Paragliding Tips and Tricks #6

captainobviou3 (63)in #paragliding • 7 years ago

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.

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Todays topic is going to be about overdevelopment and virga.

One of the test questions that I had a hard time with when I received my P2 paragliding certification was a multiple choice question that list scenarios where it was not a good idea to fly. The answer to the question was obviously D. All of the above, however, one of the choices was "when virga is present".

I didn't know what virga was. Technically I still got the question right on the test however I didn't know what it meant.

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Image credit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virga

Wiki's definition of virga is: In meteorology, virga is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation falling from a cloud that evaporates or sublimates before reaching the ground.

How does this affect your piloting a paraglider?

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illustration from "Understanding the sky" by Dennis Pagen

The answer is because of the rapid evaporation, there is a cooling of the air, and in cooling of the air you will find sink. Sometimes the sink is so strong that it creates what are known as micro-burst. Its like a dumping out of the cloud, however the rain doesn't hit the ground.

These are very dangerous areas to fly. In my last post on "Paragliding Tips and Tricks #5, I shared a story about a fellow pilot who launched into conditions that were too strong for even the best pilots and was sucked up into the clouds for a time. By the way, it is illegal under FAR 103 to fly into clouds. That will be a lesson for another day tho.

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Strong sink can send you crashing to the ground. No hope for a reserve toss, no hope for the high speed swoop maneuver. If you were to be caught in virga there is also a chance that your wing can get wet, and the wing become parachutal.

The reason that I am sharing this is because we had a chance to fly this weekend, I saw some virga in the distance and didn't know if that meant we shouldn't fly where we were.

Glad that Deter was at glider port this weekend to answer my questions. Deter has been flying Hangliders since the 80's and now flys paragliders as well.

Thanks for reading. If you want to see the flying adventure that inspired this topic watch the video below.

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