I'm sure you composite buzzard flyers would be into this too if you could carry the thing up to a lunch. These guys launch, fly, hike for another launch or camp for the night, repeat. Kinda like the Red Bull X-Alps but without the competition.

https://vimeo.com/92836853

that looks like a lot of fun. cool video.

Backpacking on the wind...Cool!

Yeah that is super rad, good find Zane. I've got a friend who does that, he's traversed the Sierra's and the Alps on multiple occasions for weeks at a time... pretty darn pure style, I'd love to take one of those for a ride someday! Would be awesome if you could do that along the PCT in Oregon, but the launch/landing sites would be pretty damn limited I think.


Here is a link http://sierraparagliding.com/california-distance-record-172-miles/ about something cool my friend did recently.

And a wild clip from his 500+ mi Seirra trip:

Wow... those guys are awesome adventurers. If I could lose 50 pounds and 30 years, I'd be right there with 'em

As far as the second video posted of the guy flying in rotor... IMHO flying a collapsible wing in any sort of Sierra rotor, even relatively light stuff like that, is nuts. Flying weight shift aircraft is bad enough in those conditions, but an aircraft with the possibility of a collapse just because Mother Earth zero-G'd you for a second or two...

That kind of flying looks much better suited to a Woopy Fly kinda wing to me at the least. Those are less pack-able than the plain old sky-bags of course.

That glider in Tyler's buddy's video is a comp glider, an extremely high aspect ratio combined with minimal lines and less material. They are as unstable as they are highly maneuverable, for expert pilots.

As a perpetual beginner in paragliding I like the stable novice gliders, the Cub wings of the sport.

Turns out one of the pilots from the "500 Miles to Nowhere" video, Gavin, is a friend of a friend. He and another pilot, Will Gadd, are attempting to fly a record breaking trip down the Canadian rockies right now. The trip was supposed to be 1000km, but apparently some big wildfires in Canada are now limiting the proposed route to about 600km. If you're interested, here's more on the Canada trip and a GPS page:

http://willgadd.com/going-deep-on-a-paraglider/

http://www.cloudbasemayhem.com/defining ... n-rockies/

http://www.redbull.com/en/adventure/sto ... of-nowhere

GPS Tracker:
http://xcfind.paraglide.us/map.html?id=73

The material in that first video is really, really cool. But I can't get over the disconnect in the opening narration- about how it's so pure to get away from the corrupting influence of the public eye, while simultaneously filming yourself so you can post it on Vimeo. More power to them though. Definitely onto something great.
-DP

chosstronaut wrote:Yeah that is super rad, good find Zane. I've got a friend who does that, he's traversed the Sierra's and the Alps on multiple occasions for weeks at a time... pretty darn pure style, I'd love to take one of those for a ride someday! Would be awesome if you could do that along the PCT in Oregon, but the launch/landing sites would be pretty damn limited I think.


Here is a link http://sierraparagliding.com/california-distance-record-172-miles/ about something cool my friend did recently.

And a wild clip from his 500+ mi Seirra trip:

Seeing his chute try to fold up in this video and one of his other videos where he's doing it on purpose... making the tail tingle.

4Whitey wrote:Turns out one of the pilots from the "500 Miles to Nowhere" video, Gavin, is a friend of a friend. He and another pilot, Will Gadd, are attempting to fly a record breaking trip down the Canadian rockies right now. The trip was supposed to be 1000km, but apparently some big wildfires in Canada are now limiting the proposed route to about 600km. If you're interested, here's more on the Canada trip and a GPS page:

http://willgadd.com/going-deep-on-a-paraglider/

http://www.cloudbasemayhem.com/defining ... n-rockies/

http://www.redbull.com/en/adventure/sto ... of-nowhere

GPS Tracker:
http://xcfind.paraglide.us/map.html?id=73

That is awesome. The Canadian Rockies are serious!

Zane, are you going to right a article? it is STOL flying

So Zane, how much work you getting done on your airplane???

G44 wrote:So Zane, how much work you getting done on your airplane???

Hahaha... You should be asking me: "How's the bathroom remodel coming along?"

Airplane is inching along. I suppose I should finally start a build thread for that with all the dirty details.

I can so see you doing this zane! looks right up your alley and I can certainly see why! makes me want to learn!

I want to at least try this. How hard are these to fly?

Levi wrote:I want to at least try this. How hard are these to fly?

That's kind of difficult to answer. I'd say they're easy to fly, up to a point. They're extremely stable. You could just close your eyes, sit there, and it would fly hands off and would glide you to the ground with minimal damage to you. But, there are a few tricky characteristics, the biggest one being that it's essentially a flying rag without the tube. It takes ram air pressure in the cells to maintain span tension of the wing. Slow it down too much and it will stall, which looks like someone let the air out, and you plummet. Decrease AOA too much and the leading edge will tuck under, usually asymmetrically, causing a little yaw. The takeoff is the hardest part, as you have to feel the wing overhead and compensate by sidestepping or it'll lay over. It's most stable in the air when your body is the pendulum and the wing is loaded. They are an amazing design though, and inflate with the greatest of ease. Popping it up into the air overhead with a little wind is nearly effortless.

In smooth air, it's about as easy as flying gets. In rough or dirty (thermic) air, it can be a handful. Conditions are everything. The piloting by some of the experienced guys is something to be in awe of-- with just 2 "brakes" as control surfaces, which are essentially flaperons, they can do spins, spirals, loops, lazy 8's, etc. It's a very tactile thing with a lot of body english involved.

Thanks Zane,
I found one school in Utah that does a 10 day course to get certified. I don't think Maine would be the ideal place to fly, but I would have a blast learning to soar.

How is AOA controlled, I am assuming it is with the "brakes"?

Levi wrote:Thanks Zane,
I found one school in Utah that does a 10 day course to get certified. I don't think Maine would be the ideal place to fly, but I would have a blast learning to soar.

How is AOA controlled, I am assuming it is with the "brakes"?

Yeah, it's like having direct pull handles on your flaps.

Found this: http://new.nephc.org/NearestSchool.shtml

Go train with Chris at Point of the Mountain in Utah, excellent training at an excellent site by excellent guys.

www.Superflyinc.com