Our school was born from the desire to share with other people the pleasure and indescribable joy of free flight in paragliding.
We have:
- 18 years of accumulated experience
- Hundreds of trained pilots
- Full availability and exclusivity dedicated to teaching the sport
It is almost impossible to explain the feelings and emotions provided by paragliding. Everything counts: the feeling of freedom, communion with nature, flying alongside seagulls, eagles or vultures, feeling the uplift of body and spirit, leaving worries behind when we fly, feeling the adrenaline of pulling the wing and performing bolder manoeuvres, or simply socialising with other “air-minded” people... paragliding is all this and much more!
When, several years ago, the founder of UonAir decided to do his first tandem discovery flight, he had no idea that at that very moment his life would change direction. Behind him were 25 years in information technology and a degree in Anthropology, Nature and Biodiversity Conservation. In truth, what was really left behind were the computers, because Nature is truly our environment!
With the pleasure of flying came the natural evolution: many hours in the air, growing experience, progression through the flight levels and, finally, instruction.
Loving to fly is part of an instructor's soul. The other side is the pleasure of teaching, and I discovered that this pleasure is also here. It is not enough to enjoy flying or to be a great pilot. Knowing how to teach is the other fundamental component of being an instructor.
Being an instructor and teaching people to fly is a pleasure, a responsibility and perhaps even a mission. An instructor is someone willing to stay on the ground and give up their own flight for the benefit of their students. The reward is to give wings to new pilots.
The accumulation of experience and the encouragement of countless friends of the sky over the years, together with the pleasure of having already trained several pilots, were fundamental in the decision to create UonAir and dedicate myself professionally and full time to training new pilots.
The year 2020 was absolutely atypical because of the pandemic. But it was also the year in which my former instructor and friend José Cardoso joined the project. With an extensive sporting, academic and professional background, José already has 18 years of paragliding instruction and hundreds of students trained by him. Our team also includes several tandem pilots, specifically trained to carry passengers, as well as assistant pilot trainers.
I hope to remain worthy of the support, encouragement and affection of friends and former students in the mission of taking more and more people into the sky, in the most beautiful and freest way possible: carried by a paraglider wing.