Hang Gliding - FAQ - What's needed?
Learning to fly well is a life-long affair that should not start, or stop, with lessons.
One of the top web sites for Hang Gliding has a great article and a drawing for a good, hands-on HG Simulator. If a local HG pilot or HG club has a worthless old glider lying around, here is a very good use for it. Hang the glider from any strong support, high enough so the pilot can just touch the feet to the ground. This is an extremely valuable training device, but it is no better than the experienced HG pilot who presents it. "Muscle memory" and good control moves are the focus of this training aid. You will know how it really feels to make the correct control movements, and see how a hang glider responds. More than that, you will have the time to relax, to feel the experience of flight (minus the wind and scenery, of course), and feel how the glider responds to good control inputs. All of that is hard to get in mid-air, with the surface of a planet close, and approaching rapidly. This device gives you time to get things right. It will greatly speed your understanding, through lessons. Instead of just scraping by, barely competent at any point before adding the next phase, you will be much more able to "nail down" each aspect of your learning, with actual flying time. Think of this as a real, practical "ground school." Later, when you start your HG lessons, everything will mesh together very well for you. You should run through this process at least once, and then again, just a few days before you begin taking lessons. Like the books and discussions that you will have outside of lessons, this device is something that you can do for yourself, to give you every advantage during actual HG lessons. Maybe it is not absolutely necessary, but it is highly recommended.
Pardon me if this is long, but I think you'll find it worth your while. You should ask the local HG pilots about the reputations of the local HG instructors, regarding their safety and competence. Some HG pilots will say nothing bad against any HG instructor, or at least not in public. Do NOT accept this social insanity. When -your- personal welfare is at stake, "image" and "politeness" are entirely out of place. Drag somebody aside, if you can, and demand straight, honest answers. Buy them a dinner, if you must. They may become very honest with you. Listen carefully to the answers that you do get, from every HG pilot. It tells you *nothing* useful, to hear that an instructor "teaches many students", or charges the least money, or is famous, or has flown forever. Ask which instructor has had the most students injured, in the last few years. Ask which instructor produces the best and safest HG pilots (disregarding all other factors). If straight answers are not forthcoming, as pilot to pilot, then you definitely need to find more and better HG pilots to ask.
I believe that I have taught almost a thousand HG student pilots to fly HG, as a professional HG instructor, and there were no broken bones among those HG pilots - not in lessons or after, so far as I know. Thus, I have a rather low tolerance for "instructors" who regularly send their students to the hospital. That said, now I can relax a bit and give you a few practical ideas that will help your quest for personal, free flight.
I offer this advice for ANY school you are considering: go and WATCH lessons as they are taught to paying students. "Watch" also means "listen" to every word from the instructor. Learn the instructors' names and faces, and observe how each one teaches. Some folks can Communicate very well, with good knowledge passing to the student, and some can not. The most knowledgeable pilot may be at a complete loss trying to understand the newcomers' faults and fears, so years of experience could be almost meaningless. Pick the instructor who can talk to YOU, as you are. Make sure that the school knows you will be buying lessons from THAT instructor, not just the one that shows up on any given day. Only you will regret any other arrangement.
On days that you do not pay for and take a lesson, WATCH lessons on that day, anyway. I call this a Listen Day. I promise you that you will learn almost as much, for free, as on your Lesson Days. No HG instructor worth their salt will chase you off. "Move" from the instructor does not mean "depart"; it means "sit out of the way", which is just a few yards (meters) uphill from the students. You should still be able to hear everything said, from there.
If you are towing tandem, take towing lessons as your time and wallet may permit. You can take towing HG instruction on almost any good-weather day, even with OR without a foot-launched HG lesson, on that day. If you are foot-launching, muscle fatigue is a major consideration. Ideally (for foot-launched students), you will want to take one days' worth of lessons, skip two days, and take the next lesson. (One day lets your muscles recover; two days will let your mind absorb your experience better.) In the real world, most foot-launched HG students would manage every Wednesday and one weekend day as their best option. This approach will give you the best value for your money. Any slower, and you will forget a bit between lessons; any faster is a waste (for foot-launched HG lessons), because fatigue becomes the deadly enemy<--no metaphor! Make no mistake; this is NOT a "fitness" deal; it is a "learning to fly" deal. Do not let fatigue cheat you out of learning vital knowledge and skills. The sky will not accept excuses for their lack, later. If you are too tired to continue -and learn- at any time, then give yourself a day off, without any argument. Make it a Listen Day, instead.
Find yourself a quiet and comfortable chair at the end of each Lesson Day (or Listen Day), and recall each fact learned, and every flight you saw or made. A mistake that you watched is one that you do not need to repeat on yourself. This "armchair flying" will help you learn more, safer and faster, which also means cheaper.
Lessons will supply you with all gear at first. If you do have a personal helmet, take it to lessons and ask if it will be suitable. Listening to airspeed is about the best way to judge if you are flying too fast, or too slow. For that, a helmet that does not block your hearing, is best. The right helmet can help you to make better landings, consistently. Your instructor will help you decide if your present helmet is suitable. Remember; a helmet is a survival tool. It MUST have a crushable foam lining, and fit properly, to be effective. Extremely hard foam, or no foam, is not adequate protection. Ventilation holes anywhere in a helmet are bad luck. Fly like you do not have a helmet, but always wear yours, when flying. It's just a good example, to the less-informed, less-skillful pilots than you. A local HG club will probably have some good deals on decent, used gear. Talk to everybody there, before you buy anything.
