The…one side did.

21:31 -Right.

21:31 So, we’re gonna go forward now, 'cos we’re high enough.

21:33 Yeah.

21:34 (laughs) We’re gonna fall out the front of this thermal.

21:36 -Alright.

21:36 -Not fall, but literally we’ll just fly out the front.

21:39 -You’ll feel it going.

21:40 -Yeah.

21:40 It might get a little bit choppy.

21:42 -Oh yeah, it will.

21:43 -Oops.

21:43 Whoa!

21:44 Hohoho!

21:45 I’m glad I’m not scared of stuff like that anymore.

21:48 If this was five years ago, I’d be having a full-on panic.

21:52 -Yeah.

21:52 Three thousand feet up and no engine.

21:55 And there you have it, all of Rutland in one shot.

21:59 Although, as Rutland’s only about 25 kilometres across, if you do the maths,

22:03 technically you could be on, like,

22:05 the roof of a five-storey building and see all of it.

22:08 I don’t think Rutland has many buildings that tall though.

22:11 We’ll try and fly out of the cloud now, forward.

22:13 -Yeah.

22:13 -That will naturally put us into sinking air.

22:15 -Okay.

22:16 And if it doesn’t sink, I’ve got techniques to get us down.

22:19 (laughter) -Like spiral dives.

22:22 -Like what?

22:23 The spiral dives will happen shortly.

22:25 We weren’t going to do those at that altitude.

22:27 But for every bit of air lifted up,

22:29 another will be coming back down towards earth.

22:32 -Little bit choppy.

22:33 -Little bit choppy.

22:35 That’s because we’re now going into big sinking air.

22:37 Going down at three metres a second now.

22:39 -Oh, wow.

22:39 I’ve said ‘wow’ so many times.

22:41 I don’t have a better word for this.

22:43 -This is incredible.

22:44 -“Awesome!

22:44 Awesome.” (laughter) You’ve taken some Americans up before, then.

22:48 -Yes!

22:49 This is a kind of, a general kind of height that you’re flying cross-country.

22:52 You’d be up at the cloud base.

22:54 The cloud base today, if we went up to the cloud base,

22:56 would be about 4,500 feet.

22:57 So you get up to cloud base...

22:59 Wait, we’re closer to the clouds than the ground right now?

23:01 Oh yeah, yeah, we are.

23:02 And then we’d then set off on a glide and go downwind

23:05 on a glide and then go back up to cloud base again,

23:09 hopefully finding another thermal.

23:10 And that’s the plan if you’re going cross-country.

23:12 You go, sink a little, get some distance, find a thermal.

23:15 Yeah, yeah.

23:17 You want to spend as little time climbing, so,

23:19 you ideally want to find a nice strong thermal.

23:22 -Wait, we’re just going… -Whoa!

23:23 -Whoops.

23:23 -That felt like up.

23:25 No, that’s just a little...

23:26 (vario dipping) a little...too small a column.

23:29 You wouldn’t be able to turn in that.

23:30 That’s how they do it.

23:31 Up in a thermal, up in a column of air, glide to the next one.

23:36 For hours at a time, for hundreds of kilometres if the conditions are perfect.

23:40 Which means there was only one thing left to do.

23:43 If you really need to descend very quickly, there is the spiral dive.

23:50 -Oh, wow!

23:50 -Now we’re going.

23:51 Oh, that’s some G-force!

23:53 Aaaargh!

23:54 Aaargh!

23:55 Oh!

23:58 -Oh, my word!

23:59 -You okay?

24:01 -All good!

24:02 -And...coming back out.

24:03 Oh!

24:05 So, it turns out, whohoho!

24:09 -There we go.

24:09 -When you pull what felt like 2G with a 360

24:12 camera on a very long stick… -(laughs) It was quite heavy.

24:16 It’s quite heavy.

24:16 I’ve got the wrist strap on, but, um,

24:18 the audience will have an interesting shot there.

24:21 What 2, 2½G that felt like?

24:23 -Yeah.

24:23 I’ll just do now one to the right here.

24:25 -Okay.

24:25 -Coming down...

24:26 -I’m gonna brace for this one.

24:28 -And…cutting in.

24:29 -Go for it.

24:31 There we go.

24:33 Aaaargh!

24:35 Yaaaaargh!

24:39 And...going out slowly...

24:43 Oh!

24:47 Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

24:49 -All good!

24:50 -Excellent.

24:51 As we came in to land, I thought, I want to do this.

24:54 Much as I like flying,

24:56 I’ve never learnt to parachute or fly a plane or do any air

24:58 sports because it always seems like so much expense and so much effort.

25:02 With a plane, you have to learn all the controls and equipment,

25:05 you have to pay for fuel every single time.

25:06 You have to do so many pre-flight checks.

25:08 You have to maintain your flying hours.

25:10 It’s so much.

25:11 With a parachute, you get one jump, maybe a minute of free-fall,

25:15 and a few minutes of coasting down to the ground,

25:17 and then you have to repack everything and take the plane back up.

25:21 It’s expensive.

25:22 It’s hassle.

25:23 The equipment for paragliding fits in two bags.

25:26 I’m not gonna say it’s cheap,

25:27 but it is far more accessible than basically any other air sport.

25:31 Hundreds of kilometres and the fuel is free.

25:34 So, I think I might have found myself a new hobby,

25:36 because what a joy to be up there for as long

25:39 as your skill and the weather allow you to be.

25:42 I tucked my arms back through the harness and got ready to land and to run.

25:46 Mick warned me about ground rush, the optical illusion of the ground rushing up

25:50 to meet you as you realise how close it is.

25:54 So, be ready, as the front foot hits the ground, it should already be running.

25:58 -Okay.

25:58 -Rather than static, otherwise… Otherwise I’m gonna trip over

26:01 and you’re going to trip over behind me.

26:02 Correct.

26:02 It’s all going to look very, very ugly.

26:07 Oh, you’re right about ground rush.

26:08 That’s, uh… Right, here we go.

26:09 There’s going to be a lot more ground rush coming up.

26:11 -Yep.

26:11 -So, just be ready for it.

26:13 -Okay.

26:13 -But we should be fine.

26:14 Should be fine, Lee!

26:16 Here we go and I’ve got to accelerate now.

26:17 -Yep.

26:18 -As we’re coming down.

26:19 Just going to accelerate.

26:20 -Yep.

26:21 Not that much.

26:22 We’re going to start to slow down about now.

26:24 -Yep.

26:25 -Here we go.

26:26 And slowing down, slowing down, slowing down.

26:27 And stand up.

26:28 Stand up, stand up, stand up.

26:29 -Yep.

26:30 And move forward, move forward, move forward.

26:32 And let the wing come down to the left-hand side.

26:33 Look at the wing.

26:34 And we’ll just let it come down to the left hand side.

26:36 Yep.

26:37 Here it comes.

26:38 Collapsing, collapsing, collapsing.

26:40 And that’s it.

26:41 We’re done.

26:42 -Oh, thank you so much!

26:44 -High five!

26:45 Pleasure, Tom.

26:45 -I nearly hit you in the face there!

26:46 -Pleasure, pleasure.

26:47 -Thank you so, so much.

26:49 -That was perfect.

26:50 -That was so good.

26:52 We had a great climb out, and, you know,

26:54 we got up to three grand which is just superb.

26:56 -Oh...

26:57 Doesn’t get any better than that.

26:59 (laughs) That’s a wrap.

27:02 Thank you so much.

27:03 Oh, my word...

27:06 (gasps) Next time, or right now on Nebula:

27:10 can you solve the mystery that I didn’t even notice?