Boone, NC · ~2 hr drive
Tater Hill
West-facing flatslope launch at 5,000′ ASL with ~2,000′ of vertical. Home of the Tater Hill Open. Magical convergence days for P2 and up.
Charlotte · North Carolina
Carolina sky.
Carolina sky.
Real altitude.
Ridgehawk is Charlotte's home paragliding school — running tandem flights from the Tennessee ridges, USHPA P1→P2 training in the Piedmont, and advanced clinics from the Sequatchie Valley to Tater Hill. Whether your last flight was a window seat or a 60 km XC, this is where it takes off.
Tandem launch
Henson Gap, TN
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2,000′Avg. ridge top-to-bottom
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3–25 minTypical tandem flight
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P1→P5USHPA instruction path
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~3.5 hrCharlotte to the launch
Three Ways To Fly
Pick the lane that fits your altitude.
First flights
Tandem
For first-timers · ages 4+
Fly the ridge with a pro on your back.
No experience needed. You launch attached to a USHPA-rated Tandem-2 instructor on a certified 40-meter wing. We do the steering — you do the smiling.
USHPA P1 → P2
Lessons
10–14 days to your P2
Become a rated pilot, in your own time.
Ground school online, kiting on the home training hill, then progressive bunny-hill to mountain flights. Same path that produced our most-flown alumni.
P3, P4, P5
Advanced & XC
SIV · Thermal · XC · Comp prep
Sharpen the saw with the pilots who've flown the line.
SIV over Lake James, thermal coaching at Tater Hill, towing days in the valley. Run with our crew at the Sequatchie Valley Open or build for your first Pre-PWC.
Why paragliding
It's the closest you'll get to flying yourself.
A paraglider is a soft-fabric wing roughly the area of a small living room. You unfold it on a slope, run a few steps, and the lift takes you off your feet as quietly as a sailboat. There is no engine. No fuel. No propeller. Just you, a harness, a vario chirping in your ear, and air that's doing exactly what air does over warm ridges in the Carolinas all summer long.
On a good day at Tater Hill, a pilot can climb 4,000 feet over launch and stay up for hours. On a great one, they fly fifty miles down the Sequatchie Valley and land in a hay field. That's all done on the same wing a beginner learns on — a soft, slow EN-A like an Ozone Moxie or Advance Alpha 7.
The bar to entry is real: the USHPA P2 rating typically takes 10–14 training days. But once you've got it, you can fly any rated site in the country. It's one of the cleanest skill ladders in aviation.
Where We Fly
The Southeast quietly hides some of America's best paragliding terrain.
Dunlap, TN · ~3.5 hr drive
Henson Gap (Burnside)
Tennessee Tree Toppers home site. Burnside grass launch is our primary tandem ridge. Flyable 11 months a year on a good west wind.
Rising Fawn, GA · ~5.5 hr drive
Lookout Mountain
The U.S. flagship. 20 miles of NW-facing ridge over Lookout Valley, the world-famous concrete radial launch ramp, and tow operations on calm days.
I was certain I'd be terrified. Twenty seconds into the climbout I realized I'd been holding my breath the whole way up. By the time we top-landed I had already asked Maren when the P2 class started. — Lana V., Charlotte · first tandem, March 2024
Your turn
The good days don't post on the calendar.
The good days don't post on the calendar.
The pilots do.
Get on the Wind Window — our weekly note on which sites are firing, which clinics are still open, and where Maren is teaching. No marketing blast, signed off by a human.