Ian Johnston wrote:

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 18:11:04 UTC, "Robert Ehrlich"
wrote:

: ----------
: Dans l'article
: , "Ian
: Johnston" a ,crit :
:
: ...
: On the other hand, if I want to fly a paraglider in
: the UK I have to
:
: a) take a training course over a few weekends
:
: b) climb up a convenient hll
:
: c) jump off.
: ...`
:
: You forgot:
:
: a1) buy a paraglider;

That is very true. But then, I left out "Buy a glider" as well...in
some cases flying a club glider will be fine, but that tends to make
the wait longer and the flight shorter ...

Where I am flying, there is also a para-gliding club operating on
a slope on the border of the airfield when sailplanes are not flying.
Most flights in club sailplanes are much longer than paraglider flights.

: c1) have somebody who takes me back from my landing place to
: the place where I started and left my car, or make the way
: with my feet.

If I land out. Same goes for a glider.

As far as I can see here, any hang-glider flight that doesn't remain
over the slope ends by a landout. During the last flying seasons my
number of field landings in a sailplane varied from 1 to 3 per season,
for 4000 to 8000 cross-country flight. Anyway this was to object to
the argument that hang or para gliding don't rely on the assistance
of somebody else. If I fly a sailplane in a club, the assistance for
an outlanding is easy to find, any pilot in the club would do it as I
am willing to do it for him if the inverse happen. If I go alone on the
next hill to jump with a paraglider, I have to make specific provision
for that.


: a) may be also much longer than the drive to the next glider
: field if you are in very flat land and the next convenient hill
: is far away.

Or much closer. My gliding club is 100 miles away, and there are good
hills - should I ever choose to risk life and limb in one of those
dratted things - within a few miles of me.

Ian