Lake District Sports In the Air

Ballooning - You can hike it, bike it, skim across it or dive under it, but if you're really going to appreciate the scale, complexity and incredible variety of the Lake District and it's environs, there's really only one way to experience it. From the air.

Gliding - It's the purest form of aviation, yet you don't need lessons or a licence to get up in the sky and take the controls. Book a trial flight (weather permitting, so it's best to call on the day). After a short briefing you'll be towed or winched aloft and if you're happy, your instructor will hand over to you, usually until it's time to land.

Paragliding - With a flying machine so light it fits into a rucksack, you simply walk up the hillside and the wind does the rest. Soon you'll be soaring above the ridges and summits. No cockpit. No complex controls. Nothing between you and the view.

Hang Gliding - Unlike a paraglider, a hang glider is a rigid frame steered by a control bar. Lying suspended from a special harness under a sophisticated wing, you can launch into the wind under your own power or get a tow from a winch or a microlight.

Parachuting - Whether you're chasing a one-off adrenaline buzz or looking to try out a totally unique sport, it doesn't get much more extreme than jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft at 3,000 feet - or free-falling from about 2 miles high!

Microlighting - Is it a plane? Is it a hang glider? Is it a way to recapture the magic of the early days of aviation in the most manoeuverable little aircraft you could imagine?