Common questions about hang gliding Most people ask the same questions when they are thinking about taking up hang gliding. What happens when the wind stops, etc... Here are the answers to those questions.

 What is a hand glider?

There's no such thing. It's a HANG GLIDER. So called because the pilot hangs underneath the wing.

 How do you learn, do you just jump off a cliff?

No, you don't just jump off a cliff.
You would die a fairly spectacular death if you did that.

You should find a hang gliding school in your area and book onto a course. In the UK it takes roughly 10 days to complete your training to basic level where you are then free to join a local club and use their sites. The first 5 days are spent on a very slow and basic training glider. You will learn how to rig and de-rig the glider, launch and land the glider and then progress from flying low skims to higher flights involving gentle 30 degree turns. Your second 5 day course will see you moving onto a slightly higher perfomance wing and higher flights. Your turns will be increased to the point where you are able to do 180 degree controlled turns and land in a defined area. You will also have to pass an exam on basic Airlaw, Flight Theory, Navigation and Meteorology.

I should say that the chances of getting 5-10 days of good weather in the UK are probably zero. The reality is that it will take you an average of six months to get qualified in the UK due to bad weather. I write more about this here.

If you really want to learn to fly quickly, go Wallaby Ranch in Florida and forget trying to learn in the UK.

For a short introduction to hang gliding and what might happen on
your first day as a student in the UK...go here

Can you fly in any weather, in the rain for instance?

You can't just go and fly in any weather. Hang gliding is a weather dependant sport and the ideal conditions for flying are fine weather with light to moderate winds, up to 20 mph (32 kph), and no rain. Rain only makes the glider wet and hard to handle. It makes it stall more easily and it's miserable to fly in. You have to get used to the idea that you can only fly when the weather allows. This is the most frustrating part of this sport, especially if you live in the UK where the weather changes constantly.

You can fly in snow though as long as it's not sleet. Dry snow doesn't stick to the wing and so doesn't cause any handling problems. I wouldn't recommend flying in a blizzard though, you have to be able to see what you are doing. Light snow is fine and flying over a snowy landscape is very nice, but cold, especially on your nose.

Do you fall off when your arms get tired? No. The reason for this is that you are suspended in the glider by a harness which is zipped up in flight and you only use your arms to hold the control bar. You can and should fly with a light touch, much like driving a car. You can see that the pilot on the right is neatly zipped into his harness. The parachute is visible, attached to the right side of the harness.

 How do you steer it?

The glider is controlled by the pilot who steers the glider by shifting his weight either left or right, back or forward, or a combination of these. He does this by holding what is known as the A Frame or Control Frame. Moving your centre of gravity to the left will induce a left turn in the glider. Similarly, moving to the right will produce a right turn. To slow the glider down the pilot moves his weight backwards and to increase speed, he moves his weight forward. This is all done with subtle movements of the A-frame.

How do you stop the thing? You actually land the glider by performing a "flare". The action of pushing the A frame forward and upwards away from you and shifting your weight backwards causes the glider to stall in a controlled manner and you land neatly on your feet. This technique is an art in itself and takes a fair bit of practice to acheive good results, especially on higher performance gliders. The flare is only performed at the final phase of the landing just as the glider is running out of airspeed and when the pilots feet are just a few inches from the ground.

The pilot performs a 'flare' and brings the glider to a stop which lands the pilot neatly on his feet.

 How long can you stay up for?

Well that depends on a few things. Hang gliders don't have an engine to drive them through the air so the pilot has to rely on rising air to keep them up or to gain height. If the conditions are right the skilled pilot may stay in the air for many hours.

A hang glider has a 'sink rate' of around 180 ft per minute. If the air that the glider is flying in is rising faster than the sink rate of the glider then the net result is a gain in height.

An easy way to think of this is to imagine that you are a kid who decides to walk down the up escalator in a department store. We've all seen kids do this and you have probably done it yourself at some point. The escalator is coming up slightly faster than you can walk down it so what happens is that you don't quite get to the bottom. the same thing happens to a glider in rising air. If the air rises faster than you are sinking through it, then you go up.

note: There is actually a powered HG option but that takes you away from the pure free-flight ideals of hang gliding. It is still hang gliding but with the addition of a powered harness

 Where can I find some rising air?

