About Paragliding - information

[eeyore]

I;ve always wanted to fly stuff... Looks like this is the easyest way to do my dream as a kid. Also looked that there is a training place aprox 5 miles from me!!!

 

Jobsa get the fook in!

 

[tttonyyy1599968643]

Always been put off by the cost of training a bit, but found this place in Hampshire that does elementary courses for £200 and Club Pilot ocurses for £250!

 

http://www.icaruswings.co.uk/courses.html

 

Can't say fairer than that.

[tttonyyy1599968643]

Even better, pay for both at once and the total is £350.

[tttonyyy1599968643]

Ah, there is a catch. Just called the people above for a chat about it and they explained there are three ratings of Club Pilot, tow, hill and parascending. They offer a parascending course which gives you CP rating for parascending. This can then be converted with another £100 course for tow CP rating, but they currently don't offer a course covering hill CP rating.

[jugglerjon]

Cassiewoofer was hat picture taken at Lodgemoor next to the sportsman pub?

 

Jon

[Simon Edmonds]

My instructor never bothers with NOTAM any more since he realised it was only the days that he forgot to ring them that they didn't see any military jet fighters!

Apparently when they got info that hang-gliders and paragliders were at a certain location they'd just fly over to have a look!

 

A paragliding friend of mine has a photograph of a Tornado in flight...

 

Taken from above as it flew underneath him near Abergavenny

[Simon Edmonds]

Even better, pay for both at once and the total is £350.

 

Don't forget the old adage - you get what you pay for

 

With paragliding, the training is often the difference between living and dying...

[tttonyyy1599968643]

Don't forget the old adage - you get what you pay for

 

With paragliding, the training is often the difference between living and dying...

 

The "you get what you pay for" adage must be a bit different in any situation where the tutor is teaching the pupil because they love the subject, for the joy of doing it.

 

If it's cheap because profitering is lower down the list of priorities rather than because the course is below par, then that's fine by me. Given the nature of the sport I'd guess that the former is more likely?

 

I still bet that statistically I'd be more likely to die on the motorway on the way to a site than flying.

[cassiewoofer]

Cassiewoofer was hat picture taken at Lodgemoor next to the sportsman pub?

 

Jon

Yep sure was, you did well to recognise it.

[cassiewoofer]

A paragliding friend of mine has a photograph of a Tornado in flight...

 

Taken from above as it flew underneath him near Abergavenny

I know it's scary but he probably flew underneath on purpose, the wake vorticees from those things last for ages!

 

@tttonyyy - the service these companies do is very good.... they know which lines get the most wear, and then break one and measure it's breaking strain, that's a good measure of all the others. they then pass or fail all other lines from that reading and replace broken one with new.

They then measure all lines for age stretching, and stretch if necessary.

Then material is tested for porosity, a certain vol of air pushed through one of the centre cells on leading edge, again most wear area, and the time for it to pass through is measured.

New wings will be 3-5 minutes, an average wing of say 100hrs airtime will be 1-2 minutes, and a poor wing will be 20 seconds, they don't fail till 7 seconds, and i read recently of someone getting 2 seconds! he was still flying the thing!

Another thing to remember each line will take say 60kg and there's like about 30 of them at harness more in primary bridle (as for kite), the canopies are tested when new (to get worldwide airworthyness cert) to 8G, that's 0.6 of a Ton in harness and must have no line failures.

Basically with an old wing like mine you shouldn't do wing overs and spiral dives and stuff. but general flying you'll only ever pull 1.6G and thats with fairly tight turning.

So i trust my old teabag.

A couple of months ago a mate gave us a 1991 canopy "for ground handling only" he was very insistant.

First day out i couldn't resist flying the famous flouro yellow nova pheonix,....had two flights alt maybe 30ft. but it's a large for someone 100kg's (i'm65)

A week later my 90kg mate was flying it and broke a line, in flight....oooooh we did laugh. :p

Just want to rebuild the bridal 'cos the canopy is in great nick.

[tttonyyy1599968643]

Very interesting reading CW.

 

So what happens when your fly a canopy rated for a weight heavier than you are?

[conor]

do you have to pay annually to be a club pilot at all?

 

would love to do it but my main concerns are:

the training would be very expensive.

i would not be able to fly often due to conditions.

[aquatix]

So what happens when your fly a canopy rated for a weight heavier than you are?

 

The canopy becomes less stable as it is not fully pressurised. It will fly slightly slower but with lower sink rate, feel more "twitchy" and have greater tendency for wing tips to tuck and fold (like a kite luffing). Generally not pleasant.

 

If you are slightly overweight for the canopy it will fly faster but sink slightly quicker (but not dangerously). Canopy will be extremely stable due to the extra pressure / loading, so will give a calm, smooth flight at the expense of performance, turning and soaring ability.

 

conor - check above posts for "Icarus" training at an unbelievable £350. After that you only need £77 a year for BHPA membership / insurance (plus a glossy magazine every month), and a nominal sum if you want to join any flying clubs.

[tttonyyy1599968643]

I think Icarus takes you to parascend club pilot rating (winched launch?), which can be converted to towed club pilot rating for another £100 (land rover towed launch). Not sure how much it would cost to convert from that to a hill club pilot, but it may be a cheaper route. Either way, it's cheap flying.

[fly4fun]

looks excellent, anywhere that does it closer 2 the midlands tho

[J2NZ]

Hey can anyone help out with an arguement - wither ofus know enough about paragliders : http://community.flexifoil.com/showthread.php?p=991433

[conor]

anybody used a paraglider with a mountainboard?

 

eg. going down a hill on a mountainboard then soarring!!

[Sticky]

Very interesting thread this. Does anyone know about rules/laws relating to Epilepsy and Paragliding? I originally got into Powerkiting because I actually wanted to get into freefall Parachuting and the fact that I take medication to control Epilepsy means I can only ever do a parachute jump while attached to an instructor (in this country anyway).

 

Does Epilepsy automatically precluse me from Paragliding?

[aquatix]

Sticky - there is no automatic exclusion although it may be a factor for insurance and choice of school flying sites. The best people to contact are http://www.flyability.org.uk/Flyability-home.htm who have facilities to cater for most impairments.

 

Hope this helps get you airbourne!