Now that I've got your attention:
Happy New Year!
It has been very busy at iparaglide.com and also I was in Europe for a month test
flying and training with the major paragliding manufacturers. I finally have gotten
to this Forum.
Let's get this party started people! Feedback wanted!
Safe:
Paragliding is easier to learn and safer. Hang Gliders fly faster and glide
better but they need much larger fields to land and it is much more technical to
land a hang glider than a paraglider. In normal flight, hang gliders have significantly
more kinetic energy as they have more mass and also fly faster (Remember your high
school physics? E = mV^2). Fatalities on hang gliders is 8 participants per 10,000,
while paragliders is 2.5 in 10,000 (the same safety as SWIMMING).
Easy:
Because paragliders fly slightly slower, they can turn more tightly and it is easier
to learn to core (circle in) thermals to stay up longer.
Portability:
PG is also much more convenient because you can carry the back pack up a mountain
and fly off, fly cross country and hitch hike a ride home. People are doing
incredible adventures this way: flying entire mountain chains in the Himalayas.
A hang glider has 16 foot long metal poles and needs a 4X4 truck with a special rack
on it so you can drive your glider up the mountain. You must also have a friend
chase you if you go cross country so they can pick you and the glider back up.
A paraglider weighs 15 kg while a hang glider weighs 30 kg. You can store your paraglider
in your bedroom closet. You won't be able to store your hang glider if
you live in a city apartment.
Assembly/Disassembly Time
A paraglider takes 10 minutes to lay out and launch or fold away while a hang glider
takes 45 minutes to put together or take apart.
The Verdict: It's All About Airtime:
What all this translates to is that you spend a lot more time flying with a paraglider
and less time waiting and assembling/disassembling it.
Number of Flights per Day: I have flown as many as 11 flights in one day on a paraglider,
but hang gliders rarely fly more than once. It is not uncommon for paragliders to
fly three times a day on a regular basis. Some of our students make 100 flights in
their first season of flying, where in hang gliding it is difficult to fly 30.
Many paraglider pilots fly over a 100 hours per season. Hang gliders are lucky
to log 30 hours per season.
When are hang gliders the superior choice? When it's windy or very unstable with
very powerful thermals. Hang gliders can fly faster so on some windy days they
can fly when we can't. Also having the rigid steel poles means also they can
fly in greater turbulence and thermals.
What do you think?
Blue skies,
Dion@iparaglide.com