Hang Gliders and Paragliders

I have always loved flying since I was a little child of 2 or so. My father told me of my uncle who also supposedly passed away in his own plane in 1942. However, my cousin tells me this isn't true because he has a certificate from the U.S. Military saying my Uncle was a Military test pilot and what actually happened to my uncle was just too top secret to share with the extended family until the last few years. So, only my cousin and his wife and now I know but none of the other 50 or so members of my extended family were told of this  since 1942. However, I bet my father and his brother Bob knew about this they likely were just sworn to secrecy at the time in 1942. That must have been very difficult for them.

So, my dream as a child was to be a Bush pilot in Alaska or an Airline pilot. There was one problem with this. My father asked me to promise him not to solo in a plane until after he died. I honored his request as a dutiful son and because the story of my uncle dying even though it was a fabricated lie told to the family to prevent the truth from becoming known at the request of the U.S. government was honored by my living father and uncle.

So, like my uncle I was always physically fearless and intuitive and instinctual and coordinated enough to survive almost anything in my life and I did. So, as I listened to friends falling off of ladders and falling off of roofs and falling down stairways I listened and thought about how I would tuck and roll myself to prevent injury in all of these situations. I learned that how you fall from most distances up to about 30 to 40 feet in the air decides whether you die or are just temporarily injured.

So, after my father passed away in 1985 I finally soloed in a Cessna 152 by myself. Also, around this time I decided to take hang gliding lessons because there was a place with cliffs on the beach where this was taught as people on hang gliders and para gliders (para gliders look a little like parachutes that you can steer). So, one day I paid my money and joined a group of people on the beach and each of us were in a harness attached to our own hang gliders provided for the lessons.  But it is important to understand at this point I was not a teenager or a twenty something I was 39 with three teenagers and a new baby. So, though this was something I really wanted to do I also had to balance this against staying alive for my kids ongoing. So, I had a really great time with all this until one of the group was flying about 10 feet off the ground going down the beach and he was hit by a gust of wind. For me, this would have been fine because I would have intuitively reacted against the wind and pushed down the opposite side of the kite and gotten some lift from the gust. But instead this man pushed the control bar the wrong direction and wound up upside down and cut on the guy wires of the hang glider on the beach. So, even though I was fine I began to realize what just a little gust of wind you don't expect can do to a hang glider. After this I decided to stick to flying planes with engines even though I really would love to be flying para gliders which are a little safer than Hang gliders as long as you don't tangle the lines of the para glider or hit something and tear the fabric of the para glider.

So, though hang gliders can be fun para gliders are usually safer for the same reason that it is good to have a parachute when things go wrong.

So, when you are taking off from the ground in almost anything but a helicopter, it is better to be taking off into the wind if you can manage that. However, the heavier the aircraft and the more strongly built it is designed the more winds of all kinds from any angle it can sustain without crashing. For example, as a single engine small plane pilot we are taught that you don't want to get into the jet wash (be closely behind ANY jet aircraft) because there is a potential to rip the wings off  a smaller plane just from turbulence and wind venturies off the fuselage and wingtips and jet engines of any jet. So, you don't want to be behind any big or small jet if you are a small single engine plane unless you want to die and crash or crash and die (whichever comes first).

So, the smaller the plane the more winds and turbulence of all kinds affect and buffet the plane or handglider or glider or para-glider.

So, for example I have taken off a small plane with a 20 to 30 mile per hour crosswind and my first experience doing this I almost touched my left wing tip to the ground which would have caused us to crash likely during takeoff. So, as soon as you leave the ground in a big cross wind you have to use the peddles to make your plane fly sort of sideways into the wind to not dip your wing into the ground after takeoff. I did not know this the first time I did this and it was pretty scary for a novice.

The same kind of thing is true for hang gliders and paragliders where you really want to always be facing into the wind unless you are at altitude 1000 to 5000 to 10,000 feet high or something like that and you want to lose altitude. Then flying the same direction as the wind might help you to lose altitude faster. But, even then as you near the ground and are ready to land you want to be facing the wind for landing. Since the wind in your face gives you extra lift you can land sometimes without running if the wind speeds are just right and all you have to do with a hang glider is to lift the nose  at the last minute and drop the last few feet to do this. But, this is something people take a long time to learn sort of like learning to surf on a board in the ocean. But flying a hang glider and para glider are also sort of like surfing the wind in the air in some ways like surfing on the ocean you are surfing the water or in sail surfing or sail boarding you are sometimes simultaneously surfing both wind and ocean at the same time.

But hang gliding is likely safer above 100 feet than it is lower down because when you are within about 40 feet or less of the ground any changes in winds or your speed in relation to the ground could cause you some problems, an injury or even a broken leg or back in landing. So, after you are good at this being above 50 to 100 feet above the ground is actually the safest place to be unless you are trying to land. So, just like with flying anything the most concentration the most concentration needed is for takeoffs and landings. And no matter what you are flying I would say landings are about 10 times harder than any takeoffs to really do right.

The reason for this is when you are taking off in a plane for example you are moving along the ground and the ground is (sort of attached to you) until you are in the air. But, once you are in the air the winds are pushing you from the front the back and up or down all the time so just landing is much more complicated in the number of variables you will have to deal with. For example, can you land in a 20 to 30 mph cross wind? (A cross wind is traveling from your right to your left or vice versa). So, what happens when you try to land in a cross wind is that if you don't face into the wind with your plane (or whatever) you will slide sideways at 20 to 30 mph on the wind and not land at the airport at all but in someone's back yard or field or into a building. So, you have to fly into your landing sort of sideways and at the last moment before touchdown you straighten out the plane with your pedals and rudder so you don't crash. Being able to do this well is the difference between a summer or weekend pilot and someone who really knows what they are doing.

So, my statement is: "Any fool can take off in a small plane but can he or she land it without crashing or dying?" So, the same could be true of anything that flies to some degree.