RIYADH: Most people live their lives on the ground, but Faisal Al-Olayan chose the sky.
The Saudi aviation athlete, this week’s guest on The Mayman Show, is an aerospace engineer, pilot, skydiver and a member of the Kingdom’s national paragliding team. Most of us travel, but he chases storms, soars above mountains and dives into clouds in ways most of us only dream about.
From experiencing rain that “almost stops the heart” mid-flight to emotional moments when he completed his wingsuit training in Russia, Al-Olayan lives life one adrenaline rush at a time. His story is not so much about escaping gravity, as about finding freedom within it.
“I started having fun in flying because my mom, when I was young, she was telling me (I was) half bird. And when I started with this mentality, I started to do all of my activities in the sky. I started from graduating with sports until I am here with the national team,” said Al-Olayan.
He began paramotoring in 2019, a form of ultralight aviation using a paraglider wing and a motor worn as a backpack.
“I started to train (in) paramotoring here in Riyadh,” he recalled. “A paramotor is basically a parachute, but you have an engine (on) your back and you can foot-launch from anywhere.”
He then planned to do his pilot training in the US, but the global pandemic and resulting lockdowns put paid to that.
Al-Olayan loves to travel and has visited 67 countries to date.
“I started to take my paraglider with me to fly from mountains, I was getting more experience with this sport as a paraglider. And this is what makes me continue in all of those aerial sports,” he said.
His role as an aerospace engineer also plays a big part in his experiences in the air.
“If you want to start to fly, you have to know aerodynamics … you have to know how the wind (is) flying and all of those things,” he explained.
It also helped him become a fast learner and understand what was happening when he flew.
“There are two kinds of pilots. There is an experienced one and there is (an) experience and no physics one … it’s like driving … you know how to drive the car, but you don’t know anything about the car, you don’t know about the engine,” he said.
Al-Olayan added that was what made him fall in love with paramotoring and other sports.
“I even built my own paramotor. I was designing it, everything with my specifications and things like that,” he said. “And all of that happened when I studied at KFUPM (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals) in Dhahran.”
For five years, he did nothing but study until he obtained his degree in aerospace engineering. After that, he started taking part in competitions, doing well enough to earn his place in Saudi Arabia’s national paragliding team, run by the Saudi Paragliding Federation.
“Shaheen (is) the name of the paragliding organization. And that was like … a new chapter for me because to compete is something — you’re holding your name — but now you compete with the Saudi name … bringing your flag and your clothes, and everyone is seeing you as a Saudi athlete,” he explained.
“It’s not like Faisal, the old one, is coming to compete. In the competitions that I was in, (I) was less nervous and less pressured. But when I was going with the national team, it was much, much more pressure. But for me, I enjoyed it a lot because it was more exciting.”