The most common sources are what we glider pilots call 'thermals' and ridge lift.

Thermals: a thermal is simply a collumn of air that rises because it is warmer than the surrounding air. Common thermal sources are ploughed fields, large tarmac surfaces etc. These surfaces are darker coloured and heat up easily in the sun. The air above these places is heated and eventually starts to rise forming a thermal which we can use to gain height. Thermals can rise thousands of feet and pilots use them to acheive cross country flight. As they get to the top of a thermal they use the height to glide towards the next likely thermal source and thus acheive great distances across country.

Thermalling in the mountains above lake Annecy in France.

Ridge lift: is simply air that is forced to rise up over a hill or a cliff. To have ridge lift you need to have wind that is blowing on to the face of the hill. Because the hill presents an immoveable object, the wind is forced to travel up and over the hill and therefore creates a band of rising air in front of the hill or ridge. This is what glider pilots use to stay up. Pilots will usually use ridge lift while waiting for a thermal to come through to get them really high.

This is my artists impression of Ridge Lift as the air is forced upwards when it meets the face of the hill

How high can you get? It depends on the conditions that you fly in but in hot dry areas like Australia, America or central Spain, flights of around 16,000 ft are possible. Pilots usually use oxygen when flying much higher than 10,000 ft as hypoxia can be a problem above this height. The photo on the right was taken from the glider at around 7,000 ft in the French Alps

Most flights that involve cross country flying in Britain are done at around an average of 3,000 - 5,000 ft. Our airmass is generally too damp to get really high cloudbases but occasionally on a really good day you can get higher than that.

 How far can you fly?

The (official) world record stands at 435.4 miles. (700.6 k) That was set in Zapata, Texas, by Manfred Ruhmer on a Laminar on 17/07/2001	Manfred Ruhmer
however... On Thursday 20th June 2002, Mike Barber flew further than anyone else on a Hang Glider, with a total distance of 437 miles (703kms). Mike flew the distance on a Moyes Litespeed 4, in Texas. For some strange reason it has not been ratified as a new record. It is however the longest flight ever made by any man on a hang glider. Well done Mike Barber!		Mike Barber

These records will probably have been broken by now, I don't know.

 What happens when the wind stops?

It's funny how people ask that. The thing is that the wind never really just stops. Have you ever been out on a windy day and the wind suddenly just stopped? No, neither have I. Hang glider pilots utilise the wind by exploiting the rising air as it is forced over a hill or a ridge and this forms a 'lift band' in front of the hill. The optimum wind speed is around 10-20 mph for ridge soaring. Less than this and it will be difficult to stay up and more than this will make it difficult to penetrate into the wind. To answer the question, what happens when the wind stops, the wind will not just stop. It will decrease gradually and the ridge lift will slowly reduce to the point where the glider will sink to the ground at it's natural sink rate, roughly 180 ft per minute.

 What is an Air Pocket?

It's just a laymans term for rough air. The atmosphere is in constant motion as warm air rises and cooler air descends, and when an aircraft passes through it, it often gets bumped around a bit. But there's no such thing as an 'air pocket'.

 I'm scared of heights so how can I fly?

Well I'm scared of heights too. If I go up something like the Eifell tower in Paris, I'm practically crawling on my knees with fear and yet I can fly much higher than that with no fear. I don't know why this is the case but I never see anybody getting vertigo in an aeroplane so I guess it's just the same on a glider. The way the mind perceives height varies depending on where you are. Even going up a ladder scares me. Fear of heights does NOT mean fear of flying!!

 Do you carry a parachute?

Yes. All hang glider pilots fly with a reserve chute in their harness. It's the one piece of kit that you buy and hope you never need it.

 Where can you fly a hang glider?

