Paraglider survives after soaring to 32,000 feet

Peter Harvey wrote:
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...4_02_07/?actio
n=view&current=IMG_1059.jpg

Is the extended URL from Ozreport.com
With a max paraspeed of about 50kph, I'd say dumbass
is a pretty fair description for these nutters!

At first I thought I had dirt specks on my monitor, then I realized it
was paragliders! Yikes. Maybe "dumbass" isn't wrong. That is one scary
looking cloud.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
news:US7Dh.4119$_O1.3414@trndny04...
Peter Harvey wrote:
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...4_02_07/?actio
n=view&current=IMG_1059.jpg

Is the extended URL from Ozreport.com
With a max paraspeed of about 50kph, I'd say dumbass
is a pretty fair description for these nutters!

At first I thought I had dirt specks on my monitor, then I realized it was
paragliders! Yikes. Maybe "dumbass" isn't wrong. That is one scary looking
cloud.

As I know many other sailplane pilots do throughout the world, we fly in
monsoon season here in Arizona and there is no fricking way that I would
ever consider heading anywhere near that cell. It doesn't even have a shelf
that looks possible. As someone else has asked.....does the paraglider
community know much about weather and the potential energy that
thunderstorms have??? That cloud has lightening, hail and microburst
written all over it. Maybe it was the lemming effect......a couple head
that way and the rest follow. As the one pilot said on the OZ report.....it
ain't worth it.....no matter how many points it would possibly yield.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix

snip..... As someone else has asked.....does the paraglider
community know much about weather and the potential energy that
thunderstorms have???


They do now!

Mike

Mike the Strike wrote:
snip..... As someone else has asked.....does the paraglider

community know much about weather and the potential energy that
thunderstorms have???



They do now!

Mike



It all depends on why you are doing what you are doing I think.

I had a customer who was a national level contest paraglider.

While obviously not stupid - running a successful little electronics design
company - he seemed completely unable to grasp the safety perspective...

I concluded that it must be a predisposition thing - I certainly would not trust
a paraglider in any weather strong enough to allow decent cross country.

Had a this re-inforced a while ago when a group of paraglider types decided that
our airfield was just the perfect place to winch launch from. It's a public
field, and we are inclined to welcome anyone in aviation, but:
They arrived, set up and commenced operations on the runway without any
consideration of our operations.
More than once we had one of them standing in front of a 15m+ glider with cable
attached - and wondering what the fuss was about - having just watched numerous
winch launches. "What's the problem, I'll get out of the way when it moves."

One fine day I watched one of them turn base at 400 feet or so and crab
determinedly across two active runways to do a vertical landing among our parked
gliders. During this procedure, one power aircraft landed beneath the paraglider
- in the absence of radio calls I assume he had not noticed. Similarly one of
our gliders had to do a 360 degree turn on base to allow separation.
Deciding that this was enough, I drew their chairman aside and said something
along the lines of -
As Safety officer here I am concerned with the way we are operating. When you
first arrived here , I gave you a copy of our Standard Operating Procedures.
Please be so kind as to provide me with your plan for how you are going to
operate safely from the field. They never returned. Too much paperwork I suppose...

Maybe you just have to be incapable of actively managing your personal safety to
fly paragliders competitively. Same sort of problem we sometimes get with insane
low finishes? My perception is that the glider pilots are at least trying to
reduce risk, not looking for it.

On the other hand we have had complaints from the non-competition paragliding
community about sailplanes being operated in too close proximity to them,
especially on ridges, where the turbulence from the high speed glider can have a
paraglider collapsing and landing it's pilot in the weeds at injury causing
speeds. So - probably a normal distribution curve but the paragliders centre is
shifted towards the higher risk taking side, compared to glider pilots, who are
shifted to the risk taking side compared to couch potatoes...

So - probably a normal distribution curve but the paragliders centre
is
shifted towards the higher risk taking side, compared to glider pilots, who are
shifted to the risk taking side compared to couch potatoes...

My observations support the above as well as I've heard comments like
"What can go wrong? You're going so slow and you have a built in
Parachute!!!!"
remember, it' a non-licensed activity with varying levels of
instruction.
FreeFlight

I had a customer who was a national level contest paraglider.

The machine is the paraglider. The person is the paraglider pilot.

Tony V.

Tony Verhulst wrote:

I had a customer who was a national level contest paraglider.


The machine is the paraglider. The person is the paraglider pilot.

Tony V.
Not so sure - sometimes, given the apparent lack of thought involved I think
"passenger" would be more descriptive. ;-)

Point taken on the poor nomenclature.

Bruce Greef wrote:
Tony Verhulst wrote:

I had a customer who was a national level contest paraglider.


The machine is the paraglider. The person is the paraglider pilot.

Tony V.
Not so sure - sometimes, given the apparent lack of thought involved I
think "passenger" would be more descriptive. ;-)

LOL.

Point taken on the poor nomenclature.

Don't mind me, it's one of my "buttons". A bunch of decades ago I got
kind of tired of being called a hang glider.

Tony "6N"