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What rating and experience do I need for an XC trip here?
XC safari: IPPI 4 or national equivalent, 100+ hours, independent thermalling. Vol-biv: IPPI 5, 300+ hours, 50 km personal best, SIV within two years.
In detail
For the guided XC safari: IPPI 4 or your national equivalent, 100 or more logged hours, the ability to thermal without being talked up, and genuine comfort landing out in terrain you have not seen before. SIV within the last three years is strongly recommended rather than required.
For the vol-biv expedition: IPPI 5 or equivalent, 300+ hours, a 50 km personal best, SIV within two years, current top-landing practice, and the fitness for 800–1,200 m of ascent carrying 14–16 kg on consecutive days.
We will ask for your XContest profile, and the reason is not gatekeeping theatre — the route we offer and the retrieval zone we agree depend on the answer. A 60-hour pilot in a Suusamyr afternoon is not a booking, it is an incident with a deposit attached. We decline people, and we would much rather do it by email in March than on a ridge in July.
If you are below these numbers and still want to fly here, a retrieval day with your own tasks at a conservative site is the honest starting point.
Related
- When is the best time to paraglide in Kyrgyzstan?
- Does travel insurance cover paragliding?
- How does retrieval actually work here?
- How far can you actually fly in Kyrgyzstan?
- Can I bring my own wing, and what about gear transport?
- Is free flight legal here? Permits and airspace?
Tell us what you fly
Send your rating, hours, personal best and last SIV, and you get a specific answer — a route and a retrieval zone, not a brochure. A person reads it and answers within one working day.
Or just get the season report
One email at the end of each season with the flyable days we actually logged, and one more if the SIV course opens. Nothing else, ever.