Depending on finances and availability, foot-launched HG students should consider taking a tandem HG ride with a certified tandem HG pilot (and make 'em show their credentials to you). Let the experienced pilot deal with launch and landing; you get to fly it around, as soon as you get away (far away) from the dirt. This can be either foot-launched soaring, or aero-towed from a dolly launch. You want at least half an hour in the air, and more if it is aero-towed, or not all in one flight. This tandem flying can be done before you start any lessons, sometime in the middle, or when lessons are finished. Ideally, all three possibilities are recommended. It's more a matter of finances, for most folks.
The glider can actually carry you, right? In foot-launched lessons, you will learn how to let the assembled glider help to carry itself, using a bit of wind. The sooner you stop trying to muscle the glider around on the ground, and learn how to use the power of the wind to help you, the less real hard work you will be doing, in lessons. Rather than being discouraged by the huge efforts required to do it the hard way, just watch, listen, and learn as the HG instructor teaches you the easiest ways to handle the glider.
Finding a HG instructor or HG club would be the best plan, to get started. Some HG instructors work solo, and some HG instructors work with HG schools. HG clubs can be a great source of knowledge, equipment, and comradery. In the USA, check for your nearest USHPA HG instructors, schools, and clubs here:
HG instructors in the USA / map HERE.
HG schools in the USA / list HERE.
HG clubs in the USA / map HERE.
HG Observers in the USA (who may or may not be Instructors) / map HERE.
New Female Pilots
Guys, just relax, put your imaginations in Neutral, and step on the brake, okay? There are some things I'm NOT going to tell you, here. :-) As expressed in this following (linked) article, women generally are NOT limited by real barriers, but may be hampered by improper equipment. Any male would have similar difficulties, too, if faced with gear which is inappropriate for their size and strength. Many of the points made in this article are valid for both men and women, but these ideas are worthy of emphasis, if any person might encounter such obstacles, whether physical or mental.
What I have here is some very good advice from a seasoned female HG pilot, specifically to women who want to fly. HG instructors might also take note. Click the Back button, to return here.
Onward and upward, then . . .
Physical Fitness
Fitness is not a pressing issue, in everyday HG flying. Foot-launched HG lessons can be a real "physical" challenge to anybody, and that even includes jocks, like football players. Nobody normally uses the muscle groups needed for foot-launched HG lessons, so you can expect fatigue to become a serious limitation, during foot-launched HG lessons. Fatigue will not usually be an issue, then, in everyday HG flying, once you are finished with lessons. Fatigue will not be a great problem if you are towing, either. Most HG sites are accessible by vehicle; chances are, HG lessons will be more work than you ever do again, to fly.
I don't know what conditioning you maintain, but long runs across the surface of the planet will not help much. For foot-launched flying, this exercise will help, just around your neighborhood: you want to stand still, then walk a few steps, jog a few steps, run a few steps, then go to a full-tilt mad dash, as fast as you can possibly run. Slow down and stop, as is comfortable to you, and repeat often. The entire duration of this "exercise," from stand-still to mad-dash, is from about six to ten seconds. This simulates a normal HG launch. Speed counts, certainly, but smoothness in acceleration counts for MORE than high speed. Once you are at your full mad-dash speed, slow down and stop at some comfortable rate. Then do it all again. Even good runners may be challenged to do this more than a few times, at first. Don't do too much at one time. Running for long durations probably won't be much help. You will find this practice is rather demanding, as an exercise. Do these sprints on flat ground, or going up-hill. Warning: if you try doing this "launch practice" going downhill, you will probably crash and burn, without your wings attached. D.A.M.H.I.K. :-)
Is that IT? Well, except for hiking back up the beginner's hills for the short flights, that's about it. The hiking part can be tough, just starting out. HG flight parks usually have a retrieve vehicle, to make the return trip easy.
There are two fair examples of a good launch here, which are the first two of the Launch Videos, below. The pilot really needs a few more steps, at every stage of the launch run (walk, jog, run, dash), to be in perfect form, but at least he is smooth, with no tendency to lunge forward, at any time. You will probably see many launches which are worse. These two launches are pretty good.
Here are some new videos, from YouTube.com, which is a fairly accident-ridden website, on average. Student pilots will NOT benefit from watching bad launches and landings, so I suggest that you stick to just these few good examples.
Beginner videos
For the following six videos, the sound is not necessary. Feel free to turn off the sound.
Hang Gliding Training, Two Flights Off The Bunny Hill
Launch Videos
Landing Videos
Hang Glider Landing, A Topless Aeros Combat.
Mountain Flight Landing, Fine.
(be sure to check the skilled spot-landing videos below, in Landing On A Target)
So, what else can be done, if I can't get to fly right now?
When first starting out on the adventure of Hang Gliding, sometimes you can get temporarily derailed by a lack of funding, or too-distant HG schools, or personal affairs. To ease the serious frustrations of these minor setbacks, you can learn to fly RC aircraft in the meantime. This enjoyable endeavor is at a slight tangent to HG lessons, and it is NOT required, in learning to fly a hang glider.
Still, it's a valuable skill for any HG pilot, and you can learn a lot about the winds, lift, thermals, and the qualities desirable for your aircraft, even if it is an RC model. I would not consider flying at unknown (but possible) flying sites (we call this a pioneering expedition), unless I first flew an RC plane there to investigate the winds and terrain effects of this new site. RC planes then are not merely an entertaining pastime; they can be a valuable learning tool. They can be a good safety factor, in your life-long flight adventures.
Here is a quick-n-dirty article, to get started with RC aircraft. We can start this RC adventure with a free RC Simulator.
Old gliders found on eBay or at yard sales usually are NOT airworthy. Do not risk (MORE)
