Tandem: working with a passenger

Tandem is a profession, not “flying with someone”

A solo pilot answers for himself. A tandem pilot answers for a person who can do nothing and is not required to. The passenger cannot read the air, does not know what a surge of the wing means, and will not help you either at launch or at landing. All he can do at a difficult moment is get in the way.

The physics is different too. The all-up weight roughly doubles, and the inertia with it. A two-seat wing answers the controls later and takes longer to slow down. The run is longer, the lift-off speed higher, the margin for error smaller. What is corrected with one input on a solo wing has to be seen several seconds ahead on a tandem.

Add the commercial background. A queue, flights already paid for, a car waiting, a client with an evening flight home. A solo pilot in bad weather does not fly and owes nobody anything. A tandem pilot in the same situation loses money — and that is exactly why his right to say no has to be written down rather than assumed.

That is why in every training system tandem is a separate qualification with its own exam. Not an add-on to your hours, but a second profession inside the same one.

There is a difference that only shows up in practice. A passenger is a moving mass. He turns towards the camera, pulls his legs up, leans to one side, reaches for his phone. Every such movement shifts the centre of gravity of the pair, and the wing answers before you have had time to think.

The legal side is separate as well. A tandem pilot takes a decision on behalf of a person who cannot assess the risk himself. That is why more is asked of a tandem pilot: a category, insurance, the passenger’s signature, and a procedure an inspector can see from the outside.

The economics of tandem work: why money is the main risk factor

A tandem pilot is paid per flight, not per hour at the site. That sets the whole economics of the profession: income depends on the number of flights, the number of flights on the weather, and mountain weather is not generous every day. A pilot who has flown twice in a week looks at the sky differently on Saturday than he did on Monday.

The season adds pressure. There is a limited number of good days, and almost all of them fall in a short period. The operator has taken a deposit, the clients came for one day, the car is waiting, the queue is booked. Every refusal costs not only your money but a conversation with the office.

From which follows an uncomfortable but honest conclusion: the main risk factor in tandem work is not turbulence and not technique but the wish to fly one more time. That is why the limits are set in advance and in numbers, before the day starts. In what wind you do not fly. Until what time you work. How many flights you do in a row without a break.

The route to the PGT Tandem (T) category: Georgia and the world standards

In Georgia the right to carry a passenger comes with the PGT Tandem (T) category — two-seat paraglider. Commercial flights are possible only with it, or with the powered PPGT Tandem. Entry to the category runs through the TS sub-category (thermal flying) of the single-seat PGS Single category. First you work confidently in thermals alone, then you take on a second person.

On the flying-hours requirement the sources diverge. Government Decree No. 175 required at least 300 hours of total flight time, but it ceased to have effect on 31 August 2023. The current order of the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency (GCAA), No. 165, is worded differently. Check with the national paragliding federation before you submit your documents. The wording changes, and it is you who will answer for not matching it.

The practical exam for the PGT (T) is built like this:

1. checking the wing, the lines, the reserve pins and handle, and the radio;
2. briefing the passenger;
3. fitting your own and the passenger’s equipment;
4. choosing the launch position for the conditions and instructing the helpers;
5. a radio call and launching with the flight director’s clearance;
6. bringing the wing up with a forward or reverse launch and holding it for 10 seconds;
7. damping the wing through 180-degree turns in ridge lift (ridge lift — air rising along a slope);
8. climbing in ridge lift, leaving it, losing height and re-entering;
9. a short figure of eight at a safe height;
10. a top landing (landing back on the launch area) and a second take-off;
11. finding a thermal and climbing at least 100 metres;
12. leaving it, then a second thermal entered from the opposite direction;
13. traffic separation when two or more gliders are in the air;
14. putting the wing into a parachutal stall and recovering from it;
15. landing within 15 metres of the marker after a 90-degree turn.

The practical is passed if 80 per cent of the tasks are completed.

Other countries solve the same problem like this.

At APPI a pilot leaves the course with an “in progress” status: he may carry only certified pilots. Full status is opened by 30 tandem flights on two different wings, at three sites, with four different passengers. The commercial Pro tandem level comes no earlier than a year in tandem-pilot status and after 100 tandem flights.

The task list looks long, but there is clear logic behind it. First the ground is checked: equipment, passenger, site, radio. Then control of the wing overhead without flying. Then work near the slope, where a mistake costs most. And only then thermals, traffic separation and landing accuracy. Each next item rests on the one before.

You prepare for the exam not with manoeuvres but with a procedure. The examiner is watching whether you do the same things on the third flight as on the first. Most people come unstuck not on the figure of eight but on small things: they forget the radio call, start fitting the harness on the edge of the slope, fail to check that the passenger understood the briefing, or move to the launch position without the flight director’s clearance.

