So, you are a licensed paragliding pilot and want to come fly in South Africa? Great!
First off: welcome, we’re so happy you’re here. South Africans love showing off our beautiful country and we love it when people leave with lots of happy memories. It’s easy to fall in love with the country and the people, but you have a responsibility to respect our rules and the environment.
Many visiting pilots come unprepared. This holds immense risk to them (injuries and a recent death) but also a risk to our sport (getting our flying sites taken away from us). Do your homework early, take care of the requirements, and you’ll have an amazing time.
None of the steps below are optional.
One: Get SAHPA membership
Everyone paragliding in South Africa needs to be a SAHPA member to legally fly in the country. Discounted temporary membership (two or six months) is available for foreign visitors and includes third-party insurance (if you damage someone else’s property). The process has been streamlined and happens fast, but do this early, in case there is an issue with your application.
Note that in South Africa paragliders are considered aircraft. These are governed by the SA Civil Aviation Act. It is a legal requirement to have Sahpa membership. It’s a bit like flying without a helmet: sure, you can get away with it, but if something goes wrong, you find yourself in a worse situation you want to be (liability claims, medical or travel insurance, and so on).
TWO: GET INSURANCE
Be sure to read the entire main article: Emergencies
We have excellent medical care in South Africa, but it isn’t free. If you are not a South African, you won’t be eligible for a medical aid, so you will require medical insurance that covers you for paragliding.
These are the only international insurance providers that I’ve found that cover paragliding while you are in SA (at the time of writing; confirm in writing from the provider if this is still the case).
- IMG Signature Travel Medical Insurance (website)
- World Nomads with high-risk level 3 (paragliding) added (coverage page)
Note that these providers, at the time of writing, only cover you for paragliding emergencies and not necessarily for:
- competitive events (so if you’re flying a competition, you may need something else, ask the comp organisers)
- search and rescue (more on that further down)
- repatriation (airplane or services to get you back to your home country, check with the providers)
For search & rescue, you’ll have access to the (free of charge) Wilderness Search & Rescue (see Emergencies and save their number), but consider getting insurance that covers search and rescue / medivacs. It costs local government hundreds of thousands of euro/dollars to send out a helicopter to pick you up; it would be nice to make sure you’re not a financial burden.
Note that your SAHPA membership includes third-party insurance. This is for damage caused to others (say, damage to a farmer’s fence or someone’s car or injury to a person).
Three: Site permission, permits & Fees
You need permission to take off from most launches. Some are privately owned, others might be in national parks.
If you want to fly Lion’s Head, Signal Hill, or any of the launch sites in Cape Town’s Table Mountain National Park, you will require a TMNP Level 2 activity permit. Get it online here. (Note that Sanparks rangers are allowed to confiscate gear and arrest people breaking park rules. They routinely do this for cyclists who don’t follow the rules or ride without activity permits).
If you’re planning to take off from Dasklip or Pampoenfontein (Porterville), you need to pay a day rate at the Flyer’s Lodge. See Porterville. (Note that people who have skipped this step received a lifetime ban from taking off from the site).
If you’re planning to launch from Kardoesie, you need to register and pay your site fee at the restaurant.
Some other SA sites also require payment / membership. Do your research.
Four: Airspace
Just because you’ve got permission and checked all the boxes to take off somewhere, doesn’t mean you’re allowed to fly anywhere from there. Get a proper briefing and brush up on the info in the Airspace page.
Five: Respect the land(owners) — a.k.a. don’t be a dick
A lot of the places you are going to take off from and land, especially doing XC, will be on private property. South Africa doesn’t have a “right to roam” as in many places in Europe (and for a variety of reasons, most people are uncomfortable with strangers just showing up on their private property unanounced).
When you land, be nice to the workers and farmers and landowners (and don’t land in their crops). Apologise (or thank them) for landing there, politely answer their questions, walk out to a gate (which you should always close behind you) or climb over at a sturdy pole (don’t put your weight on the fence wires) and walk to your retrieve driver waiting on the public road (don’t let them drive onto private farm roads). We have a healthy relationship with this community; help us to keep it that way! You’ll be surprised, you might just be given a free ride on the back of a tractor or be invited for a glass of wine (or braai!) if you play your cards right.
Additionally: smoking on private land is actually also an issue. If a fire was started from a landowner’s property, they can be held liable for damage to neighbouring properties. For this reason, they asked us not to smoke on their property (or else we lose the right to take off there). If you smoke, just do so on public roads, which are government owned, not the private takeoffs or landings; there is also less risk of the wind blowing your embers onto paragliding wings.
(We have unfortunately had cases of ugly entitlement: foreign visitors getting into shouting matches with farmers on whose private property they were not just trespassing but damaging and smoking on. Please be a good guest and encourage your flying buddies to do the same.)
