I should have written a similar piece about diving while it was still fresh in my mind but I didn’t. Let me not repeat the mistake with paragliding. Here we go.
With paragliding, you basically want to do three things:
- Get into air
- Turn where you want to go
- Land safely
Some of us might want to have beer too, but let’s not cover that.
OK. Get ready now.
Put your harness on (the bag-like thing where you sit),
and attach it to the glider(the wing-shaped thing that lets you fly)
with risers(the ropes that always seem like a mess).
<image showing harness, glider and risers>
Step 1: Get into air
Before you get into air, you have a problem. The glider is on the ground.
How surprising! First, it has to get into air. Then you can.
### Getting the glider into the air
Say you dragged the glider forward with all your energy. What happens?
Nothing. The air simply flows over the glider unobstructed.
If this worked, these guys would be gliding.
But you're smart. You figure out that if you folded the *leading-edge* a little and pulled again, something amazing happens.
This action is typically called the **Pull**.
### A taste of Lift and Drag
If you tried running with the glider now, you can fly a little.
Why? Newton's 3rd law of motion. If your glider is going to push incoming wind down and forward, the wind will push your glider up (**lift**) and backward (**drag**).
The Bernoulli explanation where the shape of airfoil causes lift is [wrong](https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/wrong1.html)! It is outrageous that the wrong explanation is so widely taught even today.
### Leave'm those risers
But wait, why is your leading-edge still folded? I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that you can unfold it once the glider is above your head.
This action is typically called the **Release**. You do this by letting go of the risers connected to the leading-edge (called *A-risers*).
<image showing glider's LE folded and unfolded>
### Check, check
There's one more small thing to consider. If you pulled your glider hard and above, wouldn't it also want to roll forward?
How do you stop this? By slightly tugging the risers once and releasing.
This action is called **Check.**
So three actions.
**1. Pull
2. Release
3. Check**
If you ran into the wind and fast enough now, you'll have a lift-off.
When we say fast, we mean fast enough so that lift generated is greater than your own weight. Just like how the airplanes do it.
### A small side note
Before we go to the next step, there's another important detail that one wouldn't know unless you observed a glider up close. There are actually two surfaces in a glider: top and bottom. But why?
The answer is *rigidity*. You need the glider to be rigid so that it can have a shape and be stable. How can we do this without making it solid and heavy? Remember those air-pillows from childhood that they sold in railway stations?
Rigid, light and foldable. Just what we want.
Please re-imagine the glider in the previous images with two surfaces. Can't draw them all again. Here's one for reference.
<image of glider with 2 surfaces>
Flying on...
## Step 2: Turn where you want to go
If you're thinking that's so much work just for step 1, let me tell you that step 2 and 3 are a walk-in-the-park. Not sure if that idiom fits a flight. But anyway.
Turning is easy. There are 2 lines called brake lines that are connected to the trailing edge.
**Pull** the **right** line to **go right**.
**Pull** the **left** line to **go left**.
Remarkable you must be thinking. :D
The physics is also simple and evident once we change our POV.
<image of glider with brake line. side, back and top views>
### Drag causes turns
Say you pull the right brake line. The glider now has more drag on the right than on left. So it turns right. That's all there is to it.
<image of glider with right brake line pulled. side, back and top views>
### A similarity with cars
When you're taking a right turn, you'd also want to tilt to the right a little. Why?
Try doing an experiment. Drive your car at 60 kmph in a semi-circular path to the right. You will *intuitively* try to lean right. Otherwise you will be tilted to the left due to centrifugal force.
This tilting isn't really necessary to turn but will seem natural eventually.
### What about going up and down?
You don't need any skill to go down. Given normal wind conditions, your weight will be higher than the lift available. So you will descend gradually.
What about up? That is tricky. You'll need more skills. Skills on reading the winds, finding streams of hot air to ride up on. (called *Thermals*)
## Step 3: Land safely
Unless you're an previous generation rocket that got wasted after a single flight, you'd want to land on ground safely.
You've had good fun in the air and are now approaching the landing spot. You will have to do some stuff in your head.
### Judging the height
Given that you descend without any extra effort, you are likely to run into one of the 3 scenarios.
1. You're **too high** for the landing spot.
What to do: Take a turn and do another round near the landing spot till you descend further.
2. You're at the **correct height**
What to do: Nothing.
3. You're **too low**.
What to do: Don't panic. Head for the nearest clear spot and hit brakes. (described later)
### Judging the direction
When you're landing, you would want to land into headwind i.e. against the wind. Just like during take-off.
Glider is best controlled against head-wind. We'll see why.
### The final brake
When you're **4 feet **above the ground and are in the landing zone, *quickly* and *completely* pull the brakes.
This will stall the glider by rapidly increasing the drag and you fall to the ground gently instead of sliding across the ground.
If the stall has to be effective, you should be facing the wind. That's why judging the direction is important.
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Tada!
Thank you for flying Glider Para. We hope you had a terrific experience.