[Closed] Any Paragliders in? Is descending like a Sycamore seed a good thing?

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...

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.

Bishop hill would have been lovely tonight.

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.xcmag.com/2007/01/dive-dive-dive/
http://justacro.com/tricks/english/deep-spiral

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

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.

it was probably someone learning some acro moves

(skip in a bit)

Fantastic sport, I can watch people flying for hours.

[IMG] [/IMG]
[IMG] [/IMG]