by Frank Colver » Sun Nov 14, 2021 1:27 pm
I just finished reading Dennis Pagen's article in the latest issue of Pilot Magazine (USHPA's publication) titled "Over the Falls". It's advice based on years of hang gliding experience of how to react when your hang glider "goes over the falls" in other words flips steep nose down when making a sudden transition from strong lift to strong sink in the edge of a thermal. It's good advice and I thank Dennis for writing it, for the safety benefit knowledge of HG pilots who fly in strong conditions.
As expected, nowhere in the article does he mention that if the pilot were in a paraglider, instead of a hang glider, it would be parachute deployment time (good luck) or death. If the magazine published Pagen's email address I would send him one, pointing that fact out to him but I would be surprised if I got a reply.
USHPA is so beholden to their paraglider members & paraglider board members that they don't dare to mention that paragliders should never be flow when there is any possibility of such a thing (over the falls) happening. Oh, wait, even in Dennis' article he mentions experiencing "over the falls" on a day when it looked like that condition would not exist, because overall conditions were mellow. I guess that means that paragliders should not be flown at any time? Hmm....ask USHPA about that.
Frank