Paragliding – as one of the spectacular types of flight.
The sky has always beckoned with its infinitely large horizon and possibilities. Thanks to technical discoveries – we can take to the sky with an airplane or helicopter and fly to any point. But what about the feelings and emotions, which can’t be compared with anything you get when flying a paraglider. There is no cabin, no hum of the engine, but only the wind, the sky and the freedom of flight.
Paraglider is quite light aircraft, and it looks similar to parachute, but it has several differences. Wing of paraglider is much longer with more even surface. And unlike a parachute, in which flight the altitude is reduced, a paraglider directly flies using ascending air currents. The paraglider structure consists of a fabric wing, which consists of two webs and a sling system. When flying the paraglider, the rate of descent is one meter per second. The duration of the flight can be adjusted independently due to weather conditions and finding ascending air currents. One paraglider flight can last over 5 hours. The altitude of the paraglider can exceed 1000 meters.
Paragliding is considered one of the spectacular sports. As already known, the paraglider is flown by air currents and for this reason, the flight depends on the weather conditions. There are 2 types of ascending air currents – dynamic and thermal. The dynamic airflow is usually formed near cliffs, steep banks or hills with steep slopes, but there must be a steady medium strength wind that blows towards the side of the slope. The formation of such a dynamo does not depend on the time of year, it can appear both in warm and in cold weather. And thermal airflow occurs on a sunny day, when the rays sufficiently warm the ground. But due to the fact that the earth’s surface is heterogeneous, in some places it is heated more, and in some places less. Accordingly, the rate of ascent of warm air is different and for this reason air bubbles are formed, which turn into thermals. Therefore, a hot day is needed for the emergence of thermal airflow, in which case the flights take place in late spring or summer. What about unfavorable conditions – flying a paraglider is not possible in rain. Not because the wing can get wet which is impossible because it’s made of waterproof material. But because in dynamics power of lifting air may not be enough, then we can’t even speak about thermal flow because it just doesn’t happen in rain. Also paragliding is not possible to fly during strong thunderstorm, hail, squally wind and snow because of some understandable reasons.
The most pleasant thing about paragliding is that flight is available for majority of people. You can start flying on your own at the age of 16. Every year this type of flying develops at great speed and the number of people involved in paragliding increases. Flying by paraglider has many advantages before other flying machines – availability, excitement, minimal demands, adrenaline and extreme impressions that can’t be compared with anything else.