h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Learning to paraglide - A87756673
Author: Hoovooloo - U114627

This is what I spend most of my time thinking about and a lot of my time doing, so if you've ever felt like doing it too, here's where to start.

Great entry : thank you..

Oo... well I now know the differnce between handgliding and paragliding nice, well written, and reads through/flows well

Handgliding is when you stick your hand out of the window of a moving car and adjust the angle of attack to make it move up and down. It's a simple and effective lesson in aerodynamics.

HANG gliding (with a G) is the sport of hanging down underneath a semi-rigid wing and gliding about the place.

I enjoyed reading this article very much . It has a much more personal and intimate feel than the only other article covering the subject, and provides information on speedflying

A902549 - Paragliding - a History and Brief Description

Out of curiosity, when you previously wrote about helmet cameras (A23499237), was it based on your paragliding experience? You could possibly mention that you can film yourself flying in the 'what next' section and link to that article.

This article is written well and is easy to read, but if at any time you'd like some help with GuideML, doing links, headers and lists etc then feel free to ask, we're always happy to help.

<BB<

Yes, the previous entry on helmet mount cameras was based on my first faltering steps with in-flight video recording.

Technology has come on in leaps and bounds since. Helmet cams are now lighter, cheaper, easier to use and better quality than ever before. For a little over £100 you can get a remote control wide angle camera shooting 30fps at 1080p HD, with a battery and memory card that lasts for up to four hours, complete with a range of mounting kit options. I love my new one, as anyone who's been to my Youtube channel can attest...

My only question would be, do you have to be physically quite strong to paraglide? Apartt from the effort of carrying the equipment to the top of the launch site, naturally. I mean how much effort does it require once you're launched?

Fixed that.

Answer is: pretty fit, at first, you'll be doing a lot of walking up hill with a heavy glider that's hard to ground handle because you don't know what you're doing.

Later, much less so. I now have a lighter pack than I've ever had (lighter glider and lighter harness than I used to use), ground handling is nowadays less like wrestling and more like dancing, and there are at least a couple of sites I use regularly where you can drive to the top and easily land at the top after flying.

That's interesting, is that because you can get a lighter kit as you get more experienced or is it because the kit has been re-designed since you started?

Both. As it says in the entry, your first glider needs to stand up to the kind of abuse you'll give it before you have ground handling fully dialled. Robust = heavy. But even the robust gliders are getting lighter because of improvements in design and materials.

I hadn't made the robust = heavy link.

Great Entry! No comments from me.

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Hi Hoovooloo Do you maybe have a picture to go with this Entry? Would really be great.

Nudges the thread

Hi Hoo, maybe you didn't see Tav's request about photos, so I am bumping this up the queue again.

The Entry has been returned by the sub (h5ringer) and is marked pending - but we'd really like to use a photo if you have any available?

Can you let me know?

cheers

Lanzababy

https://picasaweb.google.com/SonofRojBlake/Misc#5766188041694732882

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LtjkrB7cSsGVPGn9HeArbNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Thanks

I have forwarded a copy of the photo to the Artists.