Why the cool kids do it....

On Friday, March 6, 2015 at 3:06:50 PM UTC-5, 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....

I doubt if this is the crowd we want in gliders! Think of all low passes that would result!

Kirk

Yeah the highspeed bulbs attracted by all the fun the pilots were having in 'A Fine Week of Soaring' is what soaring needs/sarcasm
PS loops and rolls are both possible

On Friday, March 6, 2015 at 2:54:36 PM UTC-6, GB wrote:

Yeah the highspeed bulbs attracted by all the fun the pilots were having in 'A Fine Week of Soaring' is what soaring needs/sarcasm
PS loops and rolls are both possible

Really? I'd like to see that! I bet point rolls and cuban 8s are tough, though ;^)

Just sayin, what I saw in that vid looked like it was really geared for the skateboard crowd - and that's OK, got to start then young.

Me, I'm more into the "UK Smokin" style of flying....

Kirk
66

So, I found the loops:

https://vimeo.com/79345814

The helicopter starts look interesting. The loops look INTERESTING. That wing sure does some odd things at times!

Rolls? not so far. I've seen guys with the motorized PGs do the steep turn with a wingtip on the ground thing, and my impression was that it was an accident waiting to happen...but people say the same thing about low passes so as long as no-one gets hurt...

And I guess a high speed pass is out of the question (although worm-burner low speed passes seem common).

Cheers!

Kirk
66

On Friday, March 6, 2015 at 5:53:35 PM UTC-5, kirk.stant wrote:
So, I found the loops:

https://vimeo.com/79345814

The helicopter starts look interesting. The loops look INTERESTING. That wing sure does some odd things at times!

Rolls? not so far. I've seen guys with the motorized PGs do the steep turn with a wingtip on the ground thing, and my impression was that it was an accident waiting to happen...but people say the same thing about low passes so as long as no-one gets hurt...

And I guess a high speed pass is out of the question (although worm-burner low speed passes seem common).

Cheers!

Kirk
66

Roll https://vimeo.com/119970283
Lots o looping https://vimeo.com/ozone/infinite
Eight point rolls probably aren't possible, but who knows with kids these days...

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

Wow!

I don't fly a sailplane because I'm an old geezer with a tube up my
nose. I started when I was much younger, you know, back in the day when
you'd do something because it interested you, not because it was "cool"
and on youtube? Who needs the shallow, unaware, "cool kids" who need to
be spoon fed an activity before they'll try it? You certainly can't
converse with them. I'm waiting for the selfie video of the guy plowing
into the side of the cliff. I'm sure his equally "cool" friends will
pull it from his body and post it before his body even gets "cool"... I
mean cold.

Just another "Old Geezer". BTW - I tried sky diving a couple of years
ago. It was terrifying (and fun!) and I did it for training, not
because it was "cool". Most of the others there were "cool" young
people complete with tattoos, piercings, spiky hair, Go Pros, and a poor
grasp of English. But, Oh, Man... Were they ever "cool"!

(Flame suit on)

On 3/6/2015 9:09 PM, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
Paul, I agree with you completely. Take "Cloudstreet" for instance. It's
full of geezers with tubes up their noses who look like they are in
intensive care. It will appeal to the already initiated (sort of) but it
will do nothing to attract young blood. In the US no one is producing
any good soaring promotional film. A pity. "The Gliding Soul 2014" is
the exact opposite.

Paul Villinski;898261 Wrote:
I wasn't thinking about the relative safety of paragliders versus
sailplanes -- but about how effectively a beautiful, extremely
well-produced video like this promotes the sport to younger people.
There's not much comparable to JB Chandelier's films in our world of
sailplanes -- this is about the closest I've found;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egBWcpthuMw or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rCtnTXo3SE
On the whole, we seem to have a talent for presenting our amazing sport
in a very bland way, and largely devoid of younger people.

Interestingly, as of 2010, the vast majority of PG pilots were in their
40's and 50's, with more pilots in their 60's than in their 20's. In
terms of fatalities, a quick glance shows more fatalities in sailplanes
most years than in paragliders and hang gliders combined, with an
average of 6 per year in sailplanes since the 1990's according to the
SSF. The size of pilot populations in SSA and USHPA are roughly the
same.

I keep trying to bring my paragliding buddies, now in their late forties
and early fifties, into our gliding club, but I haven't succeeded yet. I
think part of this has to do with the way our sport is perceived...and
my love of soaring and sailplanes always makes me wish it were
otherwise. Soaring is so damn cool -- why do we fail to communicate
that?




--
Dan Marotta

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.