Top Gun Flight School

At iParaglide Top Gun Flight School, we take pride in having taught over 1900 paragliding students in our 26 years of operation.

We are the the longest running school based in Metro Vancouver. Due to our central location, we are the only school that flies all of the relevant kiting parks, training hills and mountains within a 3 hour radius of Vancouver.  This empowers pilots to get to know the key training and flying spots early, optimizes and accelerates learning, and allows them to grow into great future pilots.  

We have the reputation of being an industry leader with an emphasis on engineered safety systems, quality instruction, the finest equipment and a positive learning environment for fun and empowering flying.

We offer the highest level of accreditation, with Senior HPAC and Advanced USHPA paragliding instructors, who coach from first flight to expert paraglider pilots and teach and qualify new paragliding instructors.

Top Gun References

We recently graduated a CF-18 Hornet Pilot from our Top Gun iP2 Novice Paragliding Pilot program.  Read about his impressions of iParaglide.

Social Links

iParaglide Location

Located at 962 - 51st Street Tsawwassen, near Vancouver, BC, Canada, for all your paragliding needs. We are ideally situated just minutes away from the finest training hill at Diefenbaker Park.

iParaglide Flying Sites

We are central to paragliding sites in the Vancouver, Chilliwack, Pemberton, Whistler, Bellingham and Seattle area so students enjoy maximum variety and we can work with weather to optimize selection of the best location each day.

Right Stuff Equipment

We regularly test fly the latest paragliding gear and select only the very finest for our iParaglide Right Stuff Paragliding Equipment Store. This ensures our paraglider pilots enjoy a state of the art performance and safety advantage to accelerate their learning curve.

Paragliding Webcams/Wind Stations

Vancouver Paragliding Webcams - get a view of cloud base to plan your paragliding cross country flight adventure.

Woodside Mtn Webcam

Woodside Wind Station

Bridal Webcam

Bridal Wind Station

Chilliwack Webcam

Hope Webcam 

Pemberton Webcam

Tsawwassen Webcam

Bellingham Bay Webcam

Tiger Mtn Webcam 

Tuesday
Aug142018

Amazing Ridge Soaring at Torrey Pines

Very experienced pilots have been known to call ridge soaring “boring.”  I think they’re crazy :)  

Floating upwards in close proximity to the ground is one of the single most perfect sensations and powers you can possess — closer to being Superman for an hour than even the highest “big air” mountain flights.  We all know how much fun kiting can be....but just imagine doing it 5 floors off the ground in harmonious balance between your weight, the wing, the ocean breeze and your wing’s forward-thrusting profile.  

Then, like some comic book hero, you decide to go play down at some other part of the ridge a mile away, hundreds of feet above the beach, or even above a world-class golf course.  

Welcome to Torrey Pines (Southern California).  

P3 rating required — this intensive and incredibly educational and safety-oriented course programme is offered every season by iParaglide, which also offers the American equivalent P3 rating from the United States Hanggliding and Paragliding Association.

 

 

Friday
Feb092018

VIMFF Feb 9 -17 with Paragliding


 

Ever since I was a kid, I have always loved being in the mountains and the elements of nature. I started with hiking, but before long I was finding ever more creative ways of taking the short cut and riding gravity down: tobogganing, skiing, snowboarding and eventually paragliding. The beauty of mountains and their colorful sports also allowed me to pursue other passions including photography and independent filmmaking. 

Not surprisingly I have been glued to films featuring adventure sports in the mountains for as long as I can remember and the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) has found its regular mark on my calendar.

I have been honored to be invited to be an MC at VIMFF evenings, as well as be Speaker to do a feature paragliding presentation The Sky is Your Playground several years back. 

VIMFF has grown and produced ever finer cinematography and speakers over the years, and 2018 is sure to delight.

Starting this evening, Feb 9, and running through Feb 17, a great variety of theme nights abound. You can find VIMFF details here:  Shows,  Speakers,  Films

Some outstanding events include SUP Adventures night Sat Feb 10 at the Rio Theater and feature guest speaker Chris Bertish, who Stand up Paddled across the Atlantic! 

