On Sat, 17 Feb 2007 13:09:00 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

That's what I was thinking too, but I have no firsthand experience
with paragliders, so I don't know how feasible this 'deflate the
chute' technique might be in reducing altitude and if recovery is
assured. But if I had a second 'chute, I'd have given it a try.

In any event, it would seem that emergency descent techniques should
be covered during instruction. But instruction isn't mandatory for
paraglider operations, is it? Perhaps it should be for flights above
a given altitude.

I'd pose this to the paragliding newsgroup if there were one.

I fly paragliders (with motor) as well as airplanes. Paraglider
reserves aren't made for free fall deployment; they're more like a
BRS... you don't cut away the main canopy. They're made to inflate
VERY fast so you can save yourself even at very low altitudes... if
you deployed from free fall you'd probably be severely injured if you
didn't just blow the chute apart.

Paragliders are designed to reinflate after a collapse, but it's not
something that you can pull in, drop, and then redeploy. They're
wings after all, NOT parachutes, despite the resemblance.

As for training, it isn't mandatory in the US, but it is most places,
and just about everybody gets training anyway. Yes, emergency descent
techniques are covered... but so is avoiding thunderstorms. The woman
involved is a top level competitor; my understanding is that the
pilots tried to get the competition directors to cancel that flying
day due to weather but they didn't listen. In such a situation many
pilots will choose to fly rather than lose points. She wasn't the
only one, BTW, another competitor was killed.

OTOH, she probably set a new world altitude record for PG... wonder if
her datalogger was on the whole time?

-Dana
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