Paragliding
law, flying regulations, aviation maps indicating restricted airspace, etc.
In-flight Wing Deflation (Collapse)
Since the shape of the wing (airfoil) is formed by the moving air entering and inflating the wing, in turbulent air part or all of the wing (airfoil) can deflate (collapse). Piloting techniques referred to as “active flying” will greatly reduce the frequency and severity of deflations or collapses. On modern recreational wings, such deflations will normally recover themselves without pilot intervention. In the event of a severe deflation, correct pilot input will speed recovery from a deflation, but incorrect pilot input may slow the return of the glider to normal flight, so pilot training and practice in correct response to deflations is necessary. For the rare case where it is not possible to recover from a deflation (or from other threatening situations such as a spin), most pilots carry a reserve (rescue, emergency) parachute. Most pilots never have cause to hrow their reserve. In case the wing deflation happens near ground, i.e. shortly after takeoff or just before landing, the wing (paraglider) may not recover (airfoil shape) even with pilot intervention and there may not be enough time for successful rescue parachute deployment. Those cases can result in serious bodily injury or death. In-flight wing deflation and other hazards are minimized by flying a suitable glider and choosing appropriate weather conditions and locations for the pilot’s skill and experience level.
Sports/competitive flying
Some pilots like to stretch themselves beyond recreational flying. For such pilots, there are multiple disciplines available:
Cross-country leagues annual leagues of the greatest distance C flying
“Comps” competitive flying based around completing a number of tasks such as flying around set waypoints
Accuracy spot landing competitions where pilots land on targets with a 3 cm centre spot out to a full 10 meter circle.
“Acro” aero-acrobatic manoeuvres and stunt flying; heart stopping tricks such as helicopters, wing-overs, synchro spirals, infinity tumbles, and so on.
National/international records despite continually improving gliders, these become ever more difficult to achieve; aside from longest distance and highest altitude, examples include distance to declared goal, distance over triangular course, speed over 100 km triangular course, etc.
Competitive flying is done on high performance wings which demand far more skill to fly than their recreational counterparts, but which are far more responsive and offer greater feedback to the pilot, as well as flying faster with better glide ratios.
See also: World Air Games
The current world champion is Andy Aebi of Switzerland; he won the title in February 2009 at Valle de Bravo in Mexico. His predecessor was Bruce Goldsmith.
Safety
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Paragliders launching video in Arax.
Paragliding is perhaps often viewed as a higher-risk sport than it actually is. Nonetheless, there is great potential for injury for the reckless or ill-prepared.
The safety of the sport is directly influenced by the skill and sense of the pilot. It’s important to note that almost all paragliding accidents are the result of pilot error. Paragliding equipment is very well built and, if properly cared for, will almost never fail. As an example, the average paraglider has around 30 lines connected to the risers, yet each one is strong enough to support the full weight of a pilot individually. Aerodynamically, newer paragliders that are not within advanced or competition categories are rated for safety and will tend to recover from most incidents on their own (without pilot intervention).
Given that equipment failure of properly certified paragliding equipment can be considered a non-issue, it is accurate to say that paragliding can be a very safe sport. The individual pilot is the ultimate indicator of his or her personal safety level.
In general:
The safe pilot will not fly at sites that pose an unreasonable challenge to his/her flying skills.
The safe pilot will not be influenced by the possibly negative examples set by others.
The safe pilot will only fly on days in which the weather is conducive to safe flight. Turbulence in all its forms is enemy #1 for a flying paraglider wing. Because paragliders have no solid support, their shape (and ability to fly) can be ruined by an errant down draft or the like.