On Monday, October 27, 2014 3:16:14 PM UTC-7, Mike the Strike wrote:
There are probably few hang glider or paraglider pilots around who are unaware of sailplanes and plenty of us who switched. I and several of my friends switched to sailplanes in the 1980s after a series of fatal accidents in our hang gliding club. I'm sure we all knew it wasn't the safest of sports (especially mountain foot-launching), but it took a couple of sharp shocks to get us to switch.

Mountain launches and cross-country retrieves sure took a lot of 4-wheel drive time!

Deflatable wings are a whole other story!

Mike

To be honest, I don't think that we can use safety as a reason to attract aging HG pilots. Maybe PG pilots. Obviously risk of injuries is magnitude lower, but not the fatality rate.

Ramy