In theory, you could fly anywhere that you can launch from. BUT.... in reality you really can't just go and fly anywhere that you please. As with everything in life, there are rules and regulations. The sky is divided up into 'Airspace' and the reason for this is that both civil and military aircraft both have use of this space. They need to know where they can fly, and at what altitude in order not to collide with each other. As glider pilots we can use some of this airspace but other parts are no-go for us. In order to understand just where we can fly you need have a current airspace map. These are a bit daunting at first but with a little bit of tuition you can easily understand what they mean. Any good hang gliding school or club will have access to these maps and will offer tuition in the use of them.

The other consideration is land use. I live in the UK and all the land is owned by somebody, whether it's a farmer or the National Trust or whoever and they don't take kindly to people using their land for recreational purposes. For this reason we have hang gliding clubs all over the country and these clubs negotiate the use of the land for hang glider pilots to use. This usually involves payment for the use of the take-off and landing areas and club membership fees are used to pay for this.

Can girls do it too?

Yes they can do it just as well as guys. They may be put off initially by the weight of the glider and feel that they can't lift it but it's not strength that's needed to fly a hang glider, it's technique. Girls actually tend to do better in the beginning than guys because they don't try to muscle the glider around. They have a lighter touch and they allow the glider to fly. Guys tend to try to 'make' the glider fly in their first few days of tuition and I have to always get them to be more 'girlie' about it and be more sensitive to the wing and the feedback that it gives to the pilot.

Girl student flying prone on a training glider

 Where do I go to learn?

Look in your yellow pages, trawl the internet etc and find a school in your area.

If you live in the UK, take this link to the BHPA web site and click on schools. You will find however that it will be a long and frustrating road. Learning to fly in the UK is not easy. There are very few schools and only a few that are any good.

For those of you who are interested in tow-launching or learning to fly in sunny Spain under a British Instructor why not visit the Lejair web site where you will find a school run by Tony and Rona Webb. Tony and Rona are probably the most experienced tow-launch instructors in the UK. I did my tandem aerotow course with them and they were excellent.

If you really want to learn quickly and have good weather to do it, go to Wallaby Ranch in Florida

 How much does it cost?

I can only speak for the UK. To learn to hang glide will cost around £750- £800 depending on the school. This will give you around 10 days of instruction. This is split into two courses, Elementary Pilot and Club Pilot. You will then need a glider, a harness, a reserve parachute and a helmet.

A beginners glider can cost from £500 upwards for a reasonable second hand machine to around £2,000 for a new model. A harness will cost around £250 - £300 for a good beginners model. A helmet is around £100 and a reserve chute is around £350. You may be lucky to get a whole second-hand package from a dealer but ask around first. Talk to pilots on the hill, ask them for some advice on which glider is best for you, how much you should expect to pay etc. Don't just buy the first thing that you are offered by your school, they might just sell you the glider that happens to be there that day, and it might not be the best deal out there. There are plenty of dealers with lots of equipment that they want to sell. Call them all and get the best deal for your hard earned money. Naming no names but there are some schools/dealers who will sell you any old crap for lots of cash. So beware!!!! And remember where you heard it first.

Good gliders for beginners are:

Second Hand: Calypso, Target, Moyes XT. - these gliders can be bought from around £500 to about £1,200 depending on the condition. The Calypso will probably be the cheapest option as they are older gliders, but if in good condition, they are an excellent buy. Dealers will have a stock of S/H gliders and you will also find ads in Skywings which is the BHPA monthly magazine. You will receive a copy of this mag if you become a member of the BHPA

New: Target, Sting, Fun, Rio. - these gliders cost in the region of £2,200 - ish.

 What does it cost for an advanced glider?

New, advanced, high performance gliders will cost around £4,000 for a flexwing and up to £7,000 for a rigid wing model. These are not to be considered unless you have a lot of experience and skill. Don't even think of moving up to these models before you are ready. You might not live to regret it.

And now for the BIG QUESTION................Is it dangerous?

