tawood
En-Route
Nice video, although I think the director took some artistic license...
Neat paragliding video
- Thread starter tawood
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Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
I want to see the outtakes, the wrecks.
steingar
Taxi to Parking
Parachute thingies never interested me that much, really. I see only roll control, and none of the other two axes. As such I have a hard time regarding it as flying, more like falling with style. Makes sense, given that they have a parachute.
Actually the control is sort of a combined yaw/lateral which induces roll due to the weight distribution, and pitch. Despite the appearance, they're not parachutes, not even close, they're wings with glide ratios comparable to or better than the average GA plane. Their maneuverability is really quite impressive.
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
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steingar
Taxi to Parking
I don't see any means of pitch control at all.
Bill
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That is why I took up hang gliding instead. Pitch and roll control, and a wing supported by a rigid frame. Google paraglider collapse videos.
Shawn
En-Route
It is called "Weight Shift". In addition to the brake toggles in you hand, the dynamics of the wing are affected by shifting you body weight in the harness. Pitch of the wing is also adjustable via trim straps on the risers which changes the flight characteristics of the wing pretty dramatically as needed.
The primary paraglider controls are "brakes", which pull the trailing edge of the wing down. They primarily produce drag, causing yaw, but (because the wingtips are curved down) also produce some sideways force. Roll then comes primarily from centrifugal force on the pilot suspended below the wing swinging to the outside of the turn.
Weight shift mainly affects roll, not pitch, in a PG.
If you pull the brakes on both sides at the same time, the pilot's momentum causes him to swing forward, increasing pitch and AOA, though it's a transient thing. You can get some dramatic pitch changes by making steep turns (causing speed to increase due to g-loading since the trim AOA is fixed) and then abruptly straightening out, which is how braver pilots than I can do loops in paragliders. But big wingovers are loads of fun.
Paragliders also usually have "trimmers" or "speedbar" or both, which are much the same thing though controlled differently, which alter the AOA of the wing as a whole, changing the trim speed.