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Marmi is lying in the meadow, lost in his daydreaming. The sun rises higher and higher. Marmi squints. A sudden spot in the alpine sky. An eagle? No, a paraglider.

Marmi actually always gets scared when something appears in the sky. Then he chirps and disappears into the burrow with his family. But the thing in the sky isn’t a bird of prey.

It’s a paraglider. The sport known as paragliding is not the same as hang gliding. Paragliders don’t hang horizontally from a rigid aluminium structure, they are instead attached by cords to the paraglider while lying or sitting in a harness. Paragliders can take off even at low wind speeds. And they are smaller and easier to transport - a paraglider fits in a rucksack.

Marmi is amazed. The things humans will do to feel free! It’s the main motivation of many paragliders: to be free as a bird. And pretty easily, too. There are many schools and so-called “spots” in Switzerland where the wind conditions make it easy to take off and land.

Marmi wants to give it a go and wonders whether paragliding is safe. As safe as paragliders are with the handling of the equipment, the winds and their own abilities. A licence is compulsory. However, accidents do happen regularly. Experts advise flying only if you are in peak condition, and not flying if you are unsure about the conditions. If you fly only infrequently, you expose yourself to a higher risk. Gliding safely above alpine meadows, as Marmi is now planning to do, requires experience.

Experience that Marmi now wants to get with a taster day at one of Switzerland’s 73 flight training schools. And take off in tandem with an experienced person to pipe up to his feathered enemies with a piece of his mind.