Here’s a paragliding mistake a lot of paraglider pilots make! Are you one of them? In today’s video Carlo and Nancy from Flybubble share with you a classic paragliding tip. Almost universal way to hold the wing down in strong wind – using the rear risers and brake lines together. 🔥🪂👍
Are you in the 98% of paraglider pilots making this mistake, or the 2% of paragliders doing It right?!?😏👆🪂
Paragliding pilots what are your best paragliding tip to control wing in strong conditions?🧐🤨 Tell us in comment below👇🤗
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38 Comments
Hahaha oh boy! A few days after getting my license I was standing at the launch complaining about my glider jumping all around. The instructor just happened to stand aside and told me to use C's and build a wall – well why wasn't this part of the course? Here they do the courses always close to 0 wind and the first thing you do is going to launch at 20 km/h+ for soaring …
But yeah, it strongly changed my relationship to my glider 😆
Hi Carlo, like this clip very good for beginners to see. I went to a very good paragling school going back some years now 😀. This was one of the techniques they showed me. 👍👍👍
In even stronger winds I leave the glider in the flower with the leading edge open only in the middle. The take-off itself is easier with less drag during strong wind, but you must have a lot of ground handling to be able steer the glider correctly and on time to the take-off position from the flowerpot.
You have such easy looking launches compared to the tiny, rocky, steep launches here in the Northern Rocky Mountains ( Montana USA ), where our launches often demand strong skills to control the wing on inflation to take off. I often use the “C’s” and am wondering how the new 2.5 liner like Novas, Mentor 7 can be controlled with this method. Would be very interested to hear your opinion on this now that you have the the new Mentor in hand.
5+m/s I use A-s in my right hand and C-s left hand. When inflating I overcompensate A-lines and keep wing from frontcollapsing with c-s,. So it looks like playing back-forth with a-s & c-s. It makes wing climb up slowly even with strong wind. If to use only C-s the wing still opens up too fast.
in extra strong winds with one hand both C's and another a little pressure on both B's ( for 2.5 and 3 liners)…
A and C together are the best option and the smoothest take-off when the wind is strong, the one in the video is not very strong 🙂
Both A’s and brakes in right hand Both C’s and left brake in left hand.
Much better is holding A-risers in one hand and C-risers in the other hand. This way, you have more authority on the wing, e.g. if the leading edge starts flapping, you can inflate it a little bit.
Another classic error to avoid when trying to hold the wing down in a strong wind, to avoid getting dragged, is momentarily pulling too much tension on the lines with your body, by pulling back and fighting with the wing*. This tugs on the As, causing the wing to lift up and catch more wind, tugging you towards it. Then, because you're holding the brakes or/and rear risers, the wing stalls down again. You then momentarily catch up with the wing, so the lines go slack. But then, because you're still fighting with the wing, the slack causes you to pull back on the lines again. If you keep fighting with the wing like this you end up stuck in a kind of kangaroo-jump-start oscillation, as demonstrated at the beginning of the video (and again in other parts).
* Unless you are Thor the God of Thunder, you will always lose a tug of war with the wing in strong wind! This is why a lighter/weaker pilot with good technique always does better than a heavier/stronger pilot with poor technique.
Finding the "rear "risers is helped by remembering that the brake pulley mountings are usually on there and grabbing them helps get you started. Yes initial control by having hold of theserisers in the first place before any inflation helps. For real killing it immediate control, then the much out of fashion B riser pull and hold is extremely effective but this has gone out of fashion in these modern times due to concerns about wing damage, yet it is very effective. For mini wings and speedflying rear riser control is paramount IMHO. Very helpful video, thanks.
I think everybudy knows this.
I GOT MY P1 rating from possibly the best instructor from airjunkies paragliding ken bair in encinatas califotrnia so im in the proper 2%
#Lovely❤❤❤
In the take off I just doing cobra style.
In the final landing i just go to the any side either right or left to be in cross wind position
Depends on the location if sandy, grass or rocks can choose the technique
Mohamed Mostafa
Sky Masters Qatar
Interesting! Thanks for posting this, I fly paramotors, but high-wind kiting is incredibly fun. I've always struggled to keep it on the ground & well shaped when it gets super windy; but I suspect this will accomplish both of those tasks.
