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What happens when you fly too slowly?

The wing collapses. The glider will enter a deep stall. Nothing, you can fly as slow as you want.

Below the minimum speed or stall speed, the wing stops flying and will descend straight down like a parachute. This is a very unstable situation and often leads to a spin or stall.
See the chapters on Aerodynamics (stalls) and Advanced flying.

What do you do when you can't hear the instructor over the radio during a flight?

You throw your reserve parachute. It is much too dangerous to keep on flying. You keep course to the landing field. Close to the landing field you spread your legs to indicate to the instructor that something is wrong. He or she will then give instructions via signs. Don't forget to keep thinking for yourself as well and make sure you land safely on your feet in open space. You turn around and fly back to the take-off to try and notify the instructor there, so he or she can give directions. You do nothing. The paraglider will touch down sooner or later by itself.

B is correct, A and C are nonsense of course.

Answer D is the second best choice in case your mind goes blank, you panic and you don't know what to do. It's better to do nothing in that case.

A paraglider glides down through the air. But at what speed?

The forward speed is over 50 km/h and the sink rate around 10 km/h. The forward speed is over 50 km/h and the sink rate around 1 m/s. The forward speed is around 35-40 km/h and the sink rate around 1 m/s. The forward speed is around 35-40 km/h and the sink rate around 0,1 m/s.

These are all speeds relative to the air!

Which pre-launch check is the most important?

Checking the lines and canopy are laid out cleanly. Checking your flight instruments. Checking your leg straps are fastened. Checking if there is sufficient thermal activity.

Even though all newer harnesses have a safety feature to prevent you from falling out of the harness if you forget your leg straps, this is very uncomfortable and on an older harness it may be a fatal mistake. Checking lines and canopy is of course very important as well.
See the section on Launching in the Basic techniques chapter.

What do we call the risers that are connected to the lines running to the leading edge of the canopy?

A-risers B-risers C-risers D-risers

These are the A-risers connected to the A-lines.

A pre-flight check should be executed...

...before take-off. ...after every flight. ...every six months or as often as the manufacturer recommends. ...only by your instructor.

Before you take off, you should check at least these things: pilot, lines, canopy, wind, airspace.

Standing on launch you see a rain shower approaching. Do you take off?

No, flying in the rain is illegal under air law. Yes, paragliders are not affected by rain and the accompanying wind will dry the paraglider quickly. Yes, if you can be sure that you have landed before the rain shower arrives. No, rain showers are often accompanied by wind gusts, which can be very dangerous for paragliders. Additionally, a wet canopy is more dangerous to fly.

D is the only safe answer. You can never be sure that you have landed before the rain arrives, so C is risky. B is only partly true for light rains, but again you're taking a risk. A is not true, although flying in cloud is illegal in many countries.

You just landed. What do you do?

You bundle up the glider in a 'field pack' and take the shortest way to the designated packing area. You bundle up the glider in a 'field pack' and take the shortest way to the edge of the field and from there to the designated packing area. You report to the instructor. When he or she says it's ok, you bundle up the glider in a 'field pack' and walk to the designated packing area. You pack up your vulnarable glider on the spot and then you report to the instructor.

Directly after landing, look around for other gliders that are about to land and clear the landing area as quickly as possible, without disturbing others.

Which data do you need to calculate the wing load?

The weight of the wing, the flat surface of the wing and the weight of the harness. The take-off weight and the flat surface of the wing. The span, the flat surface and the weight of the wing. The aspect ratio and the take-off weight.

The wing load is defined as the weight on the wing per square metre. Therefore you need the total take-off weight and the flat surface of the wing to calculate it. For example, a 25m² glider flown by a pilot with a TOW of 100kg has a wing load of 4kg/m².

For a paraglider in the mountains, what wind speeds are considered safe to fly?

Only nil winds from 0 to 1 Bft. Only light winds from 2 to 3 Bft. Only with wind from 0 up to 3 Bft. Only with wind speeds over 3 Bft.

Wind results in turbulence in the mountains. While soaring on a ridge or at low dunes or flying in flatlands may be safe up to 4 Bft or a bit higher using a smaller mini-wing, in the mountains a wind speed up to 3 Bft (a maximum of 20 km/h) is the maximum for most pilots to fly safely. Strong winds are considered 25 km/h or over.

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