An unlikely paraglider: How an actuary conquered his fear of heights to soar the skies

Growing up, Pierre Miehe wasn’t just uncomfortable with heights. He was so petrified of them that he could be freaked out by a tall bridge.

His father was a consulting actuary with a pilot’s license. His mother flew planes, too. But Pierre wasn’t interested in getting behind the controls of an aircraft. In time, though, he would embrace his family’s love for the skies.

“I finally decided, at the age of 20, that I would try paragliding, because my brother and sisters were all doing it,” says Pierre, a principal and actuary in Milliman’s Lyon office. “They told me that it wasn’t boring like flying a plane. You didn’t have to follow all those rules. It was free flight. You could do what you wanted.”

Pierre, who also heads the firm’s propriety web-based platform Milliman Mind, has always welcomed challenges, and this was a big one.

“On my first solo flight as a paraglider, I was 900 meters high,” Pierre said. “I was shaking. I looked down and it was awful. But I thought that I had to do it because I had to overcome the fear.”

After three more flights, he calmed down. After a few more, he started to love it. And since then, he’s never looked back.

“It’s just incredible, the feeling that you have when you fly,” Pierre said. “Going from one mountain to another, taking in all the scenery in the Alps or other mountain ranges. It’s peaceful. It’s exhilarating. It’s hard to describe.”

More than 20 years into this high-flying hobby, Pierre has experienced a lot. He’s faced wind so severe that he couldn’t move forward and had to land in a park with trees in the middle of a city. He’s had to jump off sheer mountainside cliffs to take off. He’s flown alongside world champions of the sport, including Japanese paraglider Seiko Fukuoka and Frenchman Charles Cazaux. And he’s made a lot of friends along the way.

These days, Pierre participates in a lot of sports. He sails, he snow-kites and kitesurfs, he climbs, he skis, he explores canyons, he surfs, he dives, and he plays soccer. Of the latter sport, he says, “This is where I hurt myself the most.”

“I’m not the best at any of these sports, but I love them all,” he added.

But he loves paragliding more.

“It’s not just about being up high and flying and feeling that incredible feeling,” Pierre said. “It’s about conquering your fears, enjoying the beauty of nature, and living in the present moment.

“It makes it addicting.”

Pierre paraglides at "Dune du Pyla" close to Bordeaux in France.