FrontRangeJeff wrote:
... Yeah - I completely agree that almost all glides with a powerkite are done with true skill and in good smooth air and are statistically not all that dangerous since stresses are low.... however It was on a kite loop in said smooth air when the failure occurred on the youtube clip....it was low line stress until it wasn't. Regardless of the situation a power kite line failure drastically reduces options compared to pg...but sure - pg has other inherent risks.
...
YES, the guys that glide with water kites, seam to know what there doing
AND
there doing it in smooth air.
I think
that : " other inherent risks, on a PG", that your talking about, is attributed mostly
to the air that a PG is usually flying in. Typically a PG pilot that's bin at it a while, will
not be flying in smooth conditions and flying Down the hill. Sled-rides get OLD
real fast, and i for one , wouldn't bother setting up the equipment to do one, unless
it was some place like Yosemite.
MY Point is :
as soon as the guys who do gliding with water-kites ; figure out how to use ridge-lift
to FLY the top of there hill, there RISK is gonna go up exponentially from what
it is now, and that's when we'll start seeing people get Hurt Bad.
Even the little hill in Vegas, which is only 300ft high ; we start about 1/3 the way
up and soar to the top. The stresses on the equipment go up significantly when
your utilizing the lift in that way. Once you clear the top, then you can use the thermals
to go literally Thousands of feet Up ! North side of point of the Mt. in Utah is flown
the same way, (start low and Bench Up to higher elevation of the larger hill behind).
I am saying that Eventually the people who currently Glide on a water kite ; there gonna
want to start using the up-drafts a lot differently than they do now, and that's when
the statistics are gonna change. The reason why is that in a 45 degrees turn,the load factor
is (+1.41 X the G's) and at 60 degrees angle of bank the load factor is doubled, +2 G, and you
will feel twice as heavy.
So if your actually turning in LIFT the G factor increases Dramatically ;
so
what happens if you fly Out of the lift, (in that bank-angle), then fly back into the lift ,??
FrontRangeJeff wrote:
...
FWIW paragliding is not initiated by jumping off a mtn and in conditions I look to fly in, my own wing choice and flying style it is not the least bit adrenaline based...to me far less so then kiting...but yeah - well aware of what can kill me since you asked....I don't know Sparky but sounds familiar.
...
We are Quite different on that one .
When i'm thermaling up the spine of the Billboard to reach the top of the 3400ft vertical
at Crestline ; typically i'm within 50 to 200ft of the ground on my
way up the spine. Each turn could result in a life-flight helicopter ride, if done wrong,
because i'm well below the reserve parachute safe opening window ; so i absolutely
do use a bit of adrenaline !!
I NEVER turn the adrenaline down, until i got at Least 400 to 500ft of altitude above the ground
and unless i got about 1000ft above the ground level, i won't relax much either. I'm Not a
very lucky person, so i take it sorta serious.
Bille
Ps:
* Out of curiosity, when's the last time you got a partial collapse on the wing
of your PG ; and how much altitude above the ground did you have ? I'm about to
ask the same question to Sparkie, who flies PG's in the same aria as you. What will
change, is the wind-conditions and time of day for sun intensity that you two fly in.
**And second , this is Sparkies PG, i borrowed it for a flight at Torry-Pines Calif ; ever
see it, because he flies it a LOT near Denver ?