A good pilot knows where the wind comes from. Always! The wind direction determines your flight path, it dictates where the turbulence areas are, and it reduces your landing speed to survivable levels (if you’re smart enough to line up your landing into wind). Let’s explore air speed, wind speed and ground speed to clear up one of the hardest concepts in freeflight.
A cravatte is a nasty kind of collapse, where the fabric of the wingtip becomes trapped in the lines. This can cause a significant turn towards the cravatted side, which if left unchecked will become a rather radical spiral dive. Let's look at how they are caused, how to prevent them, and what to do when you've got one.
Improving your ground handling skills is very important for paraglider pilots, both for your safety on the launch site, and for building your confidence before you fly. But where should you practice it, and what should you be trying to do? We offer some tips and a structured set of exercises to get you started on mastering your wing control.
Flybubble crew member Boris Tyszko was attacked by a vicious dust devil this summer. He made a miraculous recovery and flew away. To understand what happened and how to avoid it, let’s investigate dust devils and this incident in more detail.
When your paraglider collapses and you can't fix it, will you do the right thing? Get your thoughts in order with our quick guide to reserve parachute deployment: when to throw, an action plan, and case studies.
Do you feel the need for speed? Perhaps you should. Or maybe you ought to rein it in a little? Speed to fly is all about applying the appropriate speed to achieve your flying objective in the current conditions. In this article we'll take you through the general principles so you can make a clear and simple choice.
Thermals over the sea? How can it be? UK winter flying can be surprisingly good. We explain how to identify a good day for sea thermals, where to look for them, and what to do with them once you find them.
Dale Lippstreu flew 268 km in South Africa on his ATOS (Class 5 rigid wing hang glider). Although longer flights are often achieved across the South African interior, this is an exceptional flight for the mountainous region of the Western Cape, where the technical challenges usually end flights well before 200 km. Dale shares some insight into achieving this flight.
Continuing our series on risk analysis at flying sites, we present Mount Caburn: a small hill often flown in strong wind. You might never fly at this particular site, but understanding the airflow will help you to analyse similar sites.
In light wind this is an ideal training site, with large grassy launch areas and wide grassy landing zones, with the only hazards being the obvious line of trees and a drainage ditch filled with water.
Do you have the right of way when you land? Will it save you from a collision? There are a few pilots who consider that because the rules of the air give them priority it is always other people who have the responsibility to get out of their way. But this is not true, either in flight, on approach, or in the landing area. All pilots share the ultimate responsibility to avoid collisions; the Rules of the Air help determine priority, but if the other party isn’t aware of your presence, or is unable to manoeuvre, no rule is going to help you. Angus Pinkerton (Chairman, BHPA's Flying & Safety Committee) takes a look at landing area conflicts and ways to manage them sensibly.
