P2 Supervised Flights: Become a Pilot

Your Passport to the World’s Greatest Flying Sites

The P1 & P2 Course gets you through both written exams and your first high-mountain flights. Here is where you become a pilot. Most flying sites worldwide require a P2 rating to fly on your own, and HPAC requires a minimum of 25 supervised flights to get it.

At FlyingMax, those 25 are real high-mountain flights, not practice-hill hops. In 40 years of flying and teaching, I’ve found most pilots are truly ready to fly on their own after 40–45 high-mountain flights. My goal isn’t to get you through the minimum quickly; it’s to teach you to read the air and know when not to go, so you’re still flying, and enjoying it, years from now.

What You’ll Work On

• Launches: Foot launches in summer and ski launches in winter.
• Energy Management: Canopy control, approaches and accurate landings.
• Reading the Air: Recognising thermals, ridge lift and conditions that are not for you yet.
• XC Foundations: An introduction to cross-country flying.

Summer: Mt. Swansea & Golden

Mt. Swansea offers about 900 metres of vertical, so every flight gives you minutes of airtime rather than seconds. Getting to launch takes time, so expect 2–3 flights per day depending on conditions. Some days we may fly Golden instead.

Dates: Sat July 31st – Sun Aug 8th 2027, plus other dates by arrangement

Day rate (includes 2 instructors and shuttle to launch):

• $300/day with your own gear
• $375/day with our gear included
• Small group (2 pilots): $400/day with your own gear, or move to the next scheduled date

If conditions don’t allow any flying, you aren’t charged for the day. If we fly once and conditions then shut down, it’s a half-day rate applies:

• $200 with your own gear
• $250 with our gear included
• $250 for a small group of 2

Winter: Panorama Mountain Resort

Fly on skis using the chairlift for fast, repeated high-mountain flights. February to April 11th, 2027, by appointment.

• $90/flight with your own gear
• $125/flight with our gear included
• Lift ticket: $45/day, paid at the resort