[Rick Masters]

[mike]

I know two pilots who have been in that situation.

One lost energy at the top of a loop, then fell into the sail. The glider stabilized inverted and he threw his chute. He was uninjured. U* took his ratings.
His name became 'Luke Sailwalker' for a long time

The other became inverted in the Owens. He threw his chute but it did not inflate. He reeled it back in to try again. Again it did not inflate. The glider was descending so slowly that the chute would not inflate. He landed on a hillside with very minor injuries.

I have heard stories of a Canadian fellow from the old days. He supposedly could invert a glider at will and fly it by standing on the keel.
I heard this from a few different oldtimers so it must be true

[Rick Masters]

The other became inverted in the Owens.

In July of 1983, the week before Larry Tudor broke 200 miles on a flight from Walt's Point, Woody Woodruff ran into trouble at Black Mountain on an out-and-return task from Gunter Launch.

"Woody had been wearing one of Jim Lee's bullet-shaped fiberglass pilot fairings and flying a Comet in the XC Classic," I wrote in "Racing for the Record."* "He'd tumbled low on the south flank of Black and lost the leg unit of one of Jim Lee's Pod harnesses. Etsushi Matsuo, Japan's national distance record holder, flying nearby, had seen the accident and believed for a horrific moment that Woodruff had come detached from his glider as the fiberglass tailpiece had fallen to impact Black with a sound like a rifle shot."

Woodruff had actually pulled his parachute out of its container and was about to throw it when the Comet righted itself. He stuffed the parachute, still in its bag, between his dangling legs and landed at the base of Black, unharmed.
______________________
* Published in Whole Air Magazine (USA), Sept/Oct 1983; Wings (UK), October 1983; Drachenflieger (Germany), Nov 1983, HanGlider (Japan), Dec 1983 and Glider Rider (USA) Dec 1983. https://web.archive.org/web/20090808173611/http://www.cometclones.com/racing.htm

[Rick Masters]

What did the shark say when he ate a clown?
"This tastes funny!"

In honor of the Pope's visit to the United States, today we celebrate the last flight of Father Aderli de Carli on April 20, 2008.
Father de Carli had tried paragliding but had been kicked out of the flight school for lack of discipline.
Many soaring parachutists have told me that paragliding is the only way to fly - that there simply is no alternative.
But Father di Carli proved them wrong. Eternally.

More photos
http://zh.clicrbs.com.br/rs/fotos/confira-imagens-do-resgate-ao-padre-e-dos-preparativos-do-voo-de-adelir-11298.html

[Rick Masters]

You can't turn a hang glider in a piece of garbage at 8,000 feet with a flick of your wrist.

When soaring parachutists are found dead, the authorities examine the paraglider and invariably find there is nothing wrong with it.
"It must have been pilot error," they say.
Then the family has one of their son's or husband's friends sell his equipment on eBay to cover funeral expenses.

[Rick Masters]

"My tent can fly," says man.

From the You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department:
How to turn a paraglider into a tent - in 8 careful steps (to make it less complicated, I guess).
http://www.vesti.bg/razvlechenia/redbull/kak-da-prevyrnem-paraplaner-v-palatka-video-6039232

Next: How to turn a hang glider into a tent - in 1 easy step...

[Rick Masters]

This was obviously a great day for hang gliding.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=48a_1440170545
This looked pretty good, too. For hang gliding.

[Bob Kuczewski]

This was obviously a great day for hang gliding.

That video clearly shows how quickly things can get out of control and end up in a disaster.

I can't see anything the pilot did wrong ... other than to fly a a paraglider at that site and in those conditions. Once that decision was made, it doesn't look like any amount of piloting skill would have helped.

[Rick Masters]

https://vimeo.com/95982187
Why Dave Turner needs a hang glider.
BTW, Dave, that's not a "rotor."
That's normal atmospheric turbulence near mountains.
If you find a rotor on your paraglider, I'll read about it in the papers.

[Rick Masters]

    You won't find a hang glider pilot, flying along happily, who encounters a thermal and suddenly falls out of the sky to his death in a few short seconds.
    Like the dead soaring parachutist above. He had no chance.
    No. Hang glider pilots will be happily flying along, encounter a thermal, yell "Yippee!" and crank, bank, and ride that wondrous natural elevator into the sky.
    Hang glider pilots do not fear thermals.
    That's the number one difference between a paraglider rider and a hang glider pilot.
    Paragliders are parachutes that can collapse in normal atmospheric turbulence an kill their pilots - and do, on an almost daily basis, throughout the world, every summer.
    Hang gliders are genuine, reliable aircraft designed to perform and survive in normal atmospheric turbulence.
    Thermals collapse paragliders.
    Thermals don't collapse hang gliders.

    In a recent newsletter to members, the Italian Federation of Free Flight, which is much more straightforward and seemingly more honest than the USHPA, gave this warning about paragliding on July 18, 2015, following the three paraglider collapse deaths that led to the closure of Italian airspace on Mt. Blanc to paragliding and, most unfairly, to hang gliding, as well.

    "Cogliamo innanzitutto l'occasione per ricordare a tutti piloti di volo libero che il volo in condizioni di sottovento è una condizione particolarmente rischiosa per un'ala floscia come il parapendio. A scuola di volo si insegna che questo è un tipo di volo vietato ai nostri mezzi. Il fatto che ci siano piloti che a volte, sempre più spesso, volano in tali condizioni senza conseguenze negative, non rende questa pratica più sicura, nè per loro stessi nè per chi li osserva. Questo evento ci rammenta ancora una volta che esperienza e capacità non sono dei lasciapassare per ogni condizione. I mezzi recenti, molto stabili finché non chiudono, rassicurano ed invitano ad osare di più ma le leggi della fisica ancora rappresentano un vincolo per tutti i mezzi e tutti i piloti."

    "We take this opportunity to remind all pilots of free flight that the flight conditions downwind [of a mountain ridge] are particularly risky for a wing as limp as a paraglider. In flight school, we are taught that this kind of flight is denied to us [alt; beyond our means]. The fact that pilots, more often than not, fly in such conditions without negative consequences does not make the practice safer, neither for themselves nor for those who observe them. [The recent spate of paragliding fatalities on Mt. Blanc] reminds us once again that experience and ability are not the passport to all conditions. The [paraglider will seem] very stable until it collapses. [It will] reassure you and invite you to be more daring, but the laws of physics still represent a constraint for all paragliders and their pilots."
http://www.fivl.it/sicurezza/archivio-nesletter-sicurezza/archive/view/listid-3/mailid-107-pillole-di-sicurezza-monte-bianco-vietato-al-volo-libero?tmpl=component

    Potential pilots should think carefully just what it is they want to achieve by flying. If your ultimate goal is flying Big Air inland, you will be endangering your survival by choosing paragliding because you will have locked yourself into surfing the Big Air on an air mattress. Don't take a noodle to a gunfight. Choose a hang glider. You will not regret it.