Wing, harnesses, spreader bar and reserve

A two-seat wing is not an enlarged single-seater. It is bigger in area and designed for a different weight: a typical certified all-up weight range is around 130–220 kilograms. Flying a tandem on a single-seat wing is not acceptable. That is not a formality: nobody has tested such a wing at such a weight.

The weight range works in both directions. A pilot of 85 kilograms plus 20 kilograms of equipment and a passenger of 95 make 200 — you are inside the range. The same pilot with a passenger of 120 makes 225 — you are over the top limit. The lower limit matters just as much: a light child with a light pilot makes the wing sluggish, it holds its shape less well and recovers from a collapse more slowly.

The risers of a tandem wing are longer than a solo one’s. They spread the hang points apart and give the pilot room behind and above the passenger. Because of that you can see the back of his head, you can reach the brakes, and you do not knock helmets. The spreader bar — a beam with carabiners carrying both harnesses — is attached to the risers.

The pilot’s and the passenger’s harnesses are different. The pilot’s has a reserve container and back protection. The passenger’s has no reserve, but it has long leg loops and adjustment that is easy to understand. Trimmers (adjustment of the rear risers that changes the wing’s speed) are in constant use on a tandem, and at launch they are set where the manufacturer says.

The reserve of a two-seat wing is inspected every 6 months — twice as often as a single-seat one, where the interval is 12 months. The repack date is recorded, and you will be asked for it.

The weight range deserves a more precise word. The upper limit is not a breaking point but the boundary within which the wing was tested. Beyond it the flying speed and the descent rate grow, the wing enters turbulence more harshly and comes out of a collapse more energetically. Being overloaded on a tandem is dangerous not because something breaks but because your margin of height and time to put things right shrinks exactly when you need it most.

An underloaded wing, conversely, takes longer to recover and is drifted further by the wind. With a light child in strong wind that becomes a problem of its own: you may not be able to get forward of the slope.

That is why operators often keep two tandem wings of different sizes. The smaller one for light passengers and strong wind, the larger one for heavy passengers and light wind. The wing is chosen in the morning, from the forecast and the list of booked passengers, not at launch for one particular person.

Accepting a passenger: weight, health, clothing, children, language

Accepting a passenger begins not at launch but at the first conversation. You need to establish five things: weight, state of health, what the person is wearing, what he is afraid of, and in what language he understands you.

Weight. Ask for a figure, not “roughly how much”. People understate their weight, and not always on purpose. If in doubt, use the scales. “Oh, about eighty” when the real figure is ninety-five puts the pair over the wing’s upper limit.

Health. Back and neck, recent operations and fractures, heart, pregnancy, epilepsy. Alcohol separately: you do not fly with someone who has been drinking. The G-force in a spiral presses on the spine, and landing on your feet is an impact, however soft.

Clothing and footwear. At a launch of 2,200 metres it is noticeably colder than in the village: a jacket is needed, and gloves and sunglasses are better still. Footwear — closed, with ankle support. Sandals, flip-flops and heels are a reason not to fly: you cannot run in them and you cannot stay on your feet on landing.

Children. Look not at the age but at two things. Do the harness’s leg loops hold this particular child, and is he able to run alongside you. If a child only stays in because you have pulled the harness as tight as it will go, that is not a solution but trouble postponed.

Fear. It is established here, not on the edge of the launch. Ask directly: has the person flown before, is he afraid of heights, what worries him most. The answer decides how you build the flight: one person needs spirals, another needs twelve calm minutes in a straight line.

Language. The FAI standard explicitly requires you to check that the passenger has understood the briefing, and it specifically mentions a common language. If there is no common language, find an interpreter, or show with your hands and check by having it shown back. A nod does not count as confirmation.

It helps to accept every passenger by the same list. Then on the sixth flight in a row you will not miss the question you asked without thinking on the first.

1. Name, and the language you understand each other in.
2. Weight — as a figure; scales if in doubt.
3. Age and height, if a child is flying.
4. Health: back and neck, heart, recent operations and fractures, pregnancy, epilepsy, travel sickness.
5. Alcohol, and medicines that make you drowsy.
6. Clothing, footwear, gloves; everything else goes in the car.
7. Fear, and previous flying experience.
8. Camera, glasses, phone: where we put them.
9. The informed-consent form: give it to be read, answer questions, get the signature.
10. A short account of what happens next and how long it will take.

You ask about health not in order to make a diagnosis. Your job is to find out what the person knows about himself and to decide whether to fly today. You are not a doctor and are not required to be one. If someone mentions a recent operation, a fresh fracture, pregnancy or his heart, there is only one sensible answer: not today, and the question of flying is for his own doctor. Said calmly and without frightening detail, that answer offends nobody.