Joanna Di Grigoli is a paraglider competition pilot from Venezuela, and, at the time of publication, one of only two women to have flown more than 400km cross country.

She started flying in 2000, and although paragliding is her first love, she has also been an active skydiver and has logged 200 hours flying ultra-lights.

In November 2016 she flew 400km in Brazil, setting an FAI South American Women’s record. “I’m super happy about it,” she said afterwards. “It was a goal I had in mind and it's very rewarding to accomplish the goals you set yourself.”

She added: “That day, I flew 10h14min, 400.43km and went up to 3,478m, which was amazing because it was at the end of the flight and the ground in the area was really low, so it felt really cool to be so far from the ground and the glide was really long.”

Spending more than 10 hours in the air flying a paraglider was “incredible” she said. “Time goes by really fast because you're constantly making decisions and you keep busy. At the beginning it’s easy to lose patience because you have to be very patient at the beginning and turn in whatever lift you find. 

“The fun really starts at 100km when the day is booming and then it's just choosing the right cloudstreet and making the right decisions. The first time I wondered what the time was, I had already been flying for five hours!”

As well as flying XC, she has been competing since 2002, and started international competitions in 2005. Highlights include competing in five FAI Paragliding World Championships, and winning the British Paragliding Open (Women) 2015.

An adventure pilot too, she was the first woman to climb and fly from the summit of Pico Humboldt (4,940m) in Venezuela.

Personal website
www.joannaenvuelo.com