Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Any Paragliders in? Is descending like a Sycamore seed a good thing?
  • mcmoonter
    Free Member

    Murr and I were out on a ride over the Bishop Hill this evening. From near the Golf Ball we watched a paraglider descend in what looked like a Sycamore seed spinning and descending very quickly. He only managed to recover the descent about a hundred feet from the ground after losing at least a thousand in a handful of seconds. We were certain he was toast. How close was he?

    brooess
    Free Member

    I don’t think so, suggests a line over or something stopping him from having a full canopy and keeping some lift in the wing
    In skydiving, a spiralling descent is used to lose altitude quickly, by jamming one side of the canopy down hard…but you have to level out in order to land in control. I assume a paraglider landing is similar…

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I thought they just did that for the thrill of it, sounds to me like he was just after a high.

    I once saw a balloon crash into the tree tops in the Wye valley – I was alarmed, but apparently they do this sort of thing for shits and giggles.

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    TroutWrestler
    Free Member

    Bishop hill would have been lovely tonight.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Spiral decent; really only for the highly skilled pilot. Can descend at 4000’/minute, and generate 3-4G on the pilot, decent speed of around 60mph. Very difficult to control.
    http://www.bhpa.co.uk/pdf/safety_notices/sn031.112008.pdf
    http://www.xcmag.com/2007/01/dive-dive-dive/
    http://justacro.com/tricks/english/deep-spiral

    themightysimmonite
    Free Member

    Could well have been someone doing some doing acro. Several local pilots are proficient at a manoeuvre called the SAT which does resemble a falling sycamore leaf.
    The other option might have been a spiral dive which is a recognised descent technique designed to loose lots of height rapidly (to escape Cu Ni for example).
    I’ve used this technique a few times over the years as it works but is pretty rough on your glider in terms of stress.
    What wind speed was on the hill st the time and eere there any really big clouds in evidence?

    TMS

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    What wind speed was on the hill st the time and eere there any really big clouds in evidence?

    There were barely any clouds immediately above the guys, the wind was a strongish breeze 15-20mph? as it rushed up to the summit. The glider had moved out perhaps a hundred yards or so from the slope when his descent started.

    jonahtonto
    Free Member

    it was probably someone learning some acro moves

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHSTMPumS4M[/video]

    (skip in a bit)

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Fantastic sport, I can watch people flying for hours.


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