Most pilots who book a paragliding coaching holiday have flown before — some for years — but feel stuck. They're not progressing the way they expected. Launches feel inconsistent. Thermalling is uncomfortable. Their flying log is growing but their confidence isn't keeping pace. A coaching holiday in the right environment, with an experienced instructor working beside you in the air, is the fastest way to break through that plateau. This guide explains what a week with me in Sesimbra actually looks like from the inside: the daily rhythm, how radio coaching works, how site selection happens, and what you should realistically expect to take home.
Before You Arrive — What Preparation Helps
The most productive coaching weeks happen when pilots arrive having thought about what they want to improve rather than hoping the week will tell them. You don't need a specific skills gap identified — but even a rough sense of direction ("I want to feel more comfortable in thermals" or "my launches are inconsistent") lets me structure the first two days more usefully.
In practice, I ask every pilot to fill in a short pre-arrival form covering their hours, glider, recent flying, and goals. That form drives the initial conversation on day one, which usually happens over coffee at the seafront before we look at the weather together. No wing yet, no pressure — just talking through where you are and what would make this week genuinely useful for you.
The Daily Structure
There is no fixed timetable — the day is shaped by the weather, which in Portugal means reading the synoptic pattern each morning and deciding together how to use it. That said, a typical day follows a reliable rhythm:
- 08:00–09:00: Morning check. I send a weather summary to the group's WhatsApp by 08:00 — wind direction, strength, forecast evolution, and what that means for site options today. Pilots read this over breakfast and message back questions.
- 09:30: Launch-site meetup. We drive or walk to the site together. Before anyone unpacks, we stand and observe for 10–15 minutes — watching the wind on the grass and cliff edge, reading the sea surface, discussing what we're seeing. This observation habit is one of the most transferable skills of the week.
- 10:00–14:00: Flying. Sessions vary from 1–4 hours of active flying depending on conditions. On coastal ridge days, we work specific drills in the air. On thermal days we build on whatever the pilot is ready for.
- 14:00–15:30: Lunch. Portugal takes this seriously and so do we. A proper break, often at a local restaurant near the landing field. The debrief happens here — what worked, what we're adjusting for the afternoon or tomorrow.
- 15:30–18:00: Afternoon session if conditions allow. Sometimes a second site, sometimes a different exercise focus, sometimes ground-handling if the wind has lifted. Evening sessions on good days can produce some of the week's best flying — the light is extraordinary.
Radio Coaching in the Air — How It Actually Works
Radio coaching is the element that most pilots haven't experienced before and that produces the most surprise. The concept is simple: you fly with a radio, I watch from the ground or a vantage point, and I talk to you while you're in the air. In practice it is far more nuanced than it sounds.
What I say: Specific, brief, actionable calls — "brake a little more right", "you're drifting back, come forward", "that's your thermal — turn now". Not a running commentary, not reassurance, not explanation. Radio time in the air is for precision instructions that hit the right moment in the manoeuvre.
What I don't say: I don't explain technique over the radio while you're flying. That happens on the ground before and after. In the air, the radio is a precision tool, not a classroom.
The learning arc: Day one, most pilots follow radio input reactively. By day three or four, the radio call often names something the pilot was about to feel — it accelerates the feedback loop rather than replacing it. By the end of the week, good pilots are using the radio calls to calibrate their own proprioception rather than relying on them.
Radio independence: The goal is always to need the radio less over the week, not more. I am explicit about this from day one — success looks like you flying accurately without prompting by day six or seven.
Site Selection — How the Decision Gets Made
One of the things pilots value most about a guided week is not having to make the site decision themselves. That decision — which of several possible sites to fly today, at what time, for how long — is something experienced instructors resolve so fluidly it looks simple. It isn't.
Site selection on a typical Sesimbra week draws on four or five sites depending on wind direction and strength. A NNW at 15–20 knots goes to Bicas cliff for ridge soaring. A lighter NW might go to Meco beach for ground-handling and low coastal soaring. An inland thermal day with light sea breeze goes to Arrábida or one of the inland hill sites for thermalling work. A variable morning sometimes means starting at the dunes and reassessing at 10:30 once the wind has settled.
I explain my site reasoning out loud throughout the week — not to make it a lecture, but because understanding how an experienced instructor reads conditions is itself a transferable skill. By the end of a week most pilots have a noticeably sharper eye for the same decisions.
The Week's Progression — What Changes Day by Day
The week is not seven identical flying days. It builds. What I'm looking for changes as the week progresses, and so do the exercises:
- Days 1–2: Baseline assessment. I need to see your launches, your brake inputs, your posture in the harness, and how you manage transitions. Radio input is high because I'm calibrating to your specific habits and the exercises are foundational.
- Days 3–4: Targeted work. By now I've identified the one or two things that will make the biggest difference for you specifically. The exercises get more precise, the radio calls more surgical. Some pilots hit a confidence step-change on day three or four that makes the second half of the week feel qualitatively different.
- Days 5–6: Integration. We work on applying the improved inputs in varied conditions — different sites, different wind strengths. The goal is that the progress becomes durable, not just present in the conditions we trained in.
- Day 7: Consolidation and debrief. Usually a full flying day, often at a site that suits the pilot's best current level. The final debrief is longer and covers what to work on independently, what conditions to seek and avoid in the next six months, and what a productive next step looks like.
What You'll Take Home
The most concrete outcome of a well-structured coaching week is a clearer picture of what you actually do — not what you think you do. Most pilots discover that their self-assessment was inaccurate in specific, tractable ways: the brake input was earlier than they realised, the launch run shorter than needed, the turn initiation hesitant. Having those things named precisely, while you're doing them, is what a coaching week provides that self-directed flying cannot.
The less tangible outcome, which pilots consistently describe as the more valuable one, is confidence calibration. Not false confidence — knowing that you can handle situations you couldn't handle before, because you've actually handled them, under observation, with feedback. That recalibration tends to last.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to bring my own wing?
Flying your own wing is strongly preferred — the coaching is most useful when applied to the glider you'll be flying at home. If you're travelling and can't bring your wing, message me in advance and we'll discuss options. I can sometimes arrange a suitable demo glider, but availability depends on timing and isn't guaranteed. If you're considering an upgrade and want to trial a different class of wing during the week, that's also worth discussing — sometimes the week becomes useful data for a glider decision.
How many pilots are in the group?
Maximum 5 pilots across all programmes. That cap is deliberate — with more than 5 pilots, individual radio time drops and the debrief loses precision. In practice most weeks run with 3–5. The group dynamic is also part of the experience — watching another pilot work through something you just struggled with, or nail a manoeuvre cleanly, is its own form of calibration. Four pilots is the sweet spot.
What if I'm significantly more or less experienced than the rest of the group?
Within a single programme type — Coastal Soaring, XC Coaching, Ground-Handling — there's always a range of experience, and that's by design. A P2 pilot with 50 hours and a P3 pilot with 300 hours can usefully fly the same coastal site, receive different radio coaching focus, and both make genuine progress. The site and exercise choices for the day are set to challenge the most capable pilot in the group without exceeding the margin of the least experienced. If there's a significant level mismatch and one pilot's safety or learning would be compromised, I'll discuss adjustments — but in practice the programmes self-select reasonably well.
See what a week of coaching actually produces
The Coastal Soaring Week and XC Coaching Week both run year-round from Sesimbra. Message me to talk through which programme fits where you are right now.