Why the cool kids do it....

On Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 9:06:50 AM UTC+13, kirk.stant wrote:
On Thursday, March 5, 2015 at 11:58:25 PM UTC-6, Paul Villinski wrote:
Paragliding is the only soaring sport that's actually growing, and this pretty much explains it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjxkXNC31Z4
Or, any other vid by Jean-Baptiste Chandelier.

Hmm, looks like "a skateboarder takes up paragliding". Lots of slides, stepping on high objects, buzzing old folks...real mature stuff.

Not my idea of flying fun (tough to do loops and rolls, for starters), but whatever....

The "Speed Gliding" proximity folks are regularly using rolls to give them a second or so (per roll) of effectively 0 G trajectory to follow terrain dropoffs down. I think some of them are even pausing inverted to get more downward acceleration, in the same way that jet fighter pilots do, while maintaining positive G to the pilot and canopy.

https://vimeo.com/108395176

On Friday, March 6, 2015 at 8:24:06 PM UTC-6, Bruce Hoult wrote:

The "Speed Gliding" proximity folks are regularly using rolls to give them a second or so (per roll) of effectively 0 G trajectory to follow terrain dropoffs down. I think some of them are even pausing inverted to get more downward acceleration, in the same way that jet fighter pilots do, while maintaining positive G to the pilot and canopy.

https://vimeo.com/108395176

Wow - I'm officially impressed! I didn't even really know there was a "speed gliding" category of paragliding (although it was on Top Gear a few years ago" - I assume they are not suitable for soaring?

Anyway - I stand corrected on the loops and rolls, and learned something.

BTW, jet fighters are accelerated by unloading to the angle of attack and g-load that produces the least drag - which isn't always zero g; in the F-15 it actually varies from "light in the seat" to several +G at high speed, due to the big, cambered wing. In the F-4 we just unloaded until it got dusty in cockpit and went for it!

Cheers,

Kirk

On Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 12:22:04 PM UTC-5, kirk.stant wrote:
On Friday, March 6, 2015 at 8:24:06 PM UTC-6, Bruce Hoult wrote:

The "Speed Gliding" proximity folks are regularly using rolls to give them a second or so (per roll) of effectively 0 G trajectory to follow terrain dropoffs down. I think some of them are even pausing inverted to get more downward acceleration, in the same way that jet fighter pilots do, while maintaining positive G to the pilot and canopy.

https://vimeo.com/108395176

Wow - I'm officially impressed! I didn't even really know there was a "speed gliding" category of paragliding (although it was on Top Gear a few years ago" - I assume they are not suitable for soaring?

Anyway - I stand corrected on the loops and rolls, and learned something.

BTW, jet fighters are accelerated by unloading to the angle of attack and g-load that produces the least drag - which isn't always zero g; in the F-15 it actually varies from "light in the seat" to several +G at high speed, due to the big, cambered wing. In the F-4 we just unloaded until it got dusty in cockpit and went for it!

Cheers,

Kirk

Speedwings will soar. Not really in thermal conditions but ridge, usually beach dunes, in strong winds. The definition of speedwing is broad and rapidly evolving. There are very small ones that wouldn't soar in a tornado up to ones that are slightly scaled down paragliders and will soar in everything except really light conditions. Example of something in the middle https://vimeo.com/38541740

Very impressive video! Well done! We need more high production value content like this in our category of the sport for sure......

Here's another beautifully made video by JB Chandelier -- this one of a bunch of cool Euro kids playing in the snow, some with nylon wings, doing extreme things, extremely skillfully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b54BJfHqrmw
I don't know about anyone else, but this wakes up something in my soul and makes me want to go out and play, too. Like sailplane pilots, these kind of "action-adventure" kids are a miniscule and rare subset of society, and that's part of what makes them cool.
I think the success of the video is how well it communicates the sheer fun and the joy the participants are experiencing. It's kind of an invitation to wake up and live. I also think sailplanes are extremely fun -- that's why I log a lot more hours in my sailplane than in my paraglider these days -- but I can't find a single video out there that does for soaring what this little film does for paragliding and speed flying, and I wish I could...if only to share a glimpse of our sport with a few friends.

Paragliding? Snore......