On Saturday, April 28, 2012 12:54:01 AM UTC-5, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
Forget trying to recruit paraglider pilots. It's too much fun. And when
you are young and full of **** and vinegar you'd rather run off
mountains with the wind in your face than sit in a bubble....Older ones?
Hauling a paraglider up a hill is no more strenuous than pushing a
sailplane onto take off position.

Fun is relative. I like being in a quiet, hi-tech bubble, with my neat electronics, cruising at 100 knots at cloudbase over the Grand Canyon. Or doing 80 mile final glides finishing with a low pass after a 5 hour flight into the mountains and back. Or flying on a windy day, looking for wave. I think sitting in a chair going back and forth over the trees might be fun for a while, but then I'd get bored of being SLOW!!!

Just like there are lots of power pilots who think gliding is stupid - they enjoy (?) the precision of instrument flight and couldn't care less what is outside the window until at decision height.

And BS about the effort involved. With good rigging and towout gear, there is very little effort needed to rig and launch a glider - a LOT less than is needed to hike up a mountain! So from the physical aspect, paraglider pilots may be interested in transitioning to gliding as they age, or move somewhere where it is less practicable to paraglide (Try Phoenix, AZ, in the summer, for example!).

Kirk
66