Yes of course it is - relatively. So is driving a car or crossing the street. Life is full of dangerous stuff. Face it! If you want to be totally safe, stay in bed. And don't turn your electric blanket on - it could be dangerous. BUT... Actually to be serious for a minute, it's really only as dangerous as you make it. So as long as you don't do something really stupid then it's quite a safe sport. I've seen a few accidents but all of them could have been avoided. Most, if not all accidents are pilot induced. They are usually a result of non-use-of-brain by the pilot. The same way as car accidents are usually driver induced. The thing you have to realise is that things don't just happen to you out of the blue. You are usually to blame for your own accident. Take note - all you ambulance chasing lawyers out there. In hang gliding you have to learn to take responsibility for your own actions and make your own decisions about the conditions that you fly in. Dont try to blame someone else for your own stupidity !! Hindsite is a great thing but foresight is an even greater thing. Looking ahead to what might happen is often the best way to avoid an accident. Hang gliders are very safe aircraft. They are very stable, slow to takeoff and land and very responsive in pitch and roll. They are constructed from very strong materials and tested to 6G positive and 4G negative. (a jumbo jet is only tested to 1.5G positive). Hang gliders are in short, very safe. It's the pilot who is dangerous, usually to himself. ps. With regard to the latest fad in the UK for suing someone if you happen to be stupid enough to fall over. if anyone comes to me for hang gliding tuition and I find that they are in anyway connected to these 'no-win, no-fee' ambulance-chasing, blood-sucking leeches who call themselves lawyers, then I will refuse to teach them. Even if they are just the secretary or the cleaner who works for those companies.

What's the difference between a hang glider and a paraglider?

Hang Glider	Paraglider

The obvious difference is the wing shape. A hang glider has an aluminium frame which supports the sailcloth and uses internal battens in the wing to define the aerofoil shape. You can clearly see the aluminium frame and battens in the hang glider (above), whereas, in the paraglider there is no internal structure. The wing is simply 'inflated' by air pressure in the cells.

The main differences are ::

Hang gliders are faster in the air and have a much superior glide.
Hang gliders weigh around 35 kilos and pack down to around 13 feet long. (2meters -ish)
Hang gliders take a fair bit of skill to fly and it takes a couple of weeks to learn the basics.
They require the development of good co-ordination skills.
Hang gliders do not collapse or break up, unless subjected to extreme conditions such as tumbling due to unsuccessful aerobatics or from collision with another glider.

Paragliders are slower in the air than hang gliders and have an inferior glide.
Paragliders weigh about 15 kilos and pack into a large bag.
Paragliders are very easy to fly and this makes them very popular.
Paragliders collapse in rough air and you will fall very quickly to the ground.

Surely paragliders are safer than hang gliders aren't they?

NO. NO. NO. Repeat these words until you understand completely that they are NOT.
A paraglider looks similar to a parachute to the untrained eye and people assume that they are inherently safe. They are not. They will collapse in rough air and you will fall very quickly to the ground. This will usually result in either serious injury or death. Anyone who tells you that they are safe is lying. Schools make a lot of easy money from teaching people to paraglide but don't properly explain to them just how dangerous it really is. Our club, the Southern Hang Gliding Club, lost a member very recently - 27/07/03. She died of multiple injuries after her paraglider collapsed at Devils Dyke. She was a very good pilot with many years experience but her wing collapsed in rough air and gave her no chance of survival. She will be very sadly missed by many people.

If any other form of aircraft was prone to collapsing and killing it's pilot it would be permanently grounded. I believe that people should only fly paragliders in very smooth and benign conditions. Anything other than that and the pilot is at serious risk of losing his or her life. Paragliders are very, very dangerous aircraft. When things go wrong, they usually go wrong very quickly. Unfortunately with serious consequences.

On a final note about the dangers of paragliding. Schools will tell you that you can take avoiding action when your paraglider collapses. They will take you on SIV courses where you will fly off a mountain and learn to deal with tucks, spins and collapses, all at around 3 thousand feet above the ground where you can't hurt yourself. The thing is that when it happens in real life you are usually around 100 feet above the ground and it's the ground that hurts you. You don't have time to react at this height. I know too many good people who have died or suffered awful injuries on paragliders and I will never ever fly one.

I do admit to being very biased on this subject but not without good reason.