FOG paragliding club
FOG (Flying Oil Group) is our own paragliding club. We love flying and are sure that there is nothing in the world comparable to the sensation of flight. We have been engaging in paragliding for a few years already. For a significant part of our team, from an ordinary pastime it has grown into a genuine passion, the number of our employees involved is constantly growing.
More than any other kind of air sports, paragliding gives you the feeling of free flight. The pilot soars in the air like a bird, swiftly catching thermals. The feeling mankind has been dreaming about for ages is now available to everyone, you can make your first flight after 3-4 months of training.
Everything started for us 5 years ago, when one of the company's managers Eugene Viushkov met the instructor Oleg Zaytsev, a legendary person in paragliding. Oleg inspired Eugene as well as the whole OilGroup team with the urge to fly.
Two years ago our enthusiasm turned into founding of our own sport club, FOG. Now we participate in various contests and championships, organize noticeable paragliding events on our own. Our last achievement has been a flight from Kiev to Chernihiv on 3 gliders. FOG participants made more than 100 kilometers, flew over the roads, fields and woods of Ukraine, and got some memorable experience.
In fact, our company has been concerned with aviation for a long time, CEO and key team members had been pilots before they came into business. The dream has been remaining with them until now. Paragliding is an opportunity to feel the sensation of flight and share it with others, less experienced colleagues.
What is paragliding?Paragliding as a kind of sport (as well as a hobby) appeared quite recently. It has been only some 20-30 years since it came into Ukraine. This trend got into what was previously USSR from abroad. Paragliding has its roots in skydiving. Its innovators has been professional skydivers who sought a way to increase the duration of a flight. A paraglider's wing in fact is a steerable gliding parachute. The only difference is that its construction is not intended to use with substantial dynamic loads which are typical for a usual parachute during its deploy. The wing is gradually filled with air and even simpler in terms of structure. But this very simplicity makes it possible to concentrate on enhancing flight specifications. Initially, paragliding means soaring in upwardly lifting thermals. A pilot can take off from some height, a mountain for example. All necessary stuff is a fabric canopy and a suspension system that holds the pilot. A special engine with a propeller later was invented in order to let the pilot take off from a horizontal ground.