I was born in June 14th 1977 in Istanbul. I’ve been living in Ankara since 1989. I’m a computer engineer. I was always interested in aviation and I was dreaming about flying, jumping off from a plane. I trained myself about flying with computer simulations.
One day I met a pilot via a friend and I told my story to him. His name was Erdoğan Menekşe, owner of Menekşe Aviation. He is an excellent pilot and skydiver. Anyway, he invited me to take a flight with him so I went to the airport and he let me drive the plane under his supervision. He has got the permissions and said to me “let’s see what you have got”. That was my first real flight.
My story about paragliding also started in Ankara. Actually I was thinking about going to Izmir for skydiving training. I shared this idea with a friend of mine and we decided to go together.
Unfortunately he was having some difficulties about his business in those days and he couldn’t manage to leave Ankara for 10 days. But he came up with another idea. He told me about one of his friends who was involved in paragliding. Although I knew a little about paragliding, it didn’t look like something satisfying for me, but I accepted to do it anyway. Then we met the guys and got some information and decided to start training with Ucus Kulubu.
First days of the training were pretty boring because of lack of wind and hot weather. But it was so funny to do ground training with an almost dead wing in those conditions. Moreover, we had insufficient amount of equipment, therefore we were sharing the stuff depending on the weight of the pilots. Here comes the worst part, when we were taking over the equipment from one who had finished his exercise, the helmet was coming soaking wet, because everybody was sweating like hell. It was really disgusting; luckily one of the guys came up with some of those bonnets they use in restaurants.
Paraglider is the simplest and the cheapest contraption that has ever been made for flying. You can experience the most pure feeling of flying; it is also an excellent way of learning about the nature and being a part of it. It is not only the time you are passing in the air, in fact you spend more on the ground, as you are camping, para-waiting (waiting for the conditions to get better) or just hanging around. I mostly feel like playing around with a bunch of kids while I’m on the ridge. I met many nice people from all around the world. We sure had great times, and I gained a lot of experience from the others. All we need is the right equipment and right weather conditions anywhere on Earth. We are ready to meet the blue skies, the cotton white clouds, and to be captured by the magnificent feeling of freedom.
In early days conventional parachutes were used by a group of people to fly from the ridges; but they were not designed for gliding. Therefore the flight time was very short and obviously cross country flight was not possible. Then designers have started to work on new projections and Paraglider have been created. Today Paraglider are dramatically improved; the gliding ratio is increased letting us fly great distances. It is also possible to perform aerobatic movements in variety for the adrenaline addicts.
As the days go by, my desire for flying has got even stronger. It has become a kind of infection that I don’t want to get rid of. People ask me if I’m scared to be in the air. I don’t know, I guess I don’t have time to do that. I feel presence and eager to continue. In harder conditions I get fully concentrated on flying to make the right decision. You see, not much time for any other things. I found myself in trouble for a couple of times, all of them were my mistakes, and luckily I didn’t have any injuries. To me, the most difficult part of paragliding is meteorology. It is not so easy to comprehend the behavior of the air in different climates and geography.
I can’t pass a single day without thinking of flying. I love these words, said by Leonardo da Vinci: ”When once you have tasted flight, you will always walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been and there you will try to return.”
- Paraglider Devrim Bostancı
