Hang Gliding - FAQ - What's needed?
I'd like to add just one important point, to introduce the following HG experience. Towing HG aloft is a special skill, well beyond simply being able to fly, making good approaches from high altitudes, and landing on a target. First, naturally, you must learn to fly fairly well, using a good course of HG instruction. You will also want to build your flying experience, above just what is provided by lessons. Then, as an improving HG pilot, you want to take a special class to learn the skills needed for HG towing, as taught by highly experienced HG tow pilots using specialized equipment, towing bridles, and releases. For this, you will start with tandem towing, with an instructor by your side. Please note, that is exactly what this HG pilot did, *before* moving into the larger adventures, described here. This clearly demonstrates the very good judgment of this particular HG pilot. Many of these aspects are *combined* into a complete tandem-towing HG course of instruction, but not everybody is fortunate enough to have access to that fast-track into the sky, or rich enough to afford that, all at once. Here, I am speaking mainly to those who, like me, must progress one small (inexpensive) step at a time.
So, maybe lessons went very well for you. After good instruction, now you can launch, fly, turn, and land with reasonable skill. Okay, where are we REALLY going with all this? UP, for sure; someday, you could fly 100 km (60 miles) with those wings. After some dozens of hours and/or flights, you might start cutting the last few cords to the planet, about like this experience from an Australian pilot:
Flyin' like the birds: These YouTube videos (linked below) are "tracklogs" which show the actual flight paths of hang gliders in flight. They come from GPS data, recorded by an advanced variometer, or flight deck. There is a moving white dot below the hang glider, to show how high over the terrain the hang glider is, at any time. The tracks are color-coded, getting red and orange as the hang glider is climbing in lift, getting blue and green as the hang glider glides downward in still air. Since warm air usually rises in a column, we circle, like hawks, to stay in the lift. These are long flights, in terms of time; the tracklogs show about an hour of airtime, in about one and a half minutes.
Click on the Full-Screen button for a better view, and/or the HQ button (only if you have a fast-enough connection), next to the Volume control button, on the YouTube screen. No sound needed.
A good day to miss work. (about 25 miles)
Some straight flyin' videos:
Flyin' & chat, and a glider seen in a glassy lake.
Why do we fly? Ask a dozen pilots, and you will get a dozen different answers, from adrenaline to poetry. Terry from Toronto, on the Yahoo HG forum, has collected these:
The animal kingdom and flying: Personally, I have always enjoyed the possibility (and now the reality) of flying in the company of eagles (MORE)