A splendid view to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, is revealed from the top of the Vitosha Mountains. But the view is even more spectacular from the air. Goli Peak is the place where you’ll start to fly in tandem with your pilot-instructor. It will take 40-50 minutes drive to get there, followed by a 15 minute walk. Landing is at the meadows around Dragalevtsi. The flight itself lasts about 10–30 minutes, depending on the weather conditions.
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprising a large number of interconnected baffled cells. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.
Despite not using an engine, a paraglider’s flight can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometers, over flights of 1-2 hours, covering some tens of kilometers. The pilot can skilfully gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand meters.