Fort Simpson (July 02/04) - Murray Sibbeston's latest hobby has earned him the nicknames Maverick, Condor and Propello.

That's because he straps a harness on his back and uses a paraglider to hover over the scenic landscape near Bannockland in Fort Simpson.

Murray Sibbeston soars through the air in his paraglider. He bought it from an individual in Hay River in late May.

"You're just hanging from a few straps so you're exposed. It's more like pure flight, like a bird," Sibbeston explained.

One other difference is that he occasionally affixes a small engine to his back. It works like a high-powered fan to allow him to maintain or increase his height. He pulls right on the straps to go right, left to go left. He powers down the engine and tugs on both straps to descend.

He said the chute will allow him to access areas that were previously off limits to his 1951 Piper Pacer airplane.

"It brings a whole new dimension to your holidays because it's the size of a piece of luggage," Sibbeston said of the paraglider, which takes 10-15 minutes to meticulously fold or unfold due to the abundance of lines.

Ideally, a 15-km wind will be blowing to keep him comfortably aloft. On this particular day there was only a hint of a breeze, so to get airborne he required a tow from an all-terrain vehicle operated by his brother, Glen.

"Like they say, don't try this without the proper training or an experienced ground crew," Sibbeston said. "Safety is number one in my book."

He has been to Vernon, B.C., for a few introductory paraglider lessons. He's returning this month to complete the five-day course. By the time it's over he will have leapt from mountains. Some people have gone hundreds of kilometres in a paraglider, he noted.

Although he wasn't fully qualified during his first few test runs in Fort Simpson, Sibbeston had read an instructional book on paragliding and has previous experience skydiving and flying a glider.

Still, his escapades admittedly made his wife Eileen nervous. It didn't help that she happened to have watched a television show featuring extreme para-sport stunts gone wrong.

Sibbeston has been lucky so far, though.

"I got down in one piece without breaking anything. Any (landing) you walk away from is a good one," he said smiling.