All FLPHG stuff goes here
By Crunluath
#297977
Howdy all,

I've been flying powered for just over a year now, and am now feeling comfortable to start exploring more dynamic ways to fly. Until now, I have always been very conservative with bank angles while climbing, and usually don't enter into a 45 degree bank angle or more until I'm either not climbing or going up less than 20-30 fpm.

I've seen some fantastic videos on youtube, where the pilots seem to be able to safely execute steeply banked turns while either climbing quickly or climbing out of a diving turn. Powered units, however, can cause our wings to have the tendency to over bank in climbing turns, with potentially dangerous results. To those of you who fly powered, what are your thoughts on aggressive turning while climbing?
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By Wagner24314
#301968
fly it with in your limits push them to learn but stay within them!
its when you're outside of your limits and gears limits you can get hurt.
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By NMERider
#301974
I helped bury my friend Chaim, who flew his powered harness equipped hang glider into the ground. If you like I can describe the scene at his funeral for in such detail that you may decide to use your powered harness only for its intended purpose. :goodidea:
By Crunluath
#302023
NME Rider,

I'm incredibly sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. My goal is not fly in an way that would compromise my safety in the use of my powered harness. Rather, I have been extremely conservative in all of my powered turns thus far. There is, however, very little information available about just where the limits of safety are in regards to climbing turns. I was hoping that this topic would turn into a discussion among experience powered harness pilots about how they manage their turns at different rates of climb.

If you are comfortable discussing it, it would be of benefit to know about the flight related circumstances that caused your friend's crash. There are very few published accounts of fatal crashes involving powered harness. More data in this area would certainly improve the safety of these units,