A pilot told me this anecdote when I tested with him the arguments of a new article. I was talking to him about the importance of not constantly keeping the brakes slightly pulled and “letting fly” in a high arm position (without brake at all).
Thank you, Thierry, for this striking testimony!
Jura, Mauborget (Switzerland) | About twenty years ago…
The conditions were quite generous. A collapse occurs at a high altitude. I battle with the brakes to try to retrieve the canopy and lose 800 m!!!
I then decided to pull my reserve parachute, but couldn’t catch the handle.
Then I release the 2 brake handles to facilitate my movements and finally be able to pull my parachute to stop the inexorable fall…
It was at this precise moment that the paraglider started flying normally again!
Thierry
A paraglider cannot resume its flight when the brakes are pulled!
It is imperative to return to the basic position:
HIGH ARM (no brake at all).
The advice that can save you!
In case of a “sketch” (cascade of incidents), if your actions do not improve the situation, it is more than likely that half a wing (or even both!) will be on a stall!!!
Let the canopy resume its flight by completely raising the controls (the brake handles)!
I think this message is even more true now than 15 years ago.
One can stay outside the flight envelope (in a helico for example) with very few brakes!
In a sketch, I say that we need to start with a safety high arm (the canopy will act) then act as a pilot to see if the situation improves or if adapted piloting is necessary…
Jérôme
Eric Viret, then developer, test and competition pilot, did many paragliding demonstrations for the FALHAWK brand.
With Sébastien Bourquin and a few others, he was one of the pioneers of acrobatics in paragliding (many people thought that paragliding was not made for that!).
At the time, I had already given the following ‘survival advice’:
If you no longer understand what is happening, move your hands up to the ARM HIGH position to be able to retrieve the sail.
After a stunning demonstration (as usual!). Eric Viret informed me that he had to put my advice into practice and that he had been able to recover his paraglider in this way.
The brake level is an essential element of paragliding flight.
I give new elements in another article.
The video of Bruce Goldsmith and the translation + supplements on this important subject are accessible by clicking on the button below.
