Flying Karlis

My name is Karlis Jaunpetrovics, since I was 23 years old, I’ve been moving around the world. I started flying back in 2012 half way around the world during my stay in Taiwan. Straight away, I got addicted to it. I jumped head first into the life of a paragliding pilot and never looked back.

By the end of the first year, I got my tandem qualification and started my own tandem company in Taiwan, for the next couple of years I was living, flying, guiding and teaching between Taiwan and Nepal.

Mentored by legends

In 2016 I joined paragliding company Bruce Goldsmith Design as a Test Pilot and Sales Manager to work together with our sports legend. For two years I was working side by side with Bruce and Arna Goldsmith as well as Anthony Green.

I broke all national records during my time with BGD, competed in World Championships and learn more than I thought was possible. As office work isn’t my thing, I moved on. To start my own paragliding company that focuses on pilot progression – Flying Karlis idea was born.

Since 2018 I have been focused on helping pilots to progress – “Committed to Progression“. I have created Chabre Challenge that turned into the book Guide to Chabre. I also regularly update my YouTube channel that is taking it’s own shape now and becoming a lot bigger project then I originally anticipated.

I chose to be based out of South of France, while travelling around to keep improving and gather as much knowledge about paragliding training as possible. I’ve gone through APPI’s Instructor course as well as the Latvian Paragliding Federation‘s Instructor process.

I haven’t stopped there, I constantly seek out experience instructors and schools to keep improving my own understanding of teaching specifically for paragliding.

Cooparation with Flyeo

Once I started offering SIV training, it made sense to cooperate with the largest SIV school in the world – Flyeo Parapente. My own SIV courses are inspired by the curriculum and teaching style of Flyeo. They have developed an incredible way of teaching SIV over the years being specialists in SIV training and having 1000+ students a year during their peak, now scaled down to 600 a season.

To me paragliding is a life – long journey. I am as committed to progression in developing my own understanding of teaching as I am in my own flying. I’m committed to do my part to keep improving paragliding training to a higher standard.