KOTA KINABALU – When paraglider pilot Chris Lammert came to work on July 17, he expected the usual crowd of young clients eager to do tandem paragliding at the small tourist town of Ranau in Sabah.

Paragliding is an adventurous recreational activity and aerial sport that involves the pilot sitting on a harness when flying using a glider, whereas tandem paragliding means the pilot has a passenger.

So imagine the surprise of the tandem master, who works with a paragliding company in the hilly Ranau district, when one of his clients turned out to be an 87-year-old woman from the town of Rawang in Selangor.

In fact, Madam Thong, as Mr Lammert was introduced to, wanted to do it first to encourage her daughter, who was in her 50s and too afraid to do it.

“I did not know about this but the registration staff will normally give cases like this to me (due to my expertise).

“I learnt that she was on holiday here with family, and she was the one who persuaded the daughter and the daughter’s husband to try paragliding,” he said when contacted after his Facebook posts on taking the senior citizen for tandem paragliding created an online buzz.

Some of the people online commenting on the two videos shared on his social media account were impressed and praised the elderly woman’s braveness.

Asked how Madam Thong reacted during the flight, Mr Lammert said she was calm even in comparison to some of his younger clients, and that they had a smooth launch from Bukit Hampuan and landed in Kampung Dilik.

“Her daughter was very concerned and reminded (her) to be careful with her legs, but I saw she (Madam Thong) came ready with knee support.

“When we were up in the air, to put her mind at ease, I talked to her and pointed out the mountain, valley and buildings like the sports complex.

“Apparently, she has travelled a lot before, including to Australia and England, as she likes to try new stuff. But she made my day as she gave a thumbs up and said ‘very good’ when we landed,” added Mr Lammert.

While she was his oldest customer so far, Mr Lammert said he still had not beaten the record of one of his colleagues, who claimed to have done tandem paragliding with a 90-year-old man from Singapore.

“But I am glad to be able to provide this experience for her, as the previous oldest person I took for paragliding was my 71-year-old aunt,” said Mr Lammert, who has more than 20 years of experience in paragliding.

He also shared an interesting tidbit that while their customers varied from children to people in their 60s, they had more women interested in this daring activity.

“Since the company started in 2014 in Ranau, we can say 80 per cent of our tandem paragliding customers are women, 10 per cent children and 10 per cent men,” he added. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK