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

Entry: Paragliding - History and brief description - A893027
Author: Iamscowy - the one and only undisputed Scowy - U211137

I know that there is already an article on Paragliding so I've broken one rule already, but I thought that the subject deserved a factual account that was more than one paragraph.

I am Scowy

wow! I wanna learn to fly!!

Excellent first guide entry scowy, Job well done and well written, u shouldn't have to wait long for this to be picked!!
spotted one typo "For those getting worried at this worried rest assured"

Also, a question I have is how similiar is it to flying power kites and is there any benfit doing this to learn techniques while keeping your feet 'mainly' on the ground?

Z

Ah shucks *takes a discrete bow*.

Glad you liked it . I'll get the typo sorted .

I haven't tried power kiting but I have considered buying one for days when the wind is too strong/wrong direction for flying as the principles are the same. Basically a power kite is just a smaller version of a paraglider. The main difference as far as I know is that when flying a power kite you are facing back towards the canopy whereas in paragliding you face forwards.

Oh, and in power kiting you are meant to keep your feet on the ground. Make no mistake about it they can be very powerful machines. I read in a reputable UK newspaper about a lad who was flying one in the South East of England near Colchester who was lifted off the ground and carried about 1/4 mile across an estuary. When asked why he didn't let go he said he was too scared to.

Scowy

Hi Scowy
Are you sure there's already an Edited Guide article on paragliding? I just did a quick search and couldn't find one so unless you know something I don't (quite possible ) then you're in the clear on that rule.
Nice article with a lot of info and I enjoyed reading it. You don't mention tandem flights which I thought was quite a common introduction to the sport. Certainly the members of the paragliding club who use my gliding club's bar were recommending the tandem experience as a good taster. And it's something I know is on offer at various hill sites around the world (UK to Slovakia to NZ).
There's a few minor typos which can be easily sorted by you or your sub-ed if/when this gets picked up for the Guide.
Your history section seemed to have a different style or feel to the rest of your article. Might have been my imagination but if you were using information you'd read elsewhere it's easy to be influenced by the original author. Still that's a minor niggle (assuming you've rewritten in your own words and not resorted to cut and paste - that could lead to problems with copyright and ownership.)
On a self-interested note, you might want to add a link to my edited article on gliding, A32578. The principle of using 'lift' that I describe there is just as relevant to you guys!
Hmmm. I seem to have written an epic posting here. Apologies
Happy flying and good luck with this

Hi Metal,

There is at least one other article on paragliding but it's not an editted version. I am a bit new to h2g2 and still feeling my way around a bit.

You're right the history section was written using information from other online articles (ie more than one) but is re-written and not copy/pasted. I could possibly re-visit it and try to get a more consistent feel.

So how does the editting process work then For the suggestions you make (tandem flights, link to gliding, random typos) should I go in myself and update?

Hi Metal,

There is at least one other article on paragliding but it's not an editted version. I am a bit new to h2g2 and still feeling my way around a bit.

You're right the history section was written using information from other online articles (ie more than one) but is re-written and not copy/pasted. I could possibly re-visit it and try to get a more consistent feel.

So how does the editting process work then For the suggestions you make (tandem flights, link to gliding, random typos) should I go in myself and update?

Yup, just go ahead and edit your article to your heart's content. That's generally how this peer review thing works and you're doing pretty well so far having worked out how to create an entry and submit it for peer review.
If you want to know a bit more about how peer review works, just click on the green banner ad with the cycling fish. That'll take you to the front page for peer review full of useful information, if you've not already found that.
Normally what happens is you submit your article, it sits here for a bit while people come and comment, criticise or offer assistance. You make changes to your version until you're satisfied it's finished and then wait for one of the scouts to recommend your piece for the edited guide. Then it'll get sub-edited and eventually appear on the front page YAY!! Of course there's always the chance your article won't get picked for the edited Guide but even then it'd still be here for the world to read and turn up on searches of the site.
Hope that helps
MC

Oops. I've just realised I gave you the wrong info for my gliding article. I should have said A325748 Must be time I went to sleep if I can't even advertise properly

Wow, what a great entry I've nothing but praise for it. Is it *really* your first?

I wouldn't worry too much about the other two paragliding entries - neither of them are in the edited section, both of them are by written by researchers who haven't posted anything on h2g2 for a long time and can therefore be considered AWOL, and one is a personal account which wouldn't be eligible for Peer Review anyway without much re-writing.

I see little in the way of this entry's flight straight to the front page

I agree it is a very good article and is definately EG material.

However, just one observation. Pulling on the front risers wont necessarily reduce your sink rate, it will most likely increase it as air spills out of the back of the canopy. But it will increase your forward speed - just like pushing the stick forward in an aircraft. However, if you do it carefully and the wind is right, the increase in forward speed might counteract the reduction in lift. You wouldn’t pull on the front risers just before touch down to give yourself a softer landing. That’s the quickest way I know of a giving yourself a couple of broken legs.

Pulling on the back risers will reduce your sink rate, but it will also decrease your forward speed. The problem with that is if you pull to hard you will stall the canopy and sink faster then you ever intended - just like pulling the stick back on an aircraft.

Stuart.

Thanks Gosho what I can I say . It really is my first article for the guide I've wanted to be a writer for some time but working as a seismic data processor (watch this space for next article) doesn't provide much of an outlet

Stuart, I've gone back to the original article and you are correct in observations regarding pulling the front risers. The original wording was "Take offs were into as high a wind as possible and if you could not get forward you pulled the front risers down to your chest, no speed bar, no big ears, no B line, just lots of fun and muscle power." which I'm afraid got completely confused in my translation Will rewrite so that it makes more sense. Well done for spotting the technical error

Metal,

Have updated with description of tandem flight - if you have any other comments on this I would welcome feedback as I didn't experience a tandem flight during my training (although have had a tandem flight since). But I see from your space that you fly those slightly bigger things that I try to keep well clear of. One of my regular sites Parlick regularly has busy skies with model airplanes, paragliders, gliders and occasionally hang gliders in the air.

I have also added a link to your gliding article I now seem to have an awful lot of footnotes though....

I wouldnt worry to much about the footnotes Scowy. Six is not an unreasonale number and they are relevant. There are articles with footnotes that fill the whole screen. Now that does get confusing.

You might like to add a little something to the effect that the original ram-air canopies as they are called that para-gliders and sports parachutists use were originally designed by NASA. It was part of the reaserch in the 1970s for a re-usable spacecraft and they experimented with inflatable airfoils to bring the space craft back to earth. Modern sports parachutes are descended from this reasearch. They abandoned the idea of an inflatable airfoil and opted for a rigid airfoil which became known as the Space Shuttle.

Stuart

My main gripe with paragliding is the misuse of the word...ie people using it to refer to parascending (being dragged along under a bog standard parachute by a boat or similar - an activity that most people do with unqualified instructors and no insurance )

PQ (firmly grounded but capable of putting a hang glider or a paragliding buggy together...the things I do for love)

I do agree that there's nothing more annoying than people who talk to you excitedly about free-flying but who still can't distinguish between parascending and paragliding or even worse start getting paragliding and hanggliding mixed up.

The idea of the article though, as much as anything is to increase awareness of the sport so that hopefully fewer and fewer people make those kind of mistakes.

Good to go.



HELL

There's a couple of updates based upon people's comments that I keep meaning to getting around to doing. But thanks for the continued recommendations.

Great first entry on paragliding, Scowy - congratulations!

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratulations!

HELL