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Flying in both paraglider and hang
glider gives an effect of flying like a bird. Almost all the
pilots enjoy riding in paraglider as well as hang glider.
Paraglider is easy to set up and comes up to 30 lbs. We can pack
it in five minutes and can be transported in a car, while the
hang glider requires more time and is difficult to pack also
since it weighs about two times more than a paraglider. Pilots
have a common practice of carrying a paraglider to the top of
the mountain peaks in Cascades, Alps, Andes and Himalayas, but
this will be difficult in the case of a hang glider. Paragliding
is very much related to hang gliding but is different from
parasailing or par ascending. Hang gliding, parasailing does not
require free flight.
Gliders: The paraglider wing
consists of a row of cells in which most of the cells are open
at the front and all of cells are closed at the back. All the
cells are joined together side by side. While flying, the
movement of the air makes the cells in the glider inflated since
air goes in the front but cannot get out of the back. In cross
sectional view, the glider cells will be like an aerofoil just
similar to an airplane wing.
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All the controls will be in pilots
hand for the purpose of controlling speed and to turn around.
The wings of Paraglider have a area of 20 – 30 square meter with
a span length of 8-12 meter and 4-7 kg weight. The weight in
combination with wings and other accessories will come around
12-16 kg. Glide ratio is calculated as 8:1 and speed range of
Paragliders are about 20-65 Km/h. The Paraglider wings are made
up of high-performance non-porus fabrics like Porcher Marine &
Gelvenor, with some lines made of Dyneema/Spectra or Kevlar/Aramid
lines. Storage and Transportation of a paraglider is very easy.
Paragliders are designed in a way where one passenger can travel
along with the pilot. This paragliders usually have fairly
higher speed, and are very much protective.
Flying:
The rising air is needed to keep the glider up. This rising air
comes from two different sources Thermals, Columns of rising air
are formed when the suns rays directly focus on the ground The
air is forces to rise when there is a ridge in the landscape.
When the wind hits the ridge in the landscape, air is forced to
rise. In hilly regions, thermals are considered to activate
flying.
Ridge soaring: In Ridge
soaring, pilots fly along the length of the ridge present in the
landscape, depending on the lift provided by the raised air as
it passes over the ridge. Ridge soaring is highly dependent on a
steady wind within a defined range (the suitable range depends
on the performance of the wing and the pilots skill). Less wind
force, and insufficient lift is available to stay airborne (some
times pilots end up scratching along the slope in the
landscape). With more wind force, paragliders can fly in a
higher level, but if there is too much wind blow, and there is a
risk of being scratching or striking over the ridge. It is
usually possible to do either ‘top land’ or ‘slope land’ nearer
to the launch site with ridge soaring. This saves the returning
time from a landing site back to the launch site.
Thermal flying: When the sun
rays heats the ground, it will also heat some features like
rock-faces, large buildings. This also forces the air to rise
from its normal level. Sometimes these may be a simple rising
column of air; and often, they are blown sideways in the wind,
and will break off from the source, with a new thermal forming
later. A pilot will begin to fly around in a circle, try to
center around the circle when the air is rising fastly. Some of
the instruments are present to indicate the rising level of air,
some pilots use vario-altimeter to measure the rising rate of
air. Vario-altimeter indicates the climb rate with visual
display along with a beep sound. There is another technique
called coring. The technique is simple and coring is nothing but
turning the glider tightly as the lift decreases and turning the
glider slowly when lift increases.
Cross-country flying: Once
the pilots are mastered in thermal skills, they can practice
cross-country flying in their gliders. In many paragliding
areas, the pilots who practice cross-country flying should be
aware of air law, flying regulations, aviation maps indicating
restricted airspace, etc.
Launching/Landing: In all
types of flying, launching and landing are to be done into wind.
In low winds, glider wings are inflated with forward launch over
the ridge. When there are low winds, the pilot runs forward so
that the air pressure generated makes the wings to move forward
thereby creating forward launch. In higher winds, there will be
reverse launch. In this case, pilot will face the wing and will
bring the wings up into a flying position, then the pilot will
turn the wing to launch. In some regions having smooth
landscape, pilots launch the glider with a tow. This requires
some special training and this type of launch has different
characteristics from free flying. Landing is concerned with the
wind direction and speed. Landing will be generally done at a
smooth forward run.
Control of the glider: The
pilot will hold the controls of paraglider in each hand which
pulls down the trailing edge of the wing. In some occasions, the
tips of the wings are folded in. This will reduce the flying
area of the wing thereby reducing the glide ratio.
Collapses: When the wind
blow is high and when there is turbulent air, there are chances
for the glider wing to collapse. In case if the collapse happens
near ground, i.e. shortly after takeoff or just before landing,
the collapse may not recover even with pilot intervention. In
that case serious injury may occur or even in such kind of
accidents death may occur.
Sports and competitive flying
Some pilots like to enjoy paragliding as a sport. There are
several regulations followed for sport or competitive flying:
• cross-country leagues - these are the annual leagues of the
greatest distance ‘XC’ flying
• ‘comps’ - this is one of the competitive flying based around
completing a number of tasks such as flying around set waypoints
• accuracy - this is a spot landing competition where pilots
will land on targets the size of jam-jar lids
• acro’ - this is a type of aero-acrobatic maneuvers and stunt
flying this flying involves heart stopping tricks such as
helicopters, wing-over, synchrony spirals, infinity tumbles, and
so on
• national/international records - it is very difficult to
achieve national and international records.
Competitive flying is done with high performance wings which
demand extremely good skill to fly than their recreational
counterparts
Instruments
Some of the instruments used for measuring the air pressure
level are:
Vario-altimeter
Radio
GPS (Global positioning system)
Safety
Paragliding is perhaps often viewed as a higher-risk sport than
it actually is. There will be great injury or sometimes death
may occur during collapse.
Some of the safety precautions include:
• pre-flight checks
• flying helmets
• harnesses with back protection (foam or air-bag)
• a reserve parachute
• careful pre-launch observation of other pilots in the air to
evaluate conditions.
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