Straight answer, no fine print: CHF 11,000 to 12,000 from zero to your Swiss licence. That covers the training (CHF 4,500), your own complete equipment (CHF 5,500 Regular or CHF 6,000 Light, yours to keep), the official SHV fees and the cable cars during training.
Of that total, what you pay us for the training is CHF 4,500, or CHF 6,300 if you bring your own gear (Basic Training CHF 1,900 + High Flight Course CHF 4,400; includes a 30-minute airworthiness review of your kit, and a full check (CHF 300) plus a reserve repack (CHF 90) if the review calls for them). Everything else (SHV membership CHF 120, liability insurance CHF 82.50, two exams at CHF 125, cable cars CHF 8 to 20 per flight) goes to the association, the insurer and the lift companies, not to us. The full itemised breakdown is on our prices page.
Already have some training, hours or your own equipment? Then do not just take a package price off a website, ours included. Tell us what you have already done and we will put together an individual offer: you should never pay twice for something you already know. And before you buy any second-hand gear, send us the listing. Unairworthy wings do circulate, and checking one costs you nothing.
Let's start with the official answer, not with a scare: SUVA does not classify paragliding as a high-risk sport, and your standard Swiss accident insurance covers it, no surcharge, no special policy. Very few adventure sports can say that.
That said, it is aviation, and it carries real risks; anyone who tells you otherwise is selling, not teaching. What the statistics and 30+ years of Swiss training experience show is that risk is overwhelmingly a function of training quality and pilot judgment: not luck. That's why you fly with a radio in your ear on every single flight, why our groups never exceed 3-8 students per instructor, why honest weather decisions are part of the curriculum ("YOU are the pilot, YOU decide", but never alone while you learn), and why mental training is built into the course.
Very likely yes, and you're not alone, this is one of the most common questions we get. Fear of heights and fear of flying are two different things: height-anxiety is triggered by standing at an edge with your body telling you that you could fall. Under a wing you are sitting securely in a harness, moving with the air, most height-anxious people report feeling surprisingly calm. We start on gentle training hills a few meters above the slope and progress only at your pace. A healthy respect for the air is not a weakness; it's the foundation of a good pilot.
No. Some of the best students start in their 40s and 50s, they typically fly with more patience and better judgment than younger students, and paragliding is a sport you can enjoy for decades. If you can walk up a small hill and jog a few steps, you can learn to paraglide. Our flexible scheduling is designed exactly for working adults. (Minimum age: 15.)
The full training consists of 2-5 days of basic training on the training hill, followed by high-altitude flights. You have up to 12 months from your first flight to complete the course. Most students finish within 3-12 months. If you have time and conditions are good, it's possible to learn everything and pass the exam in 3-4 weeks. Contact Miki for details. Want the fastest honest path? See our new Intensive Course 2027: 3 focused weeks + 1 month of school days included.
The Full Training includes: basic training on the training hill (2-5 days), unlimited high-altitude flights (up to 12 months), all theory lessons (Aerodynamics, Meteorology, Flight Practice, Air Law, Material Science), equipment provided until your first high flight day, 25 planted trees, access to the FlightDeck app for progress tracking, and optional instructional tandem flight with Miki. It prepares you for the Swiss IPPI4 pilot license.
The cheapest way to find out is an instructional tandem flight with Miki, from CHF 185: ninety minutes, and you will know. If you want your hands on a wing, Basic Training (CHF 1,900) covers 1-5 days of ground handling, training hill exercises, your first low flights and 1-3 high-altitude flights, all equipment included. It counts fully towards the Full Training if you continue.
No! We provide all equipment during basic training and up to and including your first high flight day: paraglider, harness, helmet, and reserve parachute. After that, you'll need your own gear, and we offer personal consultation to help you choose the perfect equipment based on your weight, skill level, and flying style.
The total investment depends on whether you purchase equipment from us:
Option A, buy your equipment from us (most popular): Full Training CHF 4,500 + your set, CHF 5,500 (Regular) or CHF 6,000 (Light) = approx. CHF 11,000–12,000 all in.
Option B, you already have your own equipment:CHF 6,300 for the training (Basic Training CHF 1,900 + High Flight Course CHF 4,400, taken together or as two separate steps, the total is the same), including a 30-minute airworthiness review of your kit. If the review shows something needs a closer look, a full check (CHF 300) and a reserve repack (CHF 90) are available at our Checkcenter, or we recommend the right equipment if the honest conclusion is that yours should not fly. Talk to us before you buy anything, anywhere, before you pay rather than after.
Additional costs either way: SHV membership (CHF 120/year), liability insurance (CHF 82.50/year), cable car tickets (CHF 8–20 per flight), theory & practical exams (CHF 125 each). We help you plan the budget step by step.
3-8 students per instructor. This is our core philosophy. Unlike larger schools, we ensure you get individual attention, real-time guidance in the air, and the ability to practice maneuvers together with your instructor. It's closer to private coaching than a group class.
Training and theory are available in English, German, and Hungarian. It's important that you understand everything clearly, especially in the air, that's why we teach in your preferred language.
You don't need to be an athlete! Basic fitness is enough. You should be able to jog short distances (for take-off runs) and carry about 6-12 kg (the weight of the gear). The minimum age is 15. If you have any health concerns, we're happy to discuss them beforehand.
Safety always comes first. If the weather doesn't allow flying, we reschedule, that's one of the benefits of our flexible approach. We can also use weather days for theory lessons. Since our schedule adapts to your availability anyway, a postponement is never a problem.
