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What exactly is a
Paraglider?
A paraglider may look like
a parachute but is an friendly version of a hang glider. It is compact and
made out of high strength material, weighs about 7 to 8 kg and packs
neatly into a rucksack. Its your personal flying machine.
A paraglider is an inflatable wing. As you can see in the
picture it has cell openings in the front edge which are closed at the
rear, joined together side by
side. The air enters from the front opening but can't get out, hence the
wing moving through the air keeps these cells inflated. These cells are cut into the same cross sectional shape as an
airplane wing and it is this "aerofoil" section that provides the lift to
our wings.
 The
pilot is supported underneath the wing from a web of lines, each one with
the strength to support about a 100 kg. These lines are then attached to
risers, a strap like device that is attached to the pilots harness. The
pilot holds in their hands a control handle on each side. A line runs up to
the canopy from this handle and pulling the handle changes the shape of the
wing. With these controls one can make the glider turn, steady the glider in
turbulent air and slow the wing down for landing. There is a foot operated
accelerator system that can push up the wing to its top speed which is
between 45 to 50kph.
What can one do with a
Paraglider? To begin with once you learn the skills you
can climb up a mountain and use the paraglider to fly back down again. Ridge soaring is the most common form of paragliding.
When the wind blows directly onto a ridge or hill, the air is diverted
over the top creating a "wave" of lift. We can soar this "wave" much like a surfer to stay airborne for
hours. After your flight you simply fly out of the wave and glide down to land
at the base. In the right conditions and after understanding the sport
one can often fly for about 2 to 3 hours hours in the air. Some of our
students have flown for over an hour in their training flights itself.
The ultimate aim for a lot of pilots is to fly
cross country using rising thermals of hot air to climb to "cloud base"
and cover great distances over land. The current world record is over 300km.
Thermalling is flying around in circles into the rising air currents to stay in the areas of
best lift exactly the same way as the birds like eagles and kites.
Paraglider can be flown any
time of the year as long as the weather is good. We don't fly in rain and
need a maximum wind speed on the hill of around 20mph for training. One
can also fly in no wind condition from a hill by simply running and
inflating the wing for take off, once airborne the glider will glide down
to the landing area. The alternative is to use our winch to get lifted up
from the ground level - a preferred method to make a beginning.
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