Paragliding Instructor

“In the air, communication isn’t a convenience — it’s a safety issue.”

Tom is a paragliding instructor at a club site in the South Downs. Student pilots need real-time coaching during their first flights — corrections on body position, heading adjustments, weight shift cues, and landing approach instructions — but until recently that meant calling instructions through a handheld radio from the ground, hoping students could hear over wind noise, and hoping they had the mental bandwidth to process verbal instructions while managing an entirely new set of physical sensations.

The margin for miscommunication is small. A student who can’t hear a correction clearly, or who hesitates because they’re unsure what was said, is a student who may make the wrong decision at the wrong moment. Tom had adapted over the years — simplifying his language, relying heavily on pre-flight briefings, accepting that some coaching would only happen on the ground after the fact. It worked, but it wasn’t ideal.

DigamE changed the dynamic entirely. Students now wear a unit under their helmet, connected to a pair of earphones, and Tom coaches live from the ground as they fly. The MESH connection is immediate — no pairing delays, no dependence on a phone signal, no fumbling with a radio while keeping eyes on the sky. When a student drifts off their approach line, Tom corrects it in real time. When conditions change, he can advise before the student has even registered the shift.

Beyond instruction, the ability to communicate with multiple students simultaneously on the same channel has transformed how Tom manages group sessions. Senior students can relay observations, assistants on the hill can feed back, and the whole training environment becomes more connected and responsive.

“I can talk a student through a landing in real time. That’s not just better instruction — it’s genuinely safer. There’s no going back to shouting up at someone 30 metres in the air, hoping they caught it. DigamE gave me a tool I didn’t know I was missing until I had it.”

Tom now uses DigamE as standard equipment for all student training sessions and has introduced it to the wider club for cross-country flying days, where pilots spread over kilometres of countryside can maintain contact with a ground support team without relying on mobile signal.