The recent comments regarding paragliders last week have been interesting if brief. It's relatively easy to look at the limitations and (re)emphasise risks for the other soaring enthusiasts who prefer various forms of fabric wings to the plastic fantastics which we all enthuse about. But if we do so only from a position of imagined superiority we miss a few important considerations.
OK I'll admit it. After almost 44 years in 'our' gliding, I'm just a little envious of many things which hang or paragliding offer. Allow me to explain.....
A few years ago now were visiting New Zealand on one of our occasional trips, and once again we took the cable gondola to the Skyline at Queenstown in the South Island. It offers one of the most spectacular and beautiful views I've ever come across in my limited travels. As in the past we walked on past the chalet and further up the ridge to the clearing where the para-gliding people do their foot launching. The site was deserted, the numerous wind markers we moving only very slightly. We had been there for about 15 minutes when a rather slightly built young lady with an enormous backpack trudged up the track past us. She dropped her pack on the ground and walked around the site for about 15 minutes looking at the markers and analysing the 'weather'. First one slope, then the other; back to the first again. There were big decisions being made here, but nothing was being hurried.
Eventually she unpacked her flying machine from the back pack and spent probably the next 25 or 30 minutes laying out the lines and checking and rechecking everything with a thoroughness which I've rarely seen in our branch of the sport. This is not a criticism of our system, I say this to simply emphasise that she was _very_ thorough. She attached her harness to the lines and somehow incorporated the backpack in the carry on luggage. Everything was checked again and again. After what seemed an eternity of rechecking everything and watching the indicators for probably 10 minutes the right moment came. She stepped forward, the canopy inflated overhead and after one last check that all was well, she took those steps of no return down the slope and become airborne. She drifted out over the town in what appeared to be an extended area of ridge lift, although there was very little wind to notice at ground level. She had left the earth which holds us all captive and escaped to the freedom of the skies in the purest sense. It was hard not be envious.
In time we headed back to the gondola, and down the slope to our little rented chariot and went for a drive back through the village and out to Coronet Peak. A check of the sky behind us and there she was - up against the ridge soaring nicely. When we got to Coronet and took in anew the view from that similarly scenic location, and looked back she was still there. A couple of hours later as we drove around the Queenstown area, occasional glances still showed her distinctive canopy colours against the skyline or the mountains depending on where we were. I estimate she was probably airborne for about two, perhaps three hours. I never saw her land, but I expect she eventually did so on the sporting fields down in the town below the Skyline ridge where I had seen other para-gliders settle on earlier visits. She didn't do a 500k triangle at record speed, but she would have had a great afternoon's flying, exploring and learning about the micro-climate in the immediate Queenstown area against a very spectacular and scenic backdrop.
When you look at her initial and ongoing financial outlay, the fact that she could operate with complete independence - including the retrieve at the end of the flight, and the obvious exhilaration and pure pleasure of wind in your face soaring in those surroundings, I have to say that I was more than a little envious. Yep, I'd love to do that.
OK there are risks to the 'airframe' and 'undercarriage', but these appear to be manageable with care, foresight and experience. She was thorough and ultra careful about everything. She doubtless knew the risks and took extreme care to minimise them. On balance when I look at my alternative sports where I ride either a serious motor bike at mostly legal speeds with protective gear, or alternatively my moderately expensive pedal cycle on public roads shared with regular traffic, mostly at leisurely speeds as befits my age, but sometimes up to 40 - 60 kph with 'only' an approved helmet and gloves but nothing else to guard against gravel rash or other mishap at those speeds, it would be silly for me to point at para or hang gliding as being foolhardy or unsafe. Risky perhaps; but when I look at that which I accept in these alternative activities, I really can't point the finger.
The idea of carrying your flying machine on your back to some exotic location and exploring almost wherever you choose within the limitations of your ability and the surroundings is pretty enticing. Want to go overseas? No worries, you can fit it all in the hold of any commercial airliner and it's probably easier than lugging a bike to Europe as one of my family did recently.
Now I'm not about to make the switch to the rag-wings; not at my age or with my commitments. But I can understand why these branches of gliding / soaring are attractive to the younger generation who, after looking at what we offer (if they even bother at all), and at the price that we ask, with the commitment that it demands and the complications it can introduce, might well decide for one or both of the alternatives.
It's one of the little challenges we face in attracting adventurous young people with modest recreation budgets to our sport - and then keeping them here.
Here endeth the observation (for the moment anyway). regards, Terry
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