Paragliding AlmatyThermal Nomads Русский

Home › Retrieval and ground support

Retrieval and ground support

Sold on its own, by the day, for pilots running their own trip.

A vehicle and a driver for the day, yours from 08:00 until the last pilot is picked up, plus the two things that are actually hard to get here as a visitor: a driver who knows which tracks exist off the paved road, and a morning briefing on where the airspace boundaries are before you commit to a task.

Retrieval here is the easy part

Most of the Almaty range front has a paved road under it and pickups run 20 to 60 minutes. That is genuinely better than Kyrgyzstan and it is one of the two reasons to base here.

Airspace is the hard part

You are flying beside a major international airport in a country whose airspace information is not published in the app on your phone. We give you the boundaries as we understand them, in the morning, on a map, with the parts we are unsure about marked as unsure. That is a service, not a clearance: the Kazakh AIP is the document that counts, and if your task touches controlled airspace it is your responsibility and your licence.

What it is not

Not rescue. If you are hurt, the sequence is your insurer and the emergency services, and our driver helps. Ground support is not a substitute for a policy that names helicopter evacuation.

Retrieval and ground support, per day

Price on request

For pilots organising their own Almaty trip who need the one thing that cannot be arranged remotely: a vehicle and a driver who knows which tracks exist, a radio in the car on your frequency, and someone watching your track from town.

Durationone flying day, 08:00 to last landing
Groupper vehicle per day, up to 4 pilots
RegionsUshkonyr · Oi-Qaragai · Talgar and Issyk valleys · Assy plateau road

Included

  • Vehicle and driver for the full day
  • Morning drop at the launch of your choice inside the agreed zone
  • Radio in the vehicle on your frequency
  • LiveTrack watched from town, day group chat
  • Airspace boundary briefing before you commit to a task

Not included

  • Flights, accommodation, insurance
  • Any form of rescue or evacuation — that is your insurer

Who flies this one

Who this is for

Any rated pilot flying independently. You make your own flight decisions.

The honest version

Almaty retrieval is easier than Kyrgyz retrieval — most of it is on paved road and pickups run 20 to 60 minutes. The trade is airspace, not access: the useful corridors are narrow and getting one wrong next to an international airport is a different category of problem than landing in the wrong field.

Enquire about this

Related

Tell us what you fly

Send your rating, hours, personal best and last SIV, and you get a specific answer — a route and a retrieval zone, not a brochure. A person reads it and answers within one working day.

Send an enquiry

Or just get the season report

One email at the end of each season with the flyable days we actually logged, and one more if the SIV course opens. Nothing else, ever.