Paragliding (known in some countries as parapenting or parapente) is a recreational and competitive flying sport. A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing, whose shape is formed by the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing.

It is closely related to hang gliding, but quite different from parasailing/parascending, which doesn’t involve free flight. (Paramotoring uses the same equipment, with the addition of a propeller mounted behind the pilot, making it a form of ultra-light aviation as opposed to free flight).

Gliders
The paraglider wing (or ‘canopy’) is a self-inflating structure consisting of a row of cells, most of them open at the front and all of them closed at the back, joined together side by side. Moving through the air keeps them inflated because air goes in the front but can't get out the back. In cross-section, the cells form an aerofoil cross-section to produce lift, just like an airplane wing.

The pilot is supported underneath the wing from a web of lines (each with the strength to support the pilot). The lines are then attached to strap-like risers that are attached to the pilot's harness.

Controls held in the pilot’s hands, which pull down the trailing edge of the wing, are used to control speed and to turn.

The pilot is strapped into the bucket-seat harness, which holds a reserve parachute, and includes a ‘speed system’ which pulls down the leading edge for maximum flying speed. All recreational harnesses have a foam or air-bag back protector.

Solo paraglider wings typically have an area of 20–30 m2 with a span of 8–12 m, and weigh 4–7 kg. Combined weight of wing, harness, reserve, instruments, etc is around 12–16 kg.

Glide ratio is typically around 8:1 (compared with 15:1 for hang gliders and 60:1 for sailplanes), and speed range is typically 20–50 km/h (stall speed – max speed): though safe flying range is smaller.

Modern paraglider wings are made of high-performance non-porous fabrics such as Porcher Marine & Gelvenor, with Dyneema/Spectra or Kevlar/Aramid lines.

For storage and carrying, the wing is folded into the harness seat, and the whole stored in a backpack (which is normally stowed in the harness in flight).

Tandem paragliders, designed to carry the pilot and one passenger, are larger but otherwise similar.


Flying
In unpowered flight, rising air is needed to keep a glider aloft. This rising air can come from two sources:

when the sun heats features on the ground, columns of rising air known as thermals are generated 
when wind encounters a ridge in the landscape, the air is forced upwards, providing ridge lift. 
In mountainous environments, flying is mostly based around thermals, which can be used to stay aloft before heading for a landing field below the launch site. In hill environments, ridge lift is used for ridge soaring, and landing can be done either back at the launch site, or at a landing field at the bottom of the ridge. In either case, more experienced pilots can use thermals to go ‘cross country’.


Ridge soaring
In ridge soaring, pilots fly along the length of a ridge feature in the landscape, relying on the lift provided by the air which is forced up as it passes over the ridge.

Ridge soaring is highly dependent on a steady wind within a defined range (the suitable range depends on the performance of the wing and the skill of the pilot). Too little wind, and insufficient lift is available to stay airborne (pilots end up ‘scratching’ along the slope). With more wind, gliders can fly well above and forward of the ridge, but too much wind, and there is a risk of being ‘blown back’ over the ridge.

When ridge soaring, it is usually possible to either ‘top land’ or ‘slope land’ close to the launch site, which saves time returning from a landing site back to the launch site.


Thermal flying
When the sun warms the ground, it will warm some features more than others (such as rock-faces or large buildings), and these set off thermals which rise through the air. Sometimes these may be a simple rising column of air; more often, they are blown sideways in the wind, and will break off from the source, with a new thermal forming later.

Once a pilot finds a thermal, he or she begins to fly in a circle, trying to center the circle on the strongest part of the thermal, where the air is rising the fastest. Most pilots use a ‘vario’ (vario-altimeter), which indicates climb rate with beeps and/or a visual display, to help ‘core-in’ on a thermal.

Good thermal flying is a skill which takes time to learn, but a good pilot can often follow a thermal up to cloud base.


Cross-country flying
Once the skills of using thermals to gain altitude have been mastered, pilots can glide from one thermal to the next to go ‘cross-country’ (‘XC’). Having gained altitude in a thermal, a pilot glides down to the next available thermal. Potential thermals can be identified by land features which typically generate thermals, or by cumulus clouds which mark the top of a rising column of warm, humid air as it reaches the dew point and condenses to form a cloud. In many flying areas, cross-country pilots also need an intimate familiarity with air law, flying regulations, aviation maps indicating restricted airspace, etc.


Launching / landing

Video clip: Launch for ridge soaring on Mam Tor, UK (1MB ogg/theora) (info) (help)As with all aircraft, launching and landing are done into wind (though in mountain flying, it is possible to launch in nil wind and glide out to the first thermal).

In low winds, the wing is inflated with a ‘forward launch’, where the pilot runs forward so that the air pressure generated by the forward movement inflates the wing. In higher winds, particularly ridge soaring, a ‘reverse launch’ is used, with the pilot facing the wing to bring it up into a flying position, then turning under the wing to launch.

In flatter countryside, pilots can also be launched with a tow. Once at full height, the pilot pulls a release cord and the towline falls away. This requires separate training, as flying on a winch has quite different characteristics from free flying. In many countries only towing from a stationary winch is permitted: ‘static’ towing, with a fixed length towline attached to a car, is far more dangerous.

Landing involves lining up for an approach into wind, and just before touching down, ‘flaring’ the wing to minimise forward speed. The angle of approach to the landing zone will depend on wind speed. Landing will typically be at a gentle forward run.


