HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 33 September | October 2018 expected change in performance scared me – a lot. Yes, there is plenty more drag sitting bolt-upright in your average paraglider harness than flying in prone position. Then there are the control issues. Some claim they have as much (or more) control authority flying seated compared with prone, but my experience indicates otherwise. Seated doesn’t seem to allow the ability to flick your hips/legs out for a full roll input, pitch input has its issues in both suprone (seated above the bar) and supine (seated below the bar), and flare rotation travel can be limited with the lower hanging position required for supine flying. I wish I could report otherwise. Above all, my aim was to not lose any control authority in the process of going seated – now I tend to believe that goal remains a pipe dream. It seems while flying seated, your authority will be somewhat limited compared to prone position. Have your cake, then eat it All of this led me to the realisation that sometimes we need to be able to fly both seated AND prone, depending on conditions/mood/terrain/whatever. At the time, no commercially available ‘off the shelf’ prone/seated harness or control frame handle system existed. But that has now changed! To my knowledge, the Cloud 9 Morph is the only production prone/seated harness on the market. Its very first production run got underway in early 2018. Cloud 9 is an Australian company offering a complete system for seated pilots: harness, integrated spreader bar and control frame extensions. The Morph harness uses an old idea which, through decades of research and testing, has been refined to produce a well-made, comfortable, lightweight, strong and relatively inexpensive solution. Launch/landing position is upright, so no learning curves are required to adjust. You can fly upright, head-down prone or toes-first directly into the airflow. With its adjustable VG system you can change posture in flight – it’s super cool and also quite affordable. A flying buddy recently had a go in the harness, and afterwards he looked me in the eye exclaiming, “This is the future.” Indeed, this could be an exciting development for hang gliding, I hope so! In the meantime I’m absolutely cheering about extending my own privilege of free flight experience thanks to Cloud 9’s new Morph harness. More information about the harness can be found at [cloud9morph.com] . Custom pocket for supplies/equipment and turtleback hydro All photos: Courtesy Nic Welbourn VG system and integrated spreader