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I've
gotten frequent questions about what glider is best for beginners. That's not a
simple answer and, as with most aspects of aviation, requires tradeoffs. A
good instructor will help you choose. Chapter 26 covers the topic nicely.
Beginner or Intermediate
Glider
Most
modern beginner gliders are both forgiving and fun to fly. Unlike earlier
incarnations, they have good handling, performance and launch
characteristics. But dogs remain. Good beginner wings will tend to be
short and fat rather than long and slender.
1.
Start with a certified glider. That avoids being a test pilot without the
experience to handle odd behavior.
2. The wing must be easy to launch. Largely,
that means easy to inflate. Yes, you can learn to launch anything, but why
make it hard? I've watched too many people struggle, and a few give up,
when facing a hard-to-inflate dog.
3.
Buy new, if possible. Paragliders get harder to inflate with
age.
4.
If you have a good instructor who's intimately familiar with his wing then
his expertise will help you through a more challenging brand. As with
anything in life, beware when a salesman/instructor starts saying
"this is the best blah, blah blah." Your cnake oil salesman
warning flags should go up.
5.
Skip the temptation to get a more advanced glider. Nobody looks cool under
a gravestone. Advanced means dangerous until you've really mastered
certain flying skills. This is especially true given that you'll be
learning it solo. It doesn't matter how many hours you have skydiving,
flying F-16's or 737's—advanced paraglider wings are more dangerous
for new pilots! After gaining certain very specific skills then
they can be nearly as safe as any other glider. The fact that some students have
survived after learning on such wings is misleading with such small
numbers. Choosing Wing Size
Chapter 26 covers how
some gliders are intended to be flown heavy and others light. Flying
heavier means sportier, faster and easier inflating. It also means running
faster on launch, more power to fly level, and a higher descent
rate during glide (glide angle remains the same). The best
measure of heaviness is wing loading: how many pounds per square meter the
wing is lifting.
Using projected area
is best but, in this article and graph, we use the flat area since it's
more commonly provided by wing makers. On average, curvature makes the
projected area about 12% less than the flat area. Beginner wings have more
curvature, thus giving up closer to 15% while comp wings only give up
about 10% of their area in flight. Don't worry about these numbers for the
purpose of this graph.
Newer pilots pilots
are best served using an appropriately sized glider. The chart at right
will help determine that size. Exceeding the placard weights, a common
practice, means that you'll be operating outside the flight tested
envelope.
If flying from high
elevation then lean to the light side—7 to 8 lbs per square meter is better.
If you're a sky-diver type in good shape and don't mind a bit more risk,
lean to the heavier side. The risk comes from running faster and
extra-sporty handling. |
Choose
a beginner (DHV1 or DHV 1-2) wing that has decent handling.
This chart should help select the appropriate
wing size.
Heavier pilots can extrapolate for the appropriate size. Higher wing loadings
are recommended at higher weights so the "ideal" line is 8 at light
weights and 9 at heavy weights.
To find the ideal wing
size, start with your weight, including half-fueled paramotor, and draw a
line up until hitting the "Ideal=8-9" line. Then go left to find
the closest wing size that would be recommended. Round up.
Units (pounds & square
meters) are mixed because wings are given in square meters and pounds
register on must U.S. scales.
The green line shows an
example 230lb pilot+motor. It looks like he should be on about 28 sq meter
wing. |
