Vol Panoramique — 25-30 min at 1600 m

Take-off happens from the private site of the school Air Lagon, at 1,600 metres, twice the height of Les Colimaçons. From up there, the flight passes over the primary forest, the peaks and the ramparts, with a clear view from Étang-Salé to Saint-Paul. The eye takes in the whole western territory at once, which no package leaving from Les Colimaçons allows. Twenty-five to thirty minutes aloft cover the descent from the relief down to the coast. The site being private, it is not shared with other schools: the slot stays quiet, and launch is prepared without queuing. The track leaves the mountain, follows the heights, and joins the shoreline of Saint-Leu. Reunion Island offers here a relief that few destinations put within reach of a tandem flight.

The departure is early: six in the morning in summer, seven in winter. The timing is not a comfort detail, it is when the air stays calmest over the terrain. The meeting point sits near Kélonia, at the north entrance of Saint-Leu, and transport up to the site is arranged by the school Air Lagon. The slot is booked ahead: the flight leaves once a day, unlike the nine slots at Les Colimaçons. Above ninety kilos this flight is not advised, though not barred, a limit tied to the site and its altitude. A delay costs nothing when the weather closes, and Reunion Island counts around three hundred flying days a year. A moved flight lands on another morning. The drive up leaves from Saint-Leu, and the school Air Lagon handles it.

A flight from 1,600 metres remains a supervised tandem flight, under the responsibility of the instructor. Every pilot at the school Air Lagon holds the state Brevet. Wings meet the EN 926-1 and EN 926-2 standards, harnesses the EN 1651 standard, and gear is checked every day. Third-party liability cover applies to every passenger. Launch height changes how conditions are read: above the relief, the air behaves differently from the sea breeze of Les Colimaçons, and that is what justifies the early slot. The instructor alone decides whether to launch. One doubt is enough to move a flight, and the replacement lands on another morning. The private site of the school Air Lagon sits 1,600 metres above Saint-Leu, on relief the pilots of Reunion Island have flown for forty years. The passenger prepares nothing: gear, transport and the reading of conditions belong to the instructor.

The Vol Panoramique is picked for height, not for length. At one hundred and forty euros per person and twenty-five to thirty minutes aloft, it costs more than the Vol Extra Long while lasting less: what it adds is the view from 1,600 metres, over the primary forest, the peaks and the ramparts of the west. Passengers after an aerial hike above the lagoon of Saint-Leu will stay on the packages from Les Colimaçons. Those who want to see the inside of the island, and not only the coast, will find the trade-off here. The Vol du Maïdo pushes the same logic to 2,200 metres, with a longer flight and a full morning of organisation.