- Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:37 am
#396366
Hi all,
as mentioned in my introductory post, I am not even a newbie (do not own any equipment nor have I tried hang gliding yet) but I have been thoroughly researchng my free-flying options . One question that comes to mind is this:
- how does one make turns into/away from the wind and manage speed in a hang-glider?
Lets say we are at the beach, Fort Funston for example. There is a nice afternoon sea breeze blowing into the ridge. Upon hitting the ridge the airflow turns upwards and provides lift - all clear. Hang gliders are going back and forth, paralell to this ridge, exploiting the lift.
Now, If I was in an airplane, this would be considered as flying in pure crosswind (coming from 90deg) and I would really have to crab a lot and fly sideways. How do hang gliders manage to fly parallel to the ridge?
Also, when they want to turn back 180, they turn either into the wind (over the sea) or away from it (into the land). In the first case - they have headwind, slower ground-speed, lots of lift, basically no problems, right? But if they turn towards the shore, then there will be lots of tailwind, ground speed will increase, making it a bit more difficult to complete the turn back into the crosswind .
While initiating the turn the wing closer to the sea will be at risk of wind hitting it harder from below, possibly "turning" the glider upside down, no?
Pardon my ignorance, as I said - a complete newbie here. Cheers!
as mentioned in my introductory post, I am not even a newbie (do not own any equipment nor have I tried hang gliding yet) but I have been thoroughly researchng my free-flying options . One question that comes to mind is this:
- how does one make turns into/away from the wind and manage speed in a hang-glider?
Lets say we are at the beach, Fort Funston for example. There is a nice afternoon sea breeze blowing into the ridge. Upon hitting the ridge the airflow turns upwards and provides lift - all clear. Hang gliders are going back and forth, paralell to this ridge, exploiting the lift.
Now, If I was in an airplane, this would be considered as flying in pure crosswind (coming from 90deg) and I would really have to crab a lot and fly sideways. How do hang gliders manage to fly parallel to the ridge?
Also, when they want to turn back 180, they turn either into the wind (over the sea) or away from it (into the land). In the first case - they have headwind, slower ground-speed, lots of lift, basically no problems, right? But if they turn towards the shore, then there will be lots of tailwind, ground speed will increase, making it a bit more difficult to complete the turn back into the crosswind .
While initiating the turn the wing closer to the sea will be at risk of wind hitting it harder from below, possibly "turning" the glider upside down, no?
Pardon my ignorance, as I said - a complete newbie here. Cheers!