This forum is dedicated to discussions on how to grow the sport of hang gliding. We will take a methodical approach to collect data and come up with implementable ideas on how to increase our numbers. This includes effective marketing, lead generation, site access issues, improving regulations, lack of instructors, lack of sites, etc

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By MorphFX
#18533
This one is sooo true:

You're better off sitting on the ground wishing you're up there than being up there wishing you were on the ground!

I realised that several years ago on a particular windy day when I was actually going backwards rather than forwards! :(
User avatar
By Dancy
#18554
:shock: oooooh, I know that feeling! That is why I am flying the wing I have now. One nice afternoon at LMFP I had been flying in a combo of ridge lift and then thermals and drifted about half a mile back from the edge but at 5000' agl thought I was fine. Unknown to me as the afternoon progressed the wind speed kicked up to over 30 and much to my dismay I found I could no longer penetrate with my Mark IV. Pull in as much as I dared and would only come down and not forward! Awk! Eventually I had to land over the back, in the rotor with a 90' crosswind in a recently logged area full of stumps and brush. Missed most of them and belly whacked into the one that stopped me. Bent my control bar, one down tube and filled my face and harness full of Georgia red dirt. :owned: That was the proverbial "Straw". I had been frustrated with this glider from the beginning. Everyone seemed to out climb me, be able to fly the lift longer and go faster. So I promptly sold my new glider at a huge loss and bought my present wing, a Pacific Airwave full race Magic. Loved it right off. Ok it was a little stiff with more adverse yaw with the VG full on but off it was a pussy cat. It flew fast and now I was the guy on top of the stack (happy, joy, joy!).

Now back on subject: Never buy a wing with a yellow leading edge or for that matter, yellow period! Ever bee and stingy thing will love your wing and sting the hell out of you when you disturb their rapture.
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By mochamon
#18560
always look where you want to go. this has been great advice to me for everything I do. Have you seen those video's on youtube where there is one tree in a HUGE EMPTY feild, and someone still lands in it...they were lookin at it. :lol:
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By saltoricco
#18562
"Don't hang glide!" I received this valuable advice at an age when this just makes you do it all the more.
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By Nibs
#18565
On launch: Keep the nose low, run hard, don't push out.
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By Lobido
#18621
While I was on my vacation at Wallaby, I plunked down some cash on the barrelhead to engage the services of Mike Barber for a one day ground school. I do not want to reveal all he said, he is looking to have other paying students after all, but I wil reveal this insight: "Always have an absolutely safe landing option." This is not an exact quote, but it reflects what filtered into my flight besotted brain. We were discussing landing out, and I realized that this was always a primary consideration. Maybe it is a given, but it cannot be emphasized enough.
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By DocSoc
#18623
NEVER EVER, TAKE BACK A FLARE
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By DocSoc
#18626
sg wrote:
DocSoc wrote:NEVER EVER, TAKE BACK A FLARE
Caveat: Unless youre a really advanced pilot that knows when you can get away with this :wink:
Once, I took back a flare like 5 times in a row I think. jspin72 gave me s*** for that, but I pulled off the landing :rofl:
UNLESS you're The ultimately awesome untouchable capable giant we all love! “SG”!!!

:surrender:
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By saltoricco
#18659
DocSoc wrote:NEVER EVER, TAKE BACK A FLARE
If in trashy air during a cautious flare you're hit by a gust that lifts you up it usually is better to pull in and maintain control over your glider than to open up.

Holger
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By MorphFX
#18756
Got this one from a Sail plane lesson, but I think it's equally valid:

Before you turn, check the airspace you're about to turn into.

I've seen soo many people not doing this properly (I think SG touched on it in a previous entry; re the blowing of the whistle). Too often or not, people turn because there's a bit of space next to them, or turn instinctively; not realising that by changing your immediate flight plan, it's going to interfere with other's, causing them to turn without checking properly..... arghh!

Many of the sites I fly have over-crowding problems and I'm sad to say, we have too many mid-airs and near misses (just look up the Devil's Dyke in England).
Last edited by MorphFX on Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By tizeagle
#18762
This one has always stuck with me.


Dont Crash :wink:
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By curly_cue
#18764
tizeagle wrote:This one has always stuck with me.


Dont Crash :wink:
Dang it!!! Why didn't someone tell me this last week?
:ahh:
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By Lobido
#18800
Someone on this site, in a discussion of aerotowing, wrote that they liked to think about keeping the tow plane within the appropriate visual box as a video game. When I did my next series of tows I found that the concept helped keep the situation, struggling to maintain position in frisky thermally air, from becoming as freaky to me as it might have otherwise. It was a great tip. I made it up to the release point with sanity intact.
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By Lobido
#18817
Okay, not just steak, you can get the surf and turf.

Curt