Praia da Gávea

This guide to Praia da Gávea in Rio de Janeiro follows the hang-gliding flights that launch from a ramp on Pedra Bonita, more than five hundred meters above the coast, and the tandem pilots who have been flying paying strangers down to this beach since the early 1970s. It traces what the ride actually feels like, from the sprint off the ramp to the silent glide over the rainforest, and sets the flights against the beach's place between wealthy São Conrado and the Rocinha favela nearby. Listen for the moment the glider goes silent overhead.