Discussion » Questions » Recreation » What are three things you know about hang gliding?
Benedict Arnold

What are three things you know about hang gliding?

Posted - February 8, 2017
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Responses


    1. I'll never attempt
    2. I'll never attempt
    3. I'll never attempt
      February 8, 2017 5:07 PM MST
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  • Probably a bit late now, Flo. I was 60 when I started learning. Never got my licence, though that was no fault of my own.
      February 8, 2017 5:08 PM MST
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  • It looks like a ton of fun Didge but I prefer to fly while sitting in a plush seat on a BIG plane.
      February 8, 2017 8:36 PM MST
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  • it looks terrifying
    man is not meant to fly
    I'll never be able to trust my life with some tent material stretched over  an aluminum frame.



    Props to ya' Didge. I bow to your brass balls.
      February 9, 2017 4:28 AM MST
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  • Actually it was an exercise in trying to overcome my acrophobia. I never got my licence though it wasn't for lack of trying. Had some fun learning, though.
      February 9, 2017 1:35 PM MST
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  • 44654
    1. Some people enjoy it
    2. They use a parachute looking thingy.
    3. They always end up on the ground/water.
      February 9, 2017 7:25 AM MST
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  • That parachute looiing thingy is used by paragliders but, yeah, hang glider pilots do carry them. And thereby hangs a tale...

    Back in the 1980s an American named Nine Lives Lenehan (he had a little emblem on his flight suit for every time he should have been killed, but wasn't) was competing in the world championships, held in Oz that year. He saw something strange and instead of avoiding it he went to see what it was. It turned out to be a violent whirl wind and before he could turn away it dragged him in. It was violent enough to break up his kite so he threw his parachute -- and instead of going down, the parachute carried him up. He walked away from that one too (well, limped, I suppose) but his kite never flew again. 
      February 9, 2017 1:39 PM MST
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  • 3907
    Hello D:

    1.  I was ABOUT to try it.

    2.  Watched a friend fall out of his and die.

    3.  Decided NOT to try it.

    excon
      February 9, 2017 7:32 AM MST
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  • I had a friend die like that too, back in 2000. Great guy.
      February 13, 2017 1:37 AM MST
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  • 1. Flying one seems to require a lot of training, as I've seem them practicing on the shoreline in El Segundo.

    2. They don't perform well if you try to roll them.

    3. If I had discovered them when I was younger, I probably would have tried it.
       
        My father belonged to a glider club that used the Elsinore Airport as a base
        and we used to go to Glider Meets, like the Torrey Pines Meet, as often as we could.

      February 13, 2017 1:24 AM MST
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  • Yeah, it takes a lot of training if you're going to be relatively safe. Gliders are phenomenal -- a different ball game altogether.
      February 13, 2017 1:38 AM MST
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  • A lot of differences ... true, but they both rely on up-rising air and thermals to stay aloft ... correct? Or can't you ride a thermal with a hang glider?
      February 13, 2017 1:50 AM MST
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  • Thermals are the only way you can stay up. Same as gliders.
      February 13, 2017 3:40 AM MST
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