We lay out the canopy in a semi-circle before take-off. Why?
When the center cells fill first, the canopy will rise steadily and straight.
During daily inspections you notice a tear of about 2.5cm or one inch in the canopy of your paraglider. What do you do?
1. You fix the tear with ripstop tape on both sides of the fabric.
2. You take the glider to a dealer or manufacturer to have it professionally repaired.
You can fix a tear smaller than about 5cm (2 inches) yourself. Larger repairs should be done by a professional.
See the chapter on Equipment.
'Big ears' are a descent technique and serve to increase your descent rate. Additionally, in which situation is pulling 'big ears' a good idea?
Pulling big ears reduces the wing area and therefore increases the wing load. This stabilizes the canopy somewhat. It also increases the flying speed but in most cases this is counteracted by the extra drag the ears create.
What are the minimum requirements for a safe take-off?
A straight headwind is not necessary, you can take off in a slight crosswind. The runway should be clear of cables and other obstacles, but a 500m radius is not necessary. It is however essential to be able to abort your launch, for example when you notice a knot in the lines.
A pre-flight check should be executed...
Before you take off, you should check at least these things: pilot, lines, canopy, wind, airspace.
Which pre-launch check is the most important?
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.
Which data do you need to calculate the wing load?
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.
What happens when you fly too slowly?
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.
Which lines carry the most weight?
Most of the weight is carried by the lines attached to the front of the canopy.
What is the weight of the fabric used to make paraglider canopies? (g/m2)?
Very light fabric strong enough for paragliders can be as light as 25g/m2. Very strong and heavy fabric weighs 40g/m2 or more.
At around 35g/m2, you can calculate that the weight of the fabric of just the top and bottom sail of a 25m2 canopy is a bit less than two kilos.
Your result is shown above.
Did you like our quiz?
Share your result with your friends using the buttons below.