✅ Small groups (3-8 students per instructor): Nearly private coaching ✅ ECO-friendly: Electric vehicle transport, tree planting after every course ✅ FlightDeck app: Digital flight book, progress tracking, GPS tracking ✅ Video analysis: Slow-motion review of your flights ✅ Mental training: Psychological preparation included ✅ Flexible schedule: Perfect for working professionals ✅ Multilingual: English, German, Hungarian
Yes. Most of our students speak English fluently, and we normally run the ground briefings in English. In the air, you get the radio instructions in the language you react fastest in: if German or Hungarian is your mother tongue, that is what you will hear through the radio. This is worth checking carefully wherever you train; at many Swiss schools the theory is available in English but the day-to-day flying happens in Swiss German.
We do, verifiably: FLYwithMIKI is based in Kriens near Lucerne, and our hard limit is 3-8 students per instructor, with deliberately only about 20 new students per year. That second number is the one to ask any school about; "small groups" on a website means little without a cap on yearly intake. Our training sites (Zugerberg, Rigi, Emmetten, Engelberg, Wolfenschiessen) are all within about an hour of Lucerne. If you want to compare schools systematically, we published an honest guide to choosing a school, including where we are not the right choice.
Honest answer: 3 weeks is enough to reach the exam, but not enough to make you a confident pilot. That is exactly why our Intensive Course 2027 does not end with the exam: after the 3-week block (from 1 June 2027, 18 training days) you keep flying with us on regular school days through the whole of July at no extra cost. Most intensive courses in Switzerland stop when the exam is passed; we think the first weeks after the licence are when accompaniment matters most.
No, and any school should answer this question in plain numbers. With us: CHF 4,500 with our equipment package (set CHF 5,500 or 6,000, yours to keep), or CHF 6,300 with your own gear, which includes a 30-minute airworthiness review of your kit (a full check (CHF 300) and a reserve repack (CHF 90) are available at the Checkcenter if the review calls for them). Both prices are printed side by side on the prices page, no fine print. One warning from experience: before buying second-hand gear, send us the listing. Porous fabric, shrunk lines or a long-unpacked reserve are invisible in photos, and we check listings for free even if you buy elsewhere.
Plan for roughly 6 to 12 months: the licence needs about 50 high-altitude flights plus theory, and on a good flying day you typically log 2-4 flights. The honest variable is not your calendar but the weather; that is why our course has no fixed dates and unlimited flights: you come Thursday to Sunday whenever you can and the conditions are right, and a rained-out month costs you nothing. You have 12 months from your first flight, and if life interferes, we talk and find a solution rather than invoice one.
Yes, and not just briefly: it is a fixed part of how we work. Enrolment here does not start with a form and an invoice. First you message us, then we schedule a free 30-to-60-minute video call with Miki himself: you learn how he thinks and teaches, he learns what you need, and you both find out whether the chemistry is right. Only after that call, if both sides are convinced, do you enrol. Learning to fly is a matter of trust, the course is a serious investment, and the most expensive mistake is paying a school and then discovering you are not on the same wavelength as your instructor. At most schools your first contact is an administrator; here it is the person who will stand next to you at your first launch.
Absolutely! We offer several options:
High Flight Course (CHF 4,400): for pilots with basic training done elsewhere, includes 60 high-altitude flights over up to 6 months. This is also the recommended path if you already have your own equipment.
Basic Training (CHF 1,900) + High Flight Course (CHF 4,400): the same licence path split into two steps, if that suits you better. Together they come to CHF 6,300, exactly the same as taking the whole path with your own equipment in one go, splitting never costs extra.
A day with us (CHF 250): join a school day that is already running, whenever you want to fly with us without committing to a full course.
We'll assess your level and create a plan that fits your goals and budget.
Less than you would think, and the honest answer surprises most people: where a paragliding school has its office matters very little for the flying itself. We go where the weather is good that day and where the terrain suits what you are practising, which in practice means the same handful of sites in Central Switzerland that every school in the region uses.
That is why searching for a "paragliding school in Basel" or "in Zürich" is a little misleading: there is no training hill inside those cities, so whichever school you pick will drive you to roughly the same places we do. We have had plenty of students from Basel and Zürich, and some who come across the border from Germany.
You do not need a car. On every single training day we offer a shuttle for students without one, and for anyone who would rather not sit in the afternoon traffic heading back towards Zürich. Pickup point: Kriens, Kupferhammer bus stop (the side heading towards Luzern), which is easy to reach by train and bus from Basel or Zürich. From there we drive to the flying site together and back again, and honestly some of the best learning happens in the car, going through the day's flights and the theory behind them while everything is still fresh. See the pickup point on the map →
When you sign up. We are a small school, so we are flexible: there are no fixed intake dates to wait for, and once you are signed up we normally find your first training day quickly.
The one exception is the intensive course, which has a fixed start date. The next one begins on 1 June 2027. See the intensive course →
Yes, and the large majority of our students do exactly that.
Weekends are the backbone of it. If your working hours are flexible, or you simply have a free weekday, we fly during the week too. In practice we are usually out Thursday to Sunday when at least two students are signed up for the day.
Life gets in the way sometimes, and that is fine. Missing a couple of weeks changes nothing. If several months go by, the sensible move is usually a training-hill day to get your reflexes back before you return to high flights, but the best approach is always to talk it through with Miki and decide together what actually fits your situation.
On our first call, tell us the story: where you flew, how many flights, how long ago, and how far you got in the training. The course is then built around that, and you never pay twice for what you already know.
If your experience genuinely lets us shorten the training, that shows up in your offer. Sometimes that means a shorter course; sometimes, for example when the training hill can be reduced to a single day, it comes back to you as a serious discount on your equipment. Either way you get a concrete, individual offer, not a standard package price.