Interested in hang gliding? Currently learning to hang glide? Post your questions here.
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By HangDog
#274730
networkZombie wrote:I didn't expect that many replies haha!

I have been reading a lot and watching a lot of videos on hang gliding. I learnt a lot of stuff from them already like setting up a hang glider, classes, how hang gliders work, thermals, ridge lifts etc. but I'm sure there is still a lot more to learn! I'll continue looking for an instructor in Edmonton. =D

Thanks for the replies everyone!
You haven't seen anything yet!
Welcome to the greatest sport of all time. Your in the right place and soon it will be the right time for you too.

Gather all the information you can, ask all the questions you want and then some, don't be shy and hang on to your dream. Once you leave the ground on your own and make your first solo flight from a mountain your life will instantly be changed forever.

Welcome aboard Pilot!

~A~
User avatar
By aqua
#274735
some of us bc and alberta pilots hook up on facebook, so I know of a few pilots in your area. in may, there's the "miles in may" towing event we will know the date, etc. in a couple weeks. check it out if you can..
heres a photo from Camrose, Alberta.
Image
#274931
Hi,

I'm Phillip and I'm a student at school doing a research project about Hang Gliding. I was wondering if you could answer some of my questions or provide me with some helpful people and their emails so I can contact them and ask them about Hand Gliding.
1. What drives you to do Hang Gliding?
2. What aspect of Hang Gliding is the most fun for you?
3. Why did you decide to Hang Glide?
4. What sort of safety measures are there in Hang Gliding, why do they exist?
5. What sort of protective gear do you wear, and how do you use it?
6. What speeds do you reach when you Hang Glide?
7. What are the forces that are acting upon you?
8. How do you feel when you are Hang Gliding?

Cheers,
Phillip
#274932
8. Why do you believe that hang gliding is the best?
9. In what ways are hang gliding and parachuting alike or different?
10. Explain why you need so much safety equipment and their uses
11. How do you get pumped up before you hang glide?
12. What are the preparations for hang gliding?

Cheers guys
User avatar
By Erik Boehm
#274949
13. Why do you feel the need to post the same thing several times on multiple threads regardless of its relevance to the topic?
By Phoenix
#274992
Stoubie wrote:Hi Zombie,

Welcome to the support group "Free and Clear" for men who have overcome their issues with blood parasites.

Oh wait that's the other forum.


Either way you will need a support group once you start flying. Since you are 16 and a minor there are a ton of things I can't recommend that you do to quench your thirst for adventure and excitement. For example I would never recommend that you pack up a 1974 VW Super Beatle with a Mountain Bike and climbing shoes and set out on the road on your own. I would not recommend that you sleep outside or then attempt to ride your bike across the country once your car broke down in say Colorado or something just to get to a climbing site or flying site. I would not recommend sleeping on stranger's couches or cleaning truck stop urinals or working at a Pizza Hut as a cook simply so you could eat and climb and ride or in your case fly. I would not recommend that you spend the formative young adult years chasing down any dream doing whatever it takes to accomplish those dreams. Whatever you do, don't do that.

Here is what I would do.

Do everything your parents and friends tell you to do and expect you to do. Don't deviate from the formula one bit. Find a girl when you are very young and start a family that you can't afford. I also highly recommend you get credit cards and then strangle yourself in debt. Go to a really expensive school and study something that will make you money, but not really happy, and then get in with a huge corporation or maybe a government job where you can watch your life tick away in a traffic jam every morning while listening to AM radio. I also recommend that you marry someone who doesn't support the goals in your life and wants to use you as her own piggy bank to fund her endless online purchases or parade of crap at Wal-Mart.

Lastly, I recommend that when you are 38 that you look up from the life you've created. Look up high in the sky and you will see someone up there, maybe just a glimpse or a flash of red. I recommend you look at it a long time and pull over to the side of the road ignoring the sounds of the horns and screeching tires around you just so you can see what you think you saw; a man on a hang glider. I recommend you get out of your car in your suit and tie and keep looking up, because at that moment you will realize that what you had been doing up to that point was wrong and that you've been off track your whole life. I recommend that you get back in your car and cry in frustration that you didn't have the guts to reach out and do the things we as humans are meant to do; have a spiritual and physical connection to the world and nature all around us.

This is what hang gliding has become for me. People say its an addiction. No, man it's no addiction, its a religious touch the face of God kind of experience that will bring grown men to cry in traffic at its beauty and simplicity.

So have at it young blood. Dream away. Make your choices. Follow that passion and do whatever it takes to get where you want to be while finding the right balance in life to make it all happen. If its RC planes then do it. If its flying a Cessna 150 then do that. If its going some place when you are old enough to learn to fly a hang glider than do that. Just whatever you do, don't let the things you dream still be a dream because you let obstacles and expectations get in the way of following those dreams.
Stoubie ,I love you, man! :cry: :attackkiss:
User avatar
By therider
#275008
What a post, Stoubie! So tired of seeing my peers living life exactly as per formula.

Zombie, if you can't get hold of an instructor now, I say fly RC gliders Understanding thermals is the hardest skill in this sport, so get on with it early.
User avatar
By TomGalvin
#401579
Stoubie wrote: Sat Jan 07, 2012 5:49 am I would never recommend that you pack up a 1974 VW Super Beatle with a Mountain Bike and climbing shoes and set out on the road on your own. I would not recommend that you sleep outside or then attempt to ride your bike across the country once your car broke down in say Colorado or something just to get to a climbing site or flying site. I would not recommend sleeping on stranger's couches or cleaning truck stop urinals or working at a Pizza Hut as a cook simply so you could eat and climb and ride or in your case fly. I would not recommend that you spend the formative young adult years chasing down any dream doing whatever it takes to accomplish those dreams. Whatever you do, don't do that.

Here is what I would do.

Do everything your parents and friends tell you to do and expect you to do. Don't deviate from the formula one bit. Find a girl when you are very young and start a family that you can't afford. I also highly recommend you get credit cards and then strangle yourself in debt. Go to a really expensive school and study something that will make you money, but not really happy, and then get in with a huge corporation or maybe a government job where you can watch your life tick away in a traffic jam every morning while listening to AM radio. I also recommend that you marry someone who doesn't support the goals in your life and wants to use you as her own piggy bank to fund her endless online purchases or parade of crap at Wal-Mart.

Lastly, I recommend that when you are 38 that you look up from the life you've created. Look up high in the sky and you will see someone up there, maybe just a glimpse or a flash of red. I recommend you look at it a long time and pull over to the side of the road ignoring the sounds of the horns and screeching tires around you just so you can see what you think you saw; a man on a hang glider. I recommend you get out of your car in your suit and tie and keep looking up, because at that moment you will realize that what you had been doing up to that point was wrong and that you've been off track your whole life. I recommend that you get back in your car and cry in frustration that you didn't have the guts to reach out and do the things we as humans are meant to do; have a spiritual and physical connection to the world and nature all around us.

This is what hang gliding has become for me. People say its an addiction. No, man it's no addiction, its a religious touch the face of God kind of experience that will bring grown men to cry in traffic at its beauty and simplicity.

So have at it young blood. Dream away. Make your choices. Follow that passion and do whatever it takes to get where you want to be while finding the right balance in life to make it all happen. If its RC planes then do it. If its flying a Cessna 150 then do that. If its going some place when you are old enough to learn to fly a hang glider than do that. Just whatever you do, don't let the things you dream still be a dream because you let obstacles and expectations get in the way of following those dreams.
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