Six: Join our communities
There is a WhatsApp community called: the South African Paragliding community (join it here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BbF8zaeTF6kBMJCgUgE709).
Once you’ve joined that community, you can join one of the various WhatsApp groups. The Glen Club Flying group is the largest and most active (Western Cape flying), but there are groups specific to flying Lion’s Head group, Stellenbosch, Betty’s Bay, The Midlands, and so on. They are excellent resources.
Introduce yourself, say who you are and where you’re coming from, how long you’re staying and always share your flying plans. What might look like a good day to you could very well be very dangerous and other pilots might highlight the hidden risks for you.
Seven: Understand the weather
We have weather that can be very complex and is probably different to what you’re used to. In the Western Cape we have incredibly cold water next to an incredibly hot semi-arid desert, with mountains and complex micro-climates. It might be safe to fly in one area, but just 20km away there could be life-threatening winds. It’s called the Cape of Storms for a reason.
Make sure you understand it and what to look for during your flight planning (and during your flight). See Weather and Flying sites for more (and ask in the groups).
Eight: Follow the rules
In addition to the basic rules of paragliding (always turn your head and check before you turn; always keep to the right; follow the direction of the thermal; and so on) you have to:
- Make sure you follow the requirements for each of our Flying sites (you might need sign-off)
- Make sure you don’t enter sensitive Airspace
Another unwritten rule is: don’t fly tricky sites when nobody else is flying there. We have a lot of local pilots who take every opportunity they get to go paragliding. If they’re not flying, there might be a good reason takeoff is empty. When in doubt: ask in the groups.
Some more visitor tips!
SIM cards
Cape Town (and most of South Africa) has great mobile phone reception. Calls and mobile data will be significantly cheaper with a local SIM or an eSIM than than roaming with your home provider.
If you are coming from overseas, get a SIM card for your phone at the airport. If you are from the US (and some other countries), you will first need to confirm that your phone isn’t locked to one specific network and that you can add other SIM cards.
(If you don’t do it at the airport, you’ll have to go to an MTN or Vodacom store, provide a document stating your South African “proof of address” like a utility bill or bank statement with your name and a South African address on it —which you won’t have as a visitor. Trust me: it will be faster to Uber back to the airport another day than to try to deal with all that red tape at a store)
Vodacom and MTN are the main two carriers. The process to register a SIM card is simple and straightforward at the airport: you just need to show your passport, pay, and they’ll activate it for you. You can add money or mobile data, right at the airport. If you run out, you can use the MTN or Vodacom or Snapscan apps to top up, or do so at most supermarkets.
Alternatively, if your phone supports eSIMs, you can get internet-connected without the need to get a SIM card. I use Airalo when traveling, especially when in a place for a short time (as it cuts down on admin time at the airport). Use promo code WERNER8667 and we both will get a small discount!
The biggest advantage of eSIMs is that you will be connected from the minute your airplane touches down, enabling you to send messages to those back home, and get an Uber right away.
(Note 4G/5G/LTE data are usually faster and cheaper with Vodacom and MTN than an eSIM. You could also do both: get a physical SIM card, and then use the Airalo eSIM as a backup)
Share rides
If you’re into cross country flying, you’re in for a treat. Ask in the communities: pilots are happy to share space in their car (or hop into yours). We often pay for a dedicated retrieve driver to follow us around and pick us up wherever we land (you can find their contact information here). They usually drive your car (with a fixed rate to follow you for the day), but some of them will use their vehicle (charging a fixed rate for their driving, and a rate per KM for how far they drive to follow you for the day).
Get Offline maps
Download Organic Maps and then download the maps for the parts of South Africa you’ll be visiting. It is free, and no mobile data to use, and includes all the hiking trails that you can’t find on Google Maps (very useful when you need to get to some launches or hike back to a road).
Join an organised tour
South Africa is an incredible playground for independent English-speaking travellers (and quite affordable compared to the rest of the world). Should you prefer to have an all-inclusive paragliding holiday, ask in the communities. Some operators will provide it all: pick you up at the airport, provide accommodation, transport, flight briefing and guidance, and even all meals.
Again: we’re so happy you’re planning on flying with us. I look forward seeing you on the hill!
Get licensed in SA!
Paragliding is well-organised and regulated by SAHPA in South Africa. Since accommodation, cost of living, and training are much more affordable than many other places (the exchange rate can be great for some visitors), it could very well be much more affordable to come to South Africa for a few weeks (or months!) of gorgeous scenery, delicious food and wine, and great adventure –becoming a licensed paragliding pilot in the process.
You will get an internationally-accepted IPPI card with your SAHPA license. Think of the IPPI card as an international driving permit, allowing you to use your license around the world.
The SAHPA Basic license in South Africa corresponds to IPPI level 4, the SAHPA Sport license is IPPI 5.
Happy landings!
