Paragliding Tips and Tricks #5

In a effort to pump up the hashtag #paragliding, and to give inspiration to new pilots, I will start posting little things that I am learning along the way.

• Today I want to talk about the weather conditions you need to surf the sky riding thermals

• What is the sky speaking to you.

• How is lift measured.

• What is sink.

The first thing that we need to understand is that flying in the wrong conditions can lead to a bad experience. I have heard of some horror stories of paraglider pilots getting sucked up into storm clouds building over the mountain tops and producing lift that is un-matched.
So it is very important to know when Not to fly.

One guy said, "It is better to be on the ground wishing that you were in the sky, than up in the air wishing you were on the ground"

The fact is the weather is going to be in control of your flying 100% of the time.

Lets look at facts about thermal flying.
Good thermal conditions are found in:

• Clear skies and bright sun
• Light to moderate winds
• Cold front, high pressure systems and dry days in moist, green regions.
• Low pressure systems and some moisture in desert regions.

Listen to this portion of the book "Understanding the Sky" by Denis Pagen

You will find no person on earth who exhibits signs of pure rapture more than one who has landed after an extended flight in pure thermals. These gifts of nature reward the pilot who finds them and successfully exploits their lift with a high, cool vista and a warm sense of accomplishment. Thermal flying is like sailing or fly fishing in that a minimum amount of equipment stands between the participant and the environment. The combination of chance and skill is what determines success or failure and therein lies the joy.

How can you tell that it is a good flying day?

One of the indicators is puffy clouds.

Puffy clouds mark the top of thermals.

One of the things that a pilot needs to be watchful for is days where the lift is too strong to get down.

• A glider sinks at a rate of 200-250 feet per minute.
  In order to soar you will need to have lift present that is greater than this sink feet per minute.

I was talking to a pilot who told me a story where he was in a spiral (falling 2000 fpm) and was told by the guys standing on the launch that he was till going up.
Having that said, this pilot (Rene) would have been inside thermal lift greater than 2000 fpm. This is not a good place to be, especially when you can potentially be sucked into a thunder head.
Rene said that he knew better than to launch that day. But he was suffering from a thing called "intermediate syndrome" We will need to talk about that in another post.

That is all for now.

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