Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
The latest news is that paragliding and paramotoring is here in Muscat.
Glide through the air high above the picturesque landscape of Oman, soar across the sky, and float over winds and enjoy the beauty of a sunset blending with adventure in a parachute.
According to Syed Hamid Raza, who has started Falcon Adventures, in Oman adventure sports are the best way to explore this country to the fullest.
“I found that there is a lot of room for adventure sports activities in Oman,” he said. Syed Hamid is a retired Major of the Pakistan Army, who was involved in training armed forces personnel in martial arts and adventure sports.
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Settled in the UK, he launched a company Home of Adventures, later spread out to Kenya, and has been training children in adventure sports. “I came to Oman six months ago through a friend.
I was really stunned by the beauty of the country and its tourism potential. With 26 years of experience in adventure sports, I think, I can certainly contribute to the growth of tourism in Oman,” he said.
He has also started another company, Hawk Adventure Sports, which is providing adventure activities in schools. Falcon Adventures has started adventure sports in three categories; air adventure, water adventure, and land adventure.
In air adventure he has introduced paragliding and paramotoring. “In paragliding we have three courses namely basic, intermediate, and pilot licence course – all together will take only 10 days,” he said. In ten days you can fly.
The basic course will take three days; intermediate four days, and the pilot course will take another three days. While it will take 10 days to learn the techniques of paramotoring basics you need eight days to complete the advanced course.
“From paragliding anybody can shift to paramotoring. It is very much popular among the youth in many countries,” he added. The basic course is just an introduction, which teaches ground handling and slop running.
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Throughout the course each student will learn the basics of proper paraglider setup, inflation, ground handling, and even taste assisted take-off. Advanced lessons will get the pilot flying first with assistance and then without assistance.
The basic course and ground handling is being done in the Seeb beach near Almouj. Then the learners will be taken to the Al Nahda Dunes, which is 45-minutes drive away from Muscat, for learning flying, manoeuvring, landing, soaring, and pin point landing.
During the pilot licence course the learner has to independently control the flying. After completing the course successfully the company will give you a licence and with that you can fly anywhere in the world.
The company has got affiliation from the Thailand Air Sports Association and the Association of Paragliding/Powered gliding and Instructors for giving certificate in paragliding and paramotoring.
Syed and his team are planning to introduce these high fun sports adventure activities here in different places in Oman. People who want to join can walk in straight and no need to take any equipment.
Falcon has brought all the equipment and gears from the UK and Germany. “We are in the process of shipping in more gear and equipment. The company will naturally be converted into a club and anybody can join the club and can regularly fly with us by hiring our equipment,” Syed said. “It is one month since we launched our activities and till now we have trained almost 50 students.
The high adrenaline fun is becoming a great hit among the youth here. Another attraction is paramotor joy ride. We have two-seater paramotor and anybody who wants to fly can sit with the pilot and enjoy the ride,” Syed said.
“Here we have lot of European residents and tourists who are familiar with these kinds of adventure activities. I am connected with more than 45 famous paragliding clubs around the world.
So that way I hope I can lure tourists into this and help making Oman a paragliding, paramotoring and skydiving destination. The weather here is also perfect for such air adventure activities and it is a need to harness adventure with beauty of Oman.
Here we have mountains, valleys, and sand dunes.
This geography has a lot of potential to explore with adventure sports,” he said adding that, “Step by step we will introduce skydiving and hot air balloons in Oman.”
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The Course details
Paragliding Basic Solo Flight Course: 3 Days-OMR100
Paragliding Intermediate Course: 4 Days-OMR150
Paragliding Pilot Licence Course: 3 Days-OMR150
Contact Falcon Adventures
[email protected]
Call: +968 9195 8337
