Come Fly With Me!

Deborah Kade
Aug 31
6 min read

Today was a perfect day for paragliding!

"Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure^. The pilot sits in a harness or in a cocoon-like 'pod' suspended below a fabric wing. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.

Despite not using an engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometers, though flights of one to five hours and covering some tens of kilometres are more the norm. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand meters."

"In 1966, Canadian Domina Jalbert was granted a patent for a multi-cell wing type aerial device—"a wing having a flexible canopy constituting an upper skin and with a plurality of longitudinally extending ribs forming in effect a wing corresponding to an airplane wing airfoil ... More particularly the invention contemplates the provision of a wing of rectangular or other shape having a canopy or top skin and a lower spaced apart bottom skin", a governable gliding parachute with multi-cells and controls for glide.^"

"In 1954, Walter Neumark predicted (in an article in Flight magazine) a time when a glider pilot would be "able to launch himself by running over the edge of a cliff or down a slope ... whether on a rock-climbing holiday in Skye or skiing in the Alps."

"In 1961, the French engineer Pierre Lemongine produced improved parachute designs that led to the Para-Commander (PC). The Para-Commander had cutouts at the rear and sides that enabled it to be towed into the air and steered, leading to parasailing/parascending."

Play this clip as a full screen. The white clouds are magical!

"The paraglider wing or canopy is usually what is known in engineering as a ram-air airfoil. Such wings comprise two layers of fabric that are connected to internal supporting material in such a way as to form a row of cells. By leaving most of the cells open only at the leading edge, incoming air keeps the wing inflated, thus maintaining its shape. When inflated, the wing's cross-section has the typical teardrop aerofoil shape. Modern paraglider wings are made of high-performance non-porous materials such asripstop nylon."

"In most modern paragliders (from the 1990s onwards), some of the cells of the leading edge are closed to form a cleaner aerodynamic profile. Holes in the internal ribs allow a free flow of air from the open cells to these closed cells to inflate them, and also to the wingtips, which are also closed.Almost all modern paragliders follow a sharknose design of the leading edge, by which the inflation opening is not at the front of the wing, but slightly backwards on the underside of the wing, and following a concave shape. This design, resembling the nose of a shark, increases wing stability and stall resistance. In modern paragliders, semi-flexible rods made out of plastic or nitinol are used to give extra stability to the profile of the wing. In high-performance paragliders, these rods extend through most of the length of the upper wing."

"The pilot is supported underneath the wing by a network of suspension lines. These start with two sets of risers made of short (40 cm (16 in)) lengths of strong webbing. Each set is attached to the harness by a carabiner, one on each side of the pilot, and each riser of a set is generally attached to lines from only one row of its side of wing. At the end of each riser of the set, there is a small delta maillon with a number (2–5) of lines attached, forming a fan. These are typically 4–5 m (13–16 ft) long, with the end attached to 2–4 further lines of around 2 m (6.6 ft) m, which are again joined to a group of smaller, thinner lines. In some cases this is repeated for a fourth cascade."

"The top of each line is attached to small fabric loops sewn into the structure of the wing, which are generally arranged in rows running span-wise (i.e., side to side). The row of lines nearest the front are known as the A lines, the next row back the B lines, and so on.A typical wing will have A, B, C and D lines, but recently, there has been a tendency to reduce the rows of lines to three, or even two (and experimentally to one), to reduce drag."

"Paraglider lines are usually made from UHMW polythene or aramid.Although they look rather slender, these materials are strong and subject to load testing requirements. For example, a single 0.66 mm-diameter line (about the thinnest used) can have a breaking strength of 56 kgf (550 N)."

"Paraglider wings typically have an area of 20–35 square metres (220–380 sq ft) with a span of 8–12 meters (26–39 ft) and weigh 3–7 kilograms (6.6–15.4 lb). Combined weight of wing, harness, reserve, instruments, helmet, etc. is around 12–22 kilograms (26–49 lb). Ultralight Hike & Fly kits can be lighter than 5 kilograms (11 lb)."

"The glide ratio of paragliders ranges from 9.3 for recreational wings to about 11.3 for modern competition models,reaching in some cases up to 13. For comparison, a typical skydiving parachute will achieve about 3:1 glide. A hang glider ranges from 9.5 for recreational wings to about 16.5 for modern competition models. An idling (gliding) Cessna 152 light aircraft will achieve 9:1. Some sailplanes can achieve a glide ratio of up to 72:1."

"The speed range of paragliders is typically 22–55 kilometers per hour (14–34 mph), from stall speed to maximum speed. Achieving maximum speed requires the use of speedbar, or trimmers. Without these, and without applying brakes, a paraglider is at its trim speed, which is typically 32–40 kilometers per hour (20–25 mph) and often at the best glide ratio, too. High-performance paragliders meant for competitions may achieve faster accelerated flight as do speedwings, due to their small size and different profile."

"For storage and carrying, the wing is usually folded into a stuffsack (bag), which can then be stowed in a large backpack along with the harness. Some modern harnesses include the ability to turn the harness inside out such that it becomes a backpack, saving weight and space."

"Paragliders are unique among human-carrying aircraft in being easily portable. The complete equipment packs into a rucksack and can be carried easily on the pilot's back, in a car, or on public transport. In comparison with other air sports, this substantially simplifies travel to a suitable takeoff spot, the selection of a landing place and return travel."

"Tandem paragliders, designed to carry the pilot and one passenger, are larger but otherwise similar. They usually fly faster with higher trim speeds, are more resistant to collapse, and have a slightly higher sink rate compared to solo paragliders."

There was a market today at the Höhematte in Interlaken.

We bought a half pound of the chestnut cheese. Rich, mild and oh so creamy.

Wonder what this tastes like!

We bought the dried apples with cinnamon and the dried apples with ginger. The lady gave us a sample of the ginger with the apple and we were hooked on the taste. We may try making this when we get back home.