HANG GLIDING

A beginner’s guide

June 2008
By chabre2009.com
If you don't know what hang gliding is, here's
an easy-read introduction to the sport…

Don’t tell me, I’ve seen this before.

They’re like flying paperclips, right?
Not quite. Hang gliding is an air sport in which
trained pilots fly a glider using only the wind
and thermals to stay aloft. There is no motor
involved, not even to get into the air. The
glider is fully controllable – pilots can land
where and when they want and travel big
distances. The world distance record is over
700km. It’s the closest man has got to flying
like a bird.

Are they really hanging there?

In the very early days of the sport – the early
1970s – pilots would literally hang by their
arms onto the base bar of the glider. The trick
was only to go as high as you dared fall.
Obviously this meant very short flights on
small hills. But the gliders and the sport
developed, so now the pilots are suspended
securely in a harness.

How do they fly?

The pilot is suspended in a harness beneath a
nine-metre sail – the wing – which is made of
fabric stretched over an aluminium or graphite
frame. He or she can move themselves around
like a pendulum underneath the wing by
holding onto an aluminium A-frame. When the
pilot shifts left the wing banks left and they
start to turn. To speed up pilots pull
themselves through the A-frame, the weight
shifts forward and the hang glider goes into a
nose-down position. To slow down the pilot
pushes the bar away from them and the wing’s
nose lifts up slightly, and the glider slows
down.

It looks graceful in the air, but sort of

heavy on the ground. How do they
launch?
Three ways. In foot launching the pilot faces
into the wind and runs down a slope until
airborne. This is how the pilots at this
competition will get into the air. Where there
are no hills to launch from hang gliders can be
towed up behind a vehicle, winch or boat
before the pilot releases themselves at their
desired height. In aerotowing a microlight tows
the hang glider up to between 1,000ft and
3,000ft before launching.

Are they heavy?

Between 26kg and 35kg. About the weight of a
large overpacked suitcase.
So how do they fly?
The glider’s shape creates lift. Just like a paper
plane launched from your hand, when a hang
glider launches it will glide safely to the bottom
of the hill.

What if they hit an air pocket?

There’s no such thing. “Air pocket” implies
there is a sudden gap in the air – that’s
impossible. What people mean when they talk
about air pockets is turbulent air. That
happens all the time. But the trick to flying a
hang glider well is to understand the weather
and not fly where there is too much
turbulence. It’s like sailing – you don’t leave
harbour when a storm is forecast. You don’t fly
in turbulence. Even if you do, the glider won’t
collapse or fall out of the sky – the pilot will
just have a bumpy ride until they reach
smoother air, or land.

So how do they stay up in the air and

travel big distances?
To stay up pilots have to find lifting air. They
do that in two ways: dynamic lift and thermal
lift. Dynamic lift is caused by wind rising when
it hits a slope. Have you seen birds soaring
above a cliff on a breezy day? That’s dynamic
lift.

And thermic lift?

That’s caused by the sun heating the ground.
When a patch of ground – say a rocky hillside
– gets hot enough it starts to heat the air
above it. Hot air rises – that’s your thermal.
The trick to flying distance – and competitions
– is to find a thermal, use it to get as high as
you can, and then fly off to find another one.
How do they do that?
That’s the difficult bit. Experience, judgment,
skill and some luck all play their part. In a
competition like this where you have the best
pilots in the world competing there is a lot of
experience, so pilots will fly for long distances
and cover the ground quickly.

Why do they fly around in circles?

That’s called thermalling. It’s how pilots stay in
the lifting air. Thermals can be small and flying
in a circle is the most efficient way of staying
in it.

So how do hang gliding competitions

work?
Typically they take place over a week or two.
Each day a task will be set. This depends on
what the weather is like, but a “good” task will
involve flying around a course of 100km or
more, passing several checkpoints. It’s like
aerial orienteering. The fastest pilot to the final
checkpoint – the goal – wins the day. Win
enough days and you win the competition. A
team competition runs alongside the individual
competitions. A typical task will see pilots take
off at 11am and land by 5pm – up to six hours
in the air. It’s hard work.

If you’re up there for six hours, how do

you … you know?
Pilots can eat, drink and take photographs
fairly easily in the air. In the old days one or
two have even rolled cigarettes. But relieving
yourself is tricky. Some pilots use a tube that
they tape to their leg and down to their shoe,
others unzip in the air and … well, you get the
idea. Others, including most women, just have
to hang on, although there are ways, including
adult nappies. It makes watching landings fun
when pilots have to rush to get out of their
harness and behind a tree.

I have to ask, is it dangerous?

It’s an adventure sport, not an extreme one.
So yes, there is an element of danger and
sadly accidents do happen. Accidents happen
mainly on take off and landing. It is very rare
for people to “fall out of the sky” for no reason.
Good training, experience, and flying within
your limits all help reduce accidents. Some of
the pilots at this competition have been flying
safely for 30 years or more. Unfortunately,
when accidents do happen they tend to be
serious ones. It’s the nature of the sport and
all pilots know that, and accept the risks
involved.
Sounds serious
It is. It’s a serious sport. The pilots involved
are dedicated and work hard. Some put
everything they have into flying competitively,
spend all their savings, live simply, and work
to fly. Most competition pilots will spend more
on traveling to a competition than they ever
get back from the sport either in sponsorship
or prize money. So they are sports people in
the truest sense – doing it because they love it
and because the personal rewards are so
great.

Tell me about the rewards

When you are flying several thousand feet
above the mountains, tucked in close to the
base of a cloud, with your friends near by, and
incredible scenery laid out before you it’s
pretty special. When you’ve been reading
books all winter about flying, and then put that
theory into practice on the first day of the
Spring season and it all clicks into place, that’s
great. When you fly a competition against
rivals who are really your best friends and you
all land in the same field, that’s incredible.
When you sit around the campfire at night and
trade stories from the clouds it feels like …

OK, I get the point. How do I learn?

Your country will have a hang gliding
association. They will be on the web. Learn
with them. It’s the only way to do it. There will
be clubs across your country, and once you’ve
learned the basics you will be able to fly with
them. You will never look back – just up.

ENDS
First published on www.chabre2009.com in
June 2008