Control of the glider
The pilot holds controls in each hand which pull down the trailing edge of the wing. Pulling down the trailing edge increases the angle of attack of the wing from its ‘trim’ (hands-off) position, which slows it down (like flaps on an aircraft wing). Turning is achieved by a combination of pulling down the control on one side, and ‘weight shift’ within the harness. Faster than ‘trim’ speed can be achieved by pushing out a ‘speedbar’ with the feet, which pulls down the leading edge to reduce the angle of attack.

On occasions when it is necessary to lose height more rapidly, the outer part of the wing can be ‘folded in’, in what is known as ‘big ears’. This reduces the flying area of the wing, effectively reducing the glide ratio.

In more extreme conditions, other manoeuvres such as ‘b-line stalls’ and spiral dives can be used, but most pilots avoid getting themselves into situations where these are required.


Collapses
In turbulent air, since the wing is not rigid, part of the wing can collapse. On modern recreational wings, such collapses will normally recover themselves without pilot intervention. For the rare case where it is not possible to recover from a collapse (or from other threatening situations such as a spin), most pilots carry a reserve parachute. Thankfully, most pilots never have cause to ‘throw’ their reserve.


Sports/competitive flying
Some pilots like to stretch themselves beyond recreational flying. For such pilots, there is a variety of disciplines available:

cross-country leagues – annual leagues of the greatest distance ‘XC’ flying 
‘comps’ – competitive flying based around completing a number of tasks such as flying around set waypoints 
accuracy – spot landing competitions where pilots land on targets the size of jam-jar lids 
‘acro’ – aero-acrobatic manoeuvres and stunt flying; heart stopping tricks such as helicopters, wing-overs, synchro spirals, infinity tumbles, and so on: see the Acromania site for some descriptions 
national/international records – despite continually improving gliders, these become ever more difficult to achieve; aside from longest distance and highest altitude, examples include distance to declared goal, distance over triangular course, speed over 100 km triangular course, etc. 
Competitive flying is done on high performance wings which demand far more skill to fly than their recreational counterparts, but which are far more responsive and offer greater feedback to the pilot, as well as flying faster with better glide ratios.
Learning to fly
Most popular paragliding regions have a range of schools – generally registered with national associations. Certification systems vary widely between countries, though around 10 days instruction to basic certification is standard.

Initial training is done on gentle slopes where students can glide just above the ground to get used to the handling of the wing. As their skills progress, students move on to steeper/higher hills, making longer flights, learning to turn the glider and control speed, and then going on to 360° turns, ‘big ears’, and so on. Training instruction is given over radio. An alternative approach is to learn on a winch, which tows the student up to increasingly greater heights above an airfield.

As well as teaching flying skills, schools teach air law, meteorology, flight theory, etc.

All schools offer tandem flights and day tasters to enable people to find whether they have an interest in the sport.


World records
The current (as of January 2005) world distance record was set by Canadian William Gadd on 21 June 2002 who flew 423.4 km, or 263 miles, in 10½ hours from the town of Zapata, Texas, United States.

The height gain record was set by Robbie Whittall from the UK who flew 4,526 m above takeoff on 6 January 1993 from Brandvlei, South Africa.

Other records can be seen on the FAI site.


History
In 1954, the prescient Walter Neumark foresaw (in an article in Flight magazine) a time when a glider pilot would be “able to launch himself by running over the edge of a cliff or down a slope … whether on a rock-climbing holiday in Skye or ski-ing in the Alps”.

In 1961, the French engineer Pierre Lemoigne produced improved parachute designs which led to the Para-Commander (‘PC’), which had cut-outs at the rear and sides which enabled it to be towed into the air and steered – leading to parasailing/parascending.

Sometimes credited with the greatest development in parachutes since Leonardo da Vinci, the American Domina Jalbert invented in 1964 a rectangular parafoil which had sectioned cells in an aerofoil shape; an open leading edge and a closed trailing edge, inflated by passage through the air – the so-called ‘ram-air’ design.

Walter Neumark shortly afterwards wrote the wonderfully entitled Operating Procedures for Ascending Parachutes, and he and a group of enthusiasts with a passion for tow-launching ‘PCs’ and ram-air parachutes eventually broke away from the British Parachute Association to form the British Association of Parascending Clubs (BAPC) in 1973.

Meanwhile, David Barish was developing the ‘Sail Wing’ for recovery of NASA space capsules – “slope soaring was a way of testing out … the Sail Wing”. After tests on Hunter Mountain, New York in September 1965, he went on to promote ‘slope soaring’ as a summer activity for ski resorts (apparently without great success).

(NASA probably originated the term ‘paraglider’ in the early 1960’s, and ‘paragliding’ was first used in the early 1970’s to describe foot-launching of gliding parachutes).

These threads were pulled together in June 1978 by three friends Jean-Claude Bétemps, André Bohn and Gérard Bosson from Haute-Savoie, France. After inspiration from an article on ‘slope soaring’ in the Parachute Manual magazine by parachutist & publisher Dan Poynter, they calculated that on a suitable slope, a ‘square’ ram-air parachute could be inflated by running down the slope; Bétemps launched from Pointe du Pertuiset, Mieussy, and flew 100 m. Bohn followed him and glided down to the football pitch in the valley 1000 metres below. ‘Parapente’ was born.

Through the 1980’s and since, it has been a story of constantly improving equipment and ever greater numbers of paragliding pilots. The first World Championship was held in Kössen, Austria in 1989.


Pilot numbers
Numbers of actively flying plots can only be a rough estimate, but France is reckoned to have the largest number, at around 25 000. Next most active flying countries are Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, and Korea, at around 10 000 – 20 000, followed by Italy, the UK, and Spain with around 5 000 – 10 000. The USA has around 4 500. (All as of 2004).