Hi Jerry, I have many hours of video that I will be posting in the coming months. I am happy you are seeing them and hope you will post comments that will help us all to remember more!
Flight first occured at The Mesa, aka The Jesuit Property, as it was then known, by Dave Butz in an early hang glider in 1971. I made the first canopy flights on a a Strong Tandem rig from the top of the hill around 1981. In about 1984/5 a European let me try his Euro-made paraglider. Fred Stockwell of Utah launched me in breezy conditions in 1986/87 but all these early attempts were unsatisfying because the glide angle was no better than the slope. Around 1988 Brian Porter returned from Europe with a Falhawk Athelete and with this higher level of preformance I was able to climb and also experience collapse behavior for the first time, the existence of which had never occured to me until my wing was collapsing. Luckily I focused on the soaring possibilities and not the frightening possibilities of my aircraft disassembling in flight. The development of both types of wings were constrained by topographicly suitable sites that matched the performance available in existing designs. That's why paragliding took off so much earlier in Europe compared to the US. Mountains in North America are older, more eroded, and as a result shallower than the mountains in Europe which are younger, less eroded, and steeper. Knowledge of flight and the requisites for soaring were well understood long before either aircraft type came into use. Once canopies evolved from decelleration devices to become gliding devices the path became obvious.
That video brings back some great memories of you teaching me to fly.
Hi Jerry, I have many hours of video that I will be posting in the coming months. I am happy you are seeing them and hope you will post comments that will help us all to remember more!
Wild to see Elings without PGs everywhere!
Flight first occured at The Mesa, aka The Jesuit Property, as it was then known, by Dave Butz in an early hang glider in 1971. I made the first canopy flights on a a Strong Tandem rig from the top of the hill around 1981. In about 1984/5 a European let me try his Euro-made paraglider. Fred Stockwell of Utah launched me in breezy conditions in 1986/87 but all these early attempts were unsatisfying because the glide angle was no better than the slope. Around 1988 Brian Porter returned from Europe with a Falhawk Athelete and with this higher level of preformance I was able to climb and also experience collapse behavior for the first time, the existence of which had never occured to me until my wing was collapsing. Luckily I focused on the soaring possibilities and not the frightening possibilities of my aircraft disassembling in flight.
The development of both types of wings were constrained by topographicly suitable sites that matched the performance available in existing designs. That's why paragliding took off so much earlier in Europe compared to the US. Mountains in North America are older, more eroded, and as a result shallower than the mountains in Europe which are younger, less eroded, and steeper. Knowledge of flight and the requisites for soaring were well understood long before either aircraft type came into use.
Once canopies evolved from decelleration devices to become gliding devices the path became obvious.