Angle of attack

Originally Posted by hans

Until I read the book 'Ruder and Stick' I thought you can not hear the
AoA. But now I know that I can hear large changes in the AoA. Just turn
down the radio and the variometer and listen to your glider when you are
flying at different AoA at the same speed. You will realize marked
differences in sound of your gilder. Our Duo sounds different at
thermaling AoA and at stall AoA. The sound at stall AoA is much deeper
than at thermaling AoA.

You can feel the distance to the stalling AoA in the elevator. If you
are far away from the stall AoA a small increase in back pressure on the
stick will lead to a much larger change of the attitude than at an AoA
close to stall speed.

This is exactly how I learned to fly hang gliders. I mostly use my ears, but the bar pressure is also important. It also helps to have a helmet with earholes in it - you can sometimes hear which side the thermal is on. An important difference between planes & hang gliders is that the trim is always set at the same speed, so you can tell if you're at min sink or best glide using bar pressure.