Dangerous Situations and Extreme Flying
Spin
The spin is a stable flight attitude, in which
one side of the canopy stalls, while the other
side continues to fly forward. The glider turns
around the stalled side of the wing.
Recovery
To recover from the spin, the pilot must
quickly release the brakes. The stalled side
of the wing will then speed up again.
Depending on recovery and the dynamic of
the circular motion, one side of the canopy
may shoot forwards and suffer an
asymmetric collapse.
If the pilot suspects that the glider has
unintentionally been put into a spin, the
brake which has been pulled down too far
must be released immediately.
If the spin does not stop, check whether
you have released the brakes fully!
Emergency steering
If for some reason the brake lines are not
working, e.g. if the knot on the brake handle
has come undone or a brake line is
defective, the Sting 2 can also be steered
and landed using the rear risers.
In this case, stall happens more quickly and
the pilot must compensate for the changed
flight behaviour by pulling carefully on the
risers.
Other tips for dangerous
situations
Stalling in rain
In general, there are two reasons why a
paraglider may go into deep stall in rain:
1. The first risk lies in the fact that the
canopy weight increases if a glider is flown
in rain for any length of time. The centre of
gravity and angle of attack then shift, which
can result in airflow separation/stall. It is
relevant here that if a glider absorbs more
water (as older gliders do because they lose
their water-repellent coating over time) and
is closer to the deep stall limit because of its
design and age, less water absorption and
thus weight increase will put the glider into
deep stall.
2. When there is rain, there can be so many
water