visiting paraglider pilots

​

Welcome to NZ! 

​

40 flying sites

Auckland has an amazing variety of paragliding site. The local club lists about 40 sites around Auckland the city, some right in town, some within 30mins from the airport to the launch site. 30+ km of costal West Coast soaring on the sunset coast, Wings & Waves perfect training site, lots of bits of coast, some beautiful XC sites both North and South of the city which offer views you can't get anywhere else in the world. We list some of our training sites on the web page.

​

courses for visitors to NZ

With Auckland's superior choice of flying sites, the best internationally qualified instructors, 3 full time instructors and non-tourist prices, Wings & Waves is probably the best school in NZ for visitors to learn paragliding. Read about other reasons to fly with Wings & Waves and their NZ Champion team.

​

Auckland has endless accommodation options for all price levels. Contact us for some details. If you are in a campervan, you can perhaps even stay at the training site by the beach. 

​

As visitor learning with us, we would assume that you can come out flying nearly every day. That shortens your learning time immensly and your progress will be great. Can teach you a PG2 course in 10-20 teaching days. Once you have the basics done, you can travel around NZ with your gear and enjoy NZ from your very previledged point of view, from the air.  Check out all our courses. We cooperate with selected instructors and pilots around the country if you need assistance after your course.

​

nz weather

is a little different to the bigger continents. We are a small island in a big ocean which often means that weather systems go through faster and predictions are a bit harder than what you may be used to in Europe or the US. Please fell free to call Eva or Reuben at Wings & Waves when you are in the Auckland area, we are happy to give you our weather advise. Eva speaks German, if that is of any help to you. Best to call 9am to 10am before we go out teaching.

​

We are also listing our preferred weather sites on our website.

​

NZHGPA membership

It is a legal requirement in NZ to join the NZHGPA as a visiting pilot to be allowed to fly in NZ. I know, it's un-usual for European pilots but unfortunately, like in the US and in Australia, that's the way it is in NZ. Please join the NZHGPA online - it is $60 for up to 4 months. Easiest is to pay by paypal, or by credit card. You will need to send in a copy / photo of your license. If you have trouble with this, we are happy to help you. 

If you come to NZ for longer than a 4 months visit, you need to be a full member of the NZHGPA and convert your home rating or license to a NZ license.

​

transferring ratings

Some international pilot ratings are transferred to NZ via IPPI cards, other need to sit our tests and do an assessment. We offer a conversion course to make this easy. Here is the list of accepted pilot ratings.

For tandem pilots or instructors, the NZHGPA doesn't have a standard list of requirements or documents needed. The office may asks for one document after another which takes weeks in peak times. To streamline your application, we found you need to supply this:
 

• full NZHGPA membership, join here

• your national rating card and link to your associations website where ratings can be looked up

• a translation of your rating if not in English. For German or French, you can contact Eva at Wings & Waves to help with this. French instructor ratings have been done recently, so shouldn't need translations. We can probably help you find a fellow PG pilot for other languages if needed.

• sit the online VFR test (visual flight rule / air law). The password is vfr2020

• sit the PG2 theory test with a current NZ instructor/us. You should get 100% in this test. This is a paper format test and needs to be done in the presence of an instructor.

• documentation of a first aid course, less than 24 months old. NZ requires certain first aid standards which are NZQA Standards 6401, 6402. Basically, they are CPR training to a workplace standard. Equivalents from other countries are accepted if you can provide the details of your course and CPR is covered. Again if your docs are in German or French, Eva can help you with this. 

• you need to be proficient in English but there is no certain standard for this.

• fill out the form OPMF40

• send all this to admin@NZHGPA.org.nz and training@nzhgpa.org.nz

​

The NZHGPA may still come up with other requirements, but this will be a good start to speed things up and simplify the process.

​

3 day intro to NZ flying

If you would like a bit of a ticky tour around the Auckland or NZ paragliding sites, some intro into reading our weather, your rating transferred and some introduction into coastal flying, reverse launching et, you can do a 3 day guided flying course with us. 

​

Pilots who buy new equipment from us, get a free 3 day course with the gear. Often, we can also offer to send the gear back to your home country for you, free of charge.

​

​