learning to hang glide - the easy way!
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(36 votes)
Published: May 15, 2000 12:00 a.m.
Viewed 213 times |
French hang gliding school A Ciel Ouvert has developed a number of innovative techniques to ease and enhance the training experience. Gerald Williams reports from the shores of Lake Leman
I spent a week at A Ciel Ouvert - To the Open Sky - and I thoroughly enjoyed it, including the good value cuisine. Virtually every morning is calm, so the same slope is used each time. Training aids include a glider tethered atop a moving van to teach flight control, another glider safely suspended from a wire - and a priceless apparatus to tow the glider back up as you stroll up for your next flight. At some stage you’ll do a long tandem flight with your instructor, and within a week you will be undertaking grands vols with the opportunity of doing 360s and even stalls.
The first point of contact with A Ciel Ouvert is a first-class brochure containing many excellent photographs and much detail. After a brief introduction, the instruction sequence is explained, followed by a calendar of course dates and a scale of charges, plus a list of accommodation, alternative activities and restaurant details. You return the application form together with a 500FF (about £55) booking fee, and take a medical certificate with you when you enrol.
We’ll assume that you start on the simulator van. You support the delta - the French word for hang glider - on your shoulders, holding the uprights, and facing the instructor. As the van slowly accelerates the glider supports first its own weight, then yours as well. This technique allows the novice to control the glider by weight shift in both pitch and roll, and as the van slows the platform comes up to meet your feet ready for more. Great fun!
The next neat training tool is a glider suspended from a wire, the Bana-Bana. You can feel the airspeed alter as you move your weight forward and back, and weight shift roll control is again required to keep the wings level. You will probably not land on the Bana-Bana, instead you just get dragged back to try again, and it’s all radio assisted.
The next step is advancing to the calm of the training slope - the pente école. Supporting the glider on your shoulders and maintaining it in the correct attitude, you focus on a distant instructor whose voice, via radio, is in your helmet. You accelerate, the glider lifts from your shoulders, you change your grip and keep accelerating until you are running in the air. A split second later you are instructed to push out to flare for a landing. In time your launch point is high enough to allow a gentle turn and a return to ’wings level’ before landing.
Finally comes the grand vol. From the steep, grassy take-off, you can clearly see the enormous, perfectly flat landing area. Guided by the helmet radio you launch, turn, transfer your hands to the control bar and settle into the long, easy flight. As you approach the landing area, another instructor standing there guides your turns to a satisfying landing. Eureka! You have experienced real flight.
For the growing number of paraglider pilots who are considering trying hang gliding, I thoroughly recommend this French school for your early training. Back in Britain there will, of course, be much to learn about flying in windier conditions - before take-off, in flight and when landing - but soon you will be back on the ridge top and soaring once more, far more tolerant of wind strength and deflation fee. Spread the word!
For more details, contact CFI Hervé Duplan at École de Vol Libre A Ciel Ouvert, Col de Feu, 74470 Lullin, France, tel: ++33 4 50 73 87 36 or ++33 6 80 58 48 95.
Why don’t more paraglider pilots also fly hang gliders?
As I happily flit around aboard my Skyfloater and look down on the paragliders, grounded because the wind is a mite too strong for them, I marvel that so many seem uninterested in joining me. If only they knew what delights they were missing.
The simplest way to experience the deflation-proof, higher speed exhilaration of hang gliding is to fly tandem from the hill, from a winch or from an aerotow. Once seduced, you will want to start a solo conversion at a British hill or tow school. Alas, our weather seriously interrupts the training, so I recommend spending a week in the far more reliable weather of France. On returning to the UK you’ll need a ’wind conversion’, but the whole process will be far quicker than any alternative and, I think, more enjoyable. If you intend to spend a week learning with A Ciel Ouvert,
Book your own accommodation after consulting the school.
Prepare yourself by walking up hills, jogging and simple calisthenics.
Book early.
Drive there, preferably with a couple of friends - you need transport while there.
Take a water bottle, shades, sun ream, Savlon and a camera.
Be prepared to start from scratch - your paragliding experience will be of little use in the early stages.
Send for a copy of the French Manuel de Vol Libre - it’s far better than any English-language publication and provides a useful technical vocabulary.
Brush up your French!
A number of highly experienced paraglider pilots now fly hang gliders at least some of the time, including former Nationals pilots Pat Dower and Nigel Holliday. Tom Brown, another experienced paraglider pilot who learned to fly hang gliders three years ago, says:
"The main advantage of going stiff is the increase in speed and glide with stability, although I must admit that flying a hang glider whilst sat in a paragliding harness also has a very nostalgic ’Biggles’ feel about it." |
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