Could someone who weighs 20 uk stones, get off the ground in one of these things?.. Asking for a friend.
I learned the “A Ok” method with A’s and C’s this season and love it. 👌 underneath holding the rear risers. This allows you to choke up on line by sliding the 👌 up and down the lines, taking in or letting out as much as needed. The other hand is on the A’s ready for launch and steering as well. Similar to @Mark Leavesly “4wheel steering method” lots of control and always having the ability to kill the wing.
I also use the same method of rear risers and breaks to hold the wings down.
I have rarely seen anyone doing it, at least around me. Some people get angry at the danger.
I also use the rear risers to take off in strong winds to ensure a safety margin. Mitsos Reverse. It seems to be a common method in Australia. My guess is that this method of controlling the wing with the rear risers is also common in Australia.
Well…when is windy…..i take my 14 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Nice TIP , thanks. When it`s windy I like to start this way (I don`t do the wall) : https://youtu.be/eeBuR_dzO04?t=31
B-stall on the ground is also helpfull – make a video about it
Just use A's and C's inflation method, also known as the Mitsos technique. Works in all wing conditions. Full three-axis control.
Great insights. I personally use the As & Cs approach, trying to move my feet as fast as I can to balance the potential glider pitch..
This is a useful technique for sure. How do you then launch from this though? Do you release the C’s while leaning back? I tend to find my wing needs light middle-A pressure to come up cleanly even in strong winds but dropping the Cs then grabbing at the As doesn’t time well. I’d love more footage of your or others launches from this position.
This is not what the difference realistically looks like. It's very much exaggerated to make a point, i.e. produce postable content of naught.
The new sonata wing looks beautiful.
Informative tip, Thanks!
I live in the desert SW of the US and most of my flying is from improvised launch sites with cactus, rocks, nearby trees and even the occasional cliff. There's no room for error so I usually launch with A's and C's so I can abort quickly. What I don't like about this method is that you sacrifice some directional control of your wing while you're bringing it up through the power zone into position, which can be very problematic. Would like to try this technique using C's in both hands and body to pressure A's and launch. Problem I find is that on the flat ground where I practice it's hard to get this to work. This could be a characteristic of my wing. Any pointers? Really like the video by the way. As someone who has gotten plucked trying to launch with just brakes I think techniques like this should be standard fare in schools.
What I miss in the video is you showing us how to lift the glider up when you want to. Do you just let go of the rear risers or?
Having learned in coastal scenarios where we typically launch in winds 10 knots and more, i hold Cs in left hand, As in right.
As the wing lifts thru the 45° power band i pull the Cs sharply which depowers the wing and allows it to get up into its flying postion with less drama.
It's also good to practise launching backwards, fly the wing without panicking.
It will fly. That's what it's designed to do.
Just control it and then allow yourself to turn and face forward.
If you panic and try to break, the wing will stall, collapse and that is not good close to terrain.
would you recommend the same for Tandem paragliders?
This video is about holding the wing down in strong wind, not launching. It demonstrates a simple yet very effective way to hold the wing down in strong wind, to help prevent you from getting dragged. From testing very many wings over 30 years, this technique is almost universal i.e. it works on almost all wings, with very few exceptions. From trying various different techniques on many different wings, including As and Cs, we find this technique to be the most effective for holding the wing down in strong wind for almost all wings. Using this technique we've kept in control whilst others around us have lost control and gotten dragged. Which is why we shared this video.
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Gracias
These types of videos should be made in strong conditions, not medium to soft conditions.
The only way to truely show strong condition technique is to show getting dragged and ragg dolled with the wrong technique vs. a controlled technique.
I prefer nose down to cobra launch in strong conditions to keep the glider out of the power zone at all times.
This would have been useful today when I got dragged 50 yards on my back. Lol. I kept just wrapping the breakers around my hands, but the wing just kept unfortunately and dragging me along the ground.