Imagine soaring above the stunning landscapes of Europe, feeling the wind rush past as you glide effortlessly through the air. This is the reality for Patrick Walravens, a modern-day adventurer who has taken paragliding to new heights—literally. Armed with nothing but his passion for exploration and his trusty ICE Trike, Patrick has embarked on an extraordinary journey across the continent, experiencing the world from a perspective few ever will.

PATRICK WALRAVENS

My name is Patrick Walravens, I was born on 26/07/1967 in Anderlecht (Belgium) and was raised in Dutch & French language. After Secondary school I went to the Belgian Navy for 3 years. Hereafter, I worked in the informatics for 20 years in 2 different companies. Thanks to the financial crisis in 2008, I resigned the year after in 2009. From here my life makes a radical turn, I bought me a campervan and discovered new or known flying sites in Europe.

As a kid I loved birds, they were free, not like the animals who can't fly. In 1995 I made a tandemflight on a summerholiday in Grimentz (CH).  One year after I was flying my first soloflight in Vercorin (CH). If have my tandemlicence since 2010 and my instructor licence since 2014.

I'm working at the Paragliding-school SkyClubAustria in Moosheim (Styria Austria) since 2015. At this moment I'm responsible for the workshop-department.  Here we make 2-years checks on the wings, kind of technical control like the ones you need for your car. We fold & pack rescue-shutes, do repairs on glider-fabric & harness or stitch new lines. In Summertime there's extra work and then I take along passengers for tandemflights :-) 

What a blessing it is, still feeling happy for every flight, short or long, low or high. In wintertime I mostly work at the chairlift in the local skiresort.  Enough free time to go skiing, snowboarding, flying (alone or in tandem).

Watch Patrick in action flying his trike on his Instagram page!

So where's the connection with riding a trike?

Well that's a long story...

One uncle was riding bicycle races and along with the familly we saw lots of races, there were even wins. Two decades later two cousins from the familly started riding races, even resulting in a 1st place at the Belgian Time Trial championship and a Belgian title. One of the two finished 8 times Tour de France as a pro-rider. Wheels all along in my life, from little bicycle with supporting wheels, to rollerskates, skateboard, racebikes, mountainbikes.

I was riding two wintersaisons cyclocross-races for the fun of it and riding on sundays with the local cycling-club W.T.C.Jamee near my hometown Schepdaal (Flanders-Belgium)

In 2010 I saw tricycles for the first time and was wondering flying with them.  But I was imagining the heavy ride up to the takeoff as hard and almost impossible. Then years passed but the idea never faded away until I bought my Adventure HD Icetrike in 2021.  I have a Shimano motor, a 500w battery, Rohloff hub, 2 seat sidebags, luggage carrier with 2 luggage bags. After a few rides in the Enns-valley I decided to work out a carrying system to get in the air with my Icetrike. At the flying-school we have simulators where we can adjust our seatingharness, so I connected the 2 front wheels with 2 paragliding-straps, which in turn were connected to 2 spreadbars.

These spreadbars were connected at 2 carabiners behind my shoulders.  For this last one I used a V-line connected at the deepest point below my seat, on the trike-frame. On the right side I found a place to connect my rescue parachute.  As I'm not sitting without being secured on the trike under the wing, I'm carrying a 500gram light harness (Le Slip from Airdesign). This harness is connected through 2 straps with the spreadbars (connection between wing and pilot/trike). For safety reasons I decided only making takeoffs with someone holding the luggage carrier.  Just the same principle as takeoffs from disabled pilots, taking off with a 3-wheeled chariot.

Having helped a Belgian friend a few times by pushing his chariot a few times at the takeoff, I understood that I would also be dependent on help on takeoffs, it's safe and it works well. As with flying weather you find mostly other pilots/instructors on takeoff, so help would be there most of the time. On a session on the training hill nearby the flying-school I took off first time in June 2021, only being 2 meters from ground. Then in July 2021 I made my first flight from Michaelerberg takeoff, which has a 430m height difference with the landing field. Takeoff and landing worked perfectly, I used my tandemparaglider (Airdesign Ride 3 (38)) that I use for flying with passengers (from kids with 20kg to adults from 110kg) Minimum load 115kg, maximum load 215.

I never saw someone flying with this kind of transportation before (apart from bicycles). My plan was now, making a tour riding the trike and flying it when weather allows it.  So I decided to make an Alps tour, starting from where I work and live in Austria, first idea was clockwise but there I woud have had heavy climbs in the end of the tour. So the final idea took shape as a counterclockwise tour. Believing that this adventure would only need 1 month to finish, I was planning my daily rides.

This was not an easy task, as I wanted to find campingsites at the end of the day, so I could put up my tent, recharge the batteries and have food as well. The final plan finished, I asked my boss if I could take a month off in the afterseason (last september 2023). So my dream came true, merging two of my favorite sports, travelling one month with the trike and fly it as well. It needed 27 days for 2612km, driving first direction Tirol, over the Gerlos-pass, then Liechtenstein, cross Switzerland from east to west, climbing Lucmanier-pass, crossing at 2478m the Nufenen-pass, driving down direction Rhone-valley in Wallis, flying in Vercorin (CH), in Martigny climbing up Col de la Forclaz, passing Chamonix (F), to Annecy + flight, taking a not known pass (Col de Chèrel, mostly gravel) 1000m altitude meters in the Parc National des Bauges direction Val d'Isère.

Flying in Saint Hilaire du Touvet.  Driving a 100km in heavy rain from a total of 140km dayride. Climbing the famous Mont Cenis-pass in the French Alps (Hannibal presumably passed the pass with his army & elephants), crossing the border and drive into Piemont Italy. In 3 days I crossed 3 Italian provinces, Piemont, Lombardy & Veneto.  From Monte Grappa I made the 4th and last flight of my tour. From there I drove direction Friuli, then direction Villach (A) and a final pass, the Sölkpass that is practicaly situated in my backyard, a long sweet downhill as the cherry on the cake back home.

In total I drove 20 days, had 3 resting days and 4 days for flying the trike. Slept 23 nights in a tent and used 3 jokers for a 3 nights sleep in a bed. Equiped with camping gear, flying gear, cycling gear, clothing etc... the whole rolling weight had a 170kg.  I'm glad Icetrikes has such good brakes ;-)

Total of altitude meters +20.000m and -20.000m

As I just start flying with the trike, I dream already flying with it for longer distances, but first I have to clear some issues. I'm a bit unhappy about the connection (stability) and the backwheel could use some support wheels (back to childhood). Maybe turning the trike-steering 90 degrees downwards would help too to have a more stable connection with the paraglider. I'm thinking about improvement, but I'm thinking about helping others too, let them discover the trike-flying.

If you want to follow more about what Patrick is getting up to, follow him on instagram: @brussel_air