And of course, for all the great paragliding fans out there, Fri Feb 16 at the Rio Theatre brings Benjamin Jordan's film, Strong the Wind Blows, which features his attempt to cross all southwestern Canada's mountain ranges from Vancouver to Calgary. (Photo courtesy of Benjamin Jordan)

Looking forward to seeing all the latest great adventures people have embarked on.  Hope to see you there! 

Sunday
Aug132017

Top Gun Omega > Aug 19-27

We are gearing up for one of our favourite weeks in the year: Top Gun Omega.  

In the Vancouver area, the last week of August (Aug 19-27) has one of the most reliable weather patterns based on historical climate normals.  We choose this window and new local and international pilots come from around the world to join us on a week long paragliding holiday.  They leave refreshed and empowered with the joy of free flight as competent iP2 paraglider pilots!

We start the week with theory and then take new paragliding pilots out to the very finest training hill at Diefenbaker Park.

 

Students learn to inflate the paraglider to get it flying overhead...  

Load and accelerate to take-off speed in the "superman" position...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and steer and fly the paraglider at low altitude to come back down for a soft, graceful landing.

 

 

Once new pilots have grasped the fundamentals for launching, flight control and landing,  we move on to additional kiting skills at Vanier Park. 

 

Then off to Mount Woodside for first high mountain paragliding flights. The Launch Instructor carefully selects ideal wind conditions for the student and guides them to achieve a beautiful launch. 

Pilots take to the sky and soar over a stunning view while executing some graceful turns and other manoeuvres in the sky, as orchestrated by thier flight command Instructors via radio... 

 

A Landing Field Instructor guides the new pilots in for a safe, gentle landing in the valley below.  

 

 

 

 

 

Pilots never forget their first high mountain flight and the smiles after landing are huge! 

We work an optimized progression during mountain flying, soaring onward and upward. Pilots learn how to engage and core thermals and dynamic lift, to stay up, or even climb higher into the deep blue sky.

This one-of-a-kind training progression results in plenty of "aha" moments that change the adventurers perspective of the sky and mountains forever.

With Top Gun total immersion, pilots learn in a positive, efficient and empowering environment that yields more flights per day and skills being built in a synergistic manner.  As a result, Top Gun graduates enjoy a performance and safety advantage that builds a solid foundation of piloting skills that take pilots to ever higher highs. 

 

Learn more about Top Gun here. We have a couple of spaces still available, if interested, please contact us here

We look forward to working with Top Gun Omega Pod from their first steps leaving the ground to fulfilling their greatest flying dreams as certified paraglider pilots.  A lifetime of adventure awaits!

Saturday
Jan072017

Valle de Bravo, Mexico - Christmas 2016

I am at a loss for words as to why it has taken such a long time to discover this paragliding gem. What XC Mag calls 'the most consistent site in the world' is home to many a Canadian paragliding snowbird come the long dark of winter. Below is a short video of footage shot during a Cross Country (XC) Course attended over the Christmas Break and is likely the start of many return trips in the years to come.

 

 

Thursday
Jun022016

BC Mountaineering Club > Escape into the Sky > June 14

 

Perhaps you have dreamt of a moment...when you escape the confines of gravity…and take flight to soar high above the tiny, mere mortals below, unaffected by their petty troubles, like some sky god from Greek mythology. 

With paragliding you can.  Join us on a night of Discovery: learning to fly and unleashing the magic of playing in the realm of where mountain meets sky. 

We will be doing a special presentation: Escape into the Sky at the upcoming BC Mountaineering Club (BCMC) June 14 Social event.  

Held at a great venue, the ANZA Club (#3 W. 8th Ave, Vancouver: corner of 8th Ave and Ontario) on Tuesday evening, June 14, 2016.  Door opens at 7PM with the social beginning at 7:30PM.