by Rick Masters » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:37 pm
"Drag racing" is already taken...
Seriously, though, this shows how robust a conventional parachute is in a thermal. There are several other videos like this that I have seen. The old conical canopy (designed to save lives) remains inflated. In another one, tandem skydivers in a rectangular canopy (designed for fun) were lifted about 100 feet back into the air. Injuries resulted. I'm certain some skydiving canopies have collapsed but...
A ribbon-like paraglider (designed by idiots) would have much more probably balled up and dropped the occupant, possibly to his death.
Give me a hang glider to battle this kind of normal air turbulence.
I've encountered this stuff dozens of times. It's like a rattlesnake. It warns you it's there before it strikes. You pull forward and bank, go back up. No big deal.
This was a big, dusty one. They're easy. You'll know they're there by the dust and initial, usually light turbulence. It's the tight, spinning, clear ones that can get you, breaking free just as you touch down.
But even then, you still have a wing. You can still fight. Even if the devil gets the best of you, that wing's your friend all the way to the ground. It will die trying to protect you. It won't abandon you and drop you from altitude like a piece of garbage.
Only paragliders do that.
I've loved every hang glider I've ever owned. We had a bond. None of them ever let me down.
And sooner or later, every one saved me from myself.
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