Southern Arizona Hang Glider AssociationAs the big-air season cranks up, I'd like to ask you all to read these two articles.
http://willswing.com/Articles/Article.a ... leOnSafety
http://willswing.com/Articles/Article.a ... Conditions#
Safety: Good Articles
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John Wolfe
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An excerpt that I like (or resemble):
Dr. Paul MacCready, Jr. wrote a very thorough, and somewhat technical article which was published in Ground Skimmer Magazine in January of 1975, ....a few of his main conclusions:
"Strong winds, with strong solar heating, over rough terrain, is simply not an acceptable hang glider flight situation. … By unsafe we do not maintain that you cannot do the flight, but that the flight will be uncomfortable, and that if you give nature many opportunities to cause you severe trouble, she will eventually oblige you. … Twenty knot winds, which are often utilized to permit slope soaring, turn out to be beyond the safe limit for all but the most conservative flying at ideal sites. … A hang glider cannot be flown really safely unless the turbulence is considerably smaller than its lowest flight speeds. This would limit flight to winds of ten knots, and sometimes even less."
When warnings like this were sounded by the soaring aviation "establishment," one segment of the hang gliding pilot population seemed to take it as, effectively, a challenge to their manhood...."
OK now- who can't wait to wrestle with the Miller Monster?
~~meekly raises hand~~
And then, of course, there's this popular safety video:
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/58L3m0dqVDY&co ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="/http://www.youtube.com/v/58L3m0dqVDY&co ... edded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
Dr. Paul MacCready, Jr. wrote a very thorough, and somewhat technical article which was published in Ground Skimmer Magazine in January of 1975, ....a few of his main conclusions:
"Strong winds, with strong solar heating, over rough terrain, is simply not an acceptable hang glider flight situation. … By unsafe we do not maintain that you cannot do the flight, but that the flight will be uncomfortable, and that if you give nature many opportunities to cause you severe trouble, she will eventually oblige you. … Twenty knot winds, which are often utilized to permit slope soaring, turn out to be beyond the safe limit for all but the most conservative flying at ideal sites. … A hang glider cannot be flown really safely unless the turbulence is considerably smaller than its lowest flight speeds. This would limit flight to winds of ten knots, and sometimes even less."
When warnings like this were sounded by the soaring aviation "establishment," one segment of the hang gliding pilot population seemed to take it as, effectively, a challenge to their manhood...."
OK now- who can't wait to wrestle with the Miller Monster?
~~meekly raises hand~~
And then, of course, there's this popular safety video:
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/58L3m0dqVDY&co ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="/http://www.youtube.com/v/58L3m0dqVDY&co ... edded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
Last edited by morey on Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Thanks for posting these articles John. I had not seen the second one about paragliding. I've always thought Mike's first article on how we make flying decisions was the best hang gliding safety article ever written. Now I think the two together are the best articles I've seen about safety for any form of foot launched flight.