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For pilots with their own wing
The flying here is good. The logistics are the product.
If you have flown Bassano, Ölüdeniz, Bir and Roldanillo, the honest pitch for Kyrgyzstan is not "better thermals". It is this: you can fly a 3,000–4,000 m range line for a hundred kilometres over terrain with no fences, no cable cars, no controlled airspace and no other gliders, and land in a field where the first person to reach you arrives on a horse.
The cost of that is the thing nobody advertises. Retrieval is genuinely hard, phone coverage stops early, and a bad landing is a long way from a hospital. Which is why the operator you pick here matters more than the site you pick.
What decides whether a trip works
In order: retrieval, then the guide's own flying, then radio and tracking, then the morning weather call, then guide-to-pilot ratio, then everything else. Accommodation is near the bottom of that list and we price accordingly — we put money into the vehicle and the guide, not into a nicer hotel.
The four things we sell
A guided XC week or eleven-day across two or three weather systems. A vol-biv expedition in valleys with no road. Retrieval sold on its own, by the day, if you would rather organise your own trip and just need the one thing that is impossible to arrange from abroad. And gear transfer and storage between trips.
What we will ask you
Your rating, your hours, your personal best, when you last did SIV, and your XContest profile. Not as gatekeeping theatre: the vol-biv route and the retrieval zone we offer you depend on the answers, and we would rather turn down a booking than put a 60-hour pilot into the Suusamyr afternoon.
SIV
Not running. Issyk-Kul is on paper an excellent SIV venue — 668 m deep, 1,607 m altitude, warm in September, no real boat traffic — and we have no contracted instructor and no rescue boat. When that changes it will appear on the price list with a price on it. Until then there is nothing to book.
SIV over Issyk-Kul — in development
Price on request
Issyk-Kul is a 668 m-deep lake at 1,607 m with warm September water and no boat traffic to speak of — on paper a very good SIV venue. We do not run SIV yet: it needs a certified instructor and a rescue boat under contract, and we would rather say that than sell you a course we cannot staff.
| Duration | planned 5 days |
|---|---|
| Group | per pilot |
The honest version
If you want to be told when it opens, leave your address on the booking page and say SIV. No other mail will be sent to it.
Related
- When is the best time to paraglide in Kyrgyzstan?
- Does travel insurance cover paragliding?
- What rating and experience do I need for an XC trip here?
- 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?
- What happens if the weather cancels my flight?
- Kyrgyzstan or Nepal, Turkey, Bir Billing — which should I fly?
- How do I get to Karakol, and to the launches?
- Where should I base myself for cross-country in Kyrgyzstan?
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.