This year I am starting the season with a new student on board. He has a few hours of kiting under his belt now, and is eager to get in the air. One of his best qualities is his attitude - that of understanding the big role that safety plays in this sport and why it's important to learn the basics over the addictive pull of "I wanna fly now!"
Teaching paragliding is different than flying for yourself. A bad cold decided to settle in, and as much as I wanted to "shake it off" and go fly on what looked like one of the best weekends of the year, I decided to stand by what we had recently gone over in ground school. Don't fly if you don't feel 100%. And since I didn't feel anywhere near 100%... I did not fly. Teaching is about being a role model - students pay a lot more attention to your actions than your words - so it's helping me to refine who I am as a pilot too.
Having a full time job makes things interesting too, in that you have to make the most of your time off and prioritize what you want/need to do on your "off" hours. Having a paragliding business blurs the line between "second job" and "free time", but when you love what you do it's not work at all. Who knows how this year will turn out, but so far it's been fantastic and looking brighter all the time.
