About Us

Instructor: John Ivey

BIO:  John Ivey has been flying hang gliders, paragliders and powered paragliders since 1997. He holds an Advanced Pilot’s rating (PARA 4) and is a USHPA Certified Paragliding Instructor. John currently operates Rogue Valley Paragliding LLC in Medford, Oregon. John is currently the Vice President of the Rogue Valley Hang gliding and Paragliding Association. Recently, John was the safety and launch director at the 2009 US Paragliding Nationals in Dunlap, CA.

Our Philosophy

My favorite student

Paragliding is a form of recreation. It is an activity that people undertake for fun. Although flying and the flying culture can be involved in many aspects of our lives, we believe that paragliding is a sport of enjoyment and efforts should always be made to keep the learning process and the flying careers of students fun. Under the heading of fun, subcategories such as excellence in instruction, emphasis on safety and individual progression fall. If any of these elements are missing or sub-par, the experience of the student will be a negative and possibly dangerous one.

          All costs and fees involved with training will be clearly provided to the student in writing and all liability waivers signed prior to the onset of instruction. Students will be supplied with a detailed syllabus and a beginner’s package including diagrams, pictures and articles on relevant topics. We will utilize simulator training to introduce students to new maneuvers and our training equipment will always be current, properly sized and in excellent condition.   

Our school’s philosophy on teaching powered paragliding is that the addition of a motor will only be made after the students have proven to our instructor that they posess a solid base of skills and decision making abilities needed for non-motorized flight. A student will achieve his or her P2 prior to advancing to motor assisted paragliding.

          Rather than competition with other schools, a spirit of cooperation shall exist with boundaries and student expectations clearly explained at the onset of the instruction. As each school and or instructor has special strengths, students will be encouraged to seek out these strengths while remaining within the contractual and expressed boundaries.

We believe that instruction does not end with the student’s completion of the lesson package, but a on going spirit of mentorship and guidance of the student should continue through out the student’s flying career. It is our purpose to use our best judgment to protect and guide each of our students towards and through a safe and thoroughly enjoyable flying career.

Rogue Valley Paragliding hosts clinics bi-monthly to further the develpoment of our students. Although these are open to all pilots, we offer these clinics free or at cost to our current and alumni students. We also cooperate with our equipment importers to host special events SIV maneuvers courses, gear demo days and flying trips. We service everything that we sell and will  be the intermediary between the manufacturer and the buyer to facilitate and repairs or warranty issues. We often take in used gear as deposit on new equipment as the student's skill level progresses. We constantly update our students with current iformation in regards to safety announcement and technique development. To summarize, we remain closely involved with our students flying careers long after they have earned thier certifications and let the nest.

We love to fly and we want to share this with others.

Copyright (c) 2006 Rogue Valley Paragliding. All rights reserved.