[JoeF]

Language and clarification for the record:
Pere responds:
Hello, I like both concepts: "simple skin" or "single skin", even sometimes "simple sail". It is difficult for me appreciate the most correct word in English. When I say "simple" in English, I say same concept even in Spanish and Catalan, which are my most used languages. I extrapolate the concept "ala delta de simple vela o superficie" for paragliders. The question about the "partially double surface in the leading edge" is not truly significant. However, some friends suggested to me to enlarge the double surface in "single skin paragliders" to 30% or more... (like HG) thus creating an "hybrid" with the objective of gain in speed and performance.

I like to see young pilots fun-playing naturally with simple (or single) skin paragliders!!!

Best regards,
Pere


Joe Faust <Editor@UpperWindpower.com>
Congrats! Nice!
Pere, I went with "single-skin sail paraglider".
Please confirm if you prefer different phrase.
Thank you.
Good,
Joe

[soar8hours]

I flew PG's for 20 years but picked my air as safe as possible without a problem.
But one Sunday morning just before noon I was in a light thermal above the mountain.
At 500' above the ridge the lift stopped and I took a sledder to the LZ. About 200 yards
from landing and about 200 feet AGL, my Advance Epsilon suffered a sudden collapse
and I dropped 100 feet before I realized what was happening. I mean a nano second too.
The wing re-inflated just as fast as it had folded up and I continued on to a perfect landing
That was in the late summer of 2011. I never flew a PG again. If I had been lower or it had
not inflated on it's on, I would have been injured or killed. I currently fly a Wills Wing 155 Sport 2
and a 195 Attack Falcon If you want to see some serious wing collapses, go to youtube.com.
I rest my case

[SamKellner]

Hey Tommy,

Good to see your posts here.

I've never tried to even kite a PG. I have towed a few. Your account of the collapse makes me feel safer on the HG.

Seems like there might be an increase of PG crossing over to HG. The news about PG collapse last year, with 2-liners might be part of it.

Maybe the new 475mi HG flights sets the bar too high for PG.

As an instructor, do you see an increase of crossover.

To each his own. But I feel safer with an airframe.

.
Sam

[Bob Kuczewski]

I do fly both, but I try to limit my paragliding to relatively coastal sites (like Torrey or Crestline). Some of the mountain bumps I've felt in my HG have made me real glad to have "bones" in my sail.   

Tommy, it's great to see you here!!!   

[soar8hours]

I am hearing of some PG pilots taking up hang gliding. But it is to mainly fly in the stronger winds
here in the mountains. I think the fact that a PG can not handle any negative G's is a big problem.
To me it is a more serious issue than the early hang gliders with weak airframes and no positive
pitch recovery design in place. Hang Gliders companies were forced to change wings & make them safe.
I have been busy the last couple of years with my homebuilt airplanes, hang gliding in 5 different
states and seven mountain sites. I have a small single seat ultralight 40 hp 3/4 scale Cub with an added
nosewheel, a 1918 Fokker D-VIII 3/4 scale WWI fighter ( airframe complete in my garage ), 1/2 VW
engine geting ready to go on a test stand, a Icarus V about 50% complete and a Seagull V that I may
take to the costal dunes here in NC this season I really enjoy my WW 155 Sport 2 and made several
nice XC's on it last year. But I think my favorite hang glider of all time is a Falcon. The older I get the
more I like it's light weight, easy setup, simple slow launches, superb handling and helicopter landings!
After 42 years of flying HG's on a regular basis, I always enjoyed the fun aspect of the sport more than
and other much sought after issues such as glide, sink rate or speed. I'm getting older and definitely not
bolder I think I'll be on the Falcon even more this year as well.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Ditto on the Falcon, and I'd say the same for the NorthWing Freedom.

[soar8hours]

There were no used 190 Freedoms within a thousand miles of me here in NC.
I think the closest one was in Texas.
Then the few I did find were way too pricey.
My friend, Doug Frank, has a 170 ( not for sale ) but it's to small for me to even test fly.
I watched him on the mountain last year and he had some killer flights on it.
I enjoy the Sport 2 alot but the curved tips can be an added hassle at times.
And bending over, crawling under the wing to get the bottom surface battens in strains me abit too.
Sold my Litespeed and Talon because of the heavy weights and complex setups.
I have had back surgery and both knees operated on so a lighter wing is my cup of tea now.
Loading & unloading here at home was so physically demanding.
Let's face it I am no spring chicken anymore.
This is my seventh Falcon & I think I'm addicted to them.
Maybe I have Falcon-itis

[SamKellner]

Let's face it I am no spring chicken anymore.

Hey, I resemble that remark

Maybe I have Falcon-itis This is my seventh Falcon & I think I'm addicted to them.

[soar8hours]

I don't know how it is at some other sites but at Big Walker Mountain in southwest
Virginia the HG crowd is middle aged to older. Most of us are old farts. I am always
wondering what the HG'n community will look like a decade or two from now

[Bill Cummings]

Quote Tommy--
“---And bending over, crawling under the wing to get the bottom surface battens in strains me abit too.”
Tommy,
I have a Sport 2, 155sq’ that I set up “My Way.”
I put a ball-lock pin through each plastic wheel to lock the wheels during set up and break down. (also for a steep ramp launch.)
I put the root battens in, anchor the haul back then go tie the nose down so that I do most all the rest standing up straight. Only once the nose is tied down do I take off the tip bags.
I tie the nose low enough that the back end is about chest high.