HGFA Skysailor Magazine

20 SKY SAILOR March | April 2018 forwards. Make sure you lean back in the harness so you can feel the swing, otherwise you’ll be out of touch and won’t know when Phase 2 starts. Looking at your wing in Phase 1 will help you lean back in the harness. 3. The most common mistake in Phase 2 is catching the dive too early. It’s important not to pre-empt the dive. Let the wing start to come forward to sense the momentum. Don’t catch a dive that hasn’t happened yet! Catch the dive progressively and smoothly. 4. In Phase 3 the most common mistake is to not release the brakes again. This is particularly the case after a vicious Phase 2 dive when less experienced pilots might be tempted to hold the wing. We might feel quite proud of ourselves for having caught that huge dive, but as we start to swing under the wing again we load the wing and if we hold on to the brakes too deeply, for too long, we could even stall the wing. In Phase 3 we need to release the brakes – progressively. By the way, releasing too quickly will see the wing dive again. Think of it as accompanying the wing by feeding out the brakes gradually. These pitch control skills are fundamental to paragliding. Most of us get pretty good at playing with small pitch movements, but that’s actually not so important. It’s the big ones we need to practise. Unless you are an expert, these should only be practised over water, wearing a life jacket and with a rescue boat, that’s to say during a Wing Control or SIV Course. P2: Pressure This second wing control skill is ‘feeling the pressure’. It’s not really ‘pressure’, but rather the tension on the trailing edge (but I needed another ‘P’ – and most pilots call it pressure anyway). Basically we’re trying to maintain equal pressure, the amount is usually no more than about the weight of your arms and when we feel one, or both, sides go soft, it’s important to apply more brake until we feel that pressure again. Sometimes this will be both sides at the same time, but in turbulent air it will often be one side or the other. To feel this tension in the trailing edge, it’s important that we get rid of any tension in our arms and shoulders. By being relaxed (even in the turbulence), we’ll be able to feel what’s happening more easily. Many pilots get pretty good at this skill as long as the turbulence is mild. In more turbulent conditions, we might need to use maximum brakes to find the pressure again. As long as we release and let our arms be pulled back up again, we’ll be flying safely. Some pilots say that applying brakes forces air forwards and so prevents a collapse. The reality, however, is that there’s very little air in the trailing edge of a paraglider and what we’re really doing with pressure control is momentarily increasing the angle of attack on the wing. This rapid and dramatic increase in attack angle is what prevents the wing from collapsing. To be absolutely clear, we are not talking about what to do with a collapse here, but rather what to do to prevent one! Make sure that during particularly big pressure drops, as you apply pressure on the wing, you look up to be sure that you have indeed saved the wing from getting a collapse. That way you’ll be ready to adapt and react correctly depending on each situation. P3: Position (or ‘Potato’) When teaching this skill, I sometimes call it ‘Potato’. The English expression ‘sack of potatoes’ describes the state of being totally relaxed. A sack of potatoes has no muscle tension. It will slump as gravity dictates (and potato also begins with a P!). The only thing we can do with our body to effect wing control is to choose how we load each half of ACTIVE PILOTING Clockwise from top left: ‘Pitch’– progressively damp the dive, then let it fly; ‘Pressure’ – maintain pressure with subtle weightshifting; ‘Potato’ – follow the momentum into the climb... ‘Over-cooked Potato’ – kicked over by strong thermal, inefficient roll, too much inside wing brake: Roll it out, re-set and let it fly. Photos: Kieran Campbell / kierancampbell.co.uk