US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

This blog examines the various types of cross-country paragliding and the people involved.
Cross-country paragliding has proven to be a great way to meet new friends who love the outdoors and overtime.


May 30, 2015 - A paraglider goes cross-country with his new friends at the beach


April 24, 2015 A paraglider prepares to take off on a cross-country flight with his new friend

May 17, 2015 Paraglider demonstrates his launch technique with assistance from two fellow aviators


May 11, 2014 Paraglider heads off on a cross-country flight accompanied by his new friends

A soaring parachutist goes cross-country in Australia accompanied by his many new friends.

Russians attempt a world record - for fatalities on a paraglider!

"We don't need no siinkin' tandem exemption."

What could go wrong?

Was he practicing for the RB Alps contest?
A soaring parachutist enjoys a day at a ski resort with his new friends - but officials warn that riding a ski-lift DOWN the mountain is poor race strategy.
VIDEO http://vid1.stirileprotv.ro/2014/09/11/61568224-2.mp4

Paraglider goes cross country in May with her new friends.

On a February flight, a cross-country paraglider works "lift" with his new friends.

August 8, 2015

A soaring parachutist takes off on a tandem cross-country flight with his new friend as well-wishers bid him adieu.
(Note the "Blue Hand Wave," an integral part of the global paragliding fetish.)

October 4, 2015

    Once again the paragliding community bombards us with photos of soaring parachutists going cross county on stretchers.
    We would like to stop seeing these photos constantly popping up in the world press, not only because we feel sorry for the agonized aeronauts but because this stuff makes the sport of freeflight look bad to the public. We went to years of effort and sacrifice to make hang gliding safer and to present a positive image, then along come these parachutists with their soaring canopies that collapse in normal air turbulence, falling vertically out of the sky all over the world and getting their photos taken with stretchers and helicopters and rescue personnel. It presents a negative image and we would like it to stop. But rather than address the real causes, soaring parachutists can only say, "Hang gliders crash, too."
    Look, you guys should think of hang gliders as soaring parachutes with an internal structure that keeps them from collapsing in normal atmospheric turbulence, okay? That's why they don't collapse and fall vertically out of the sky. This is a problem that was solved 45 years ago. Now you come along and pretend that it is a problem that doesn't exist. And you tell everybody it's pilot error when a paraglider falls vertically out of the sky because it couldn't hold its airfoil shape in normal atmospheric turbulence.
    It's not pilot error. Pilot error is when you fly into things. The problem with paragliding is a design defect. A fundamental defect that can only be fixed by incorporating an airframe.
    And stop telling BobK not to post these photos. They're not our photos. They're out of newspapers. Hang glider pilots had nothing to do with it. We're the ones complaining, not you. You guys don't get it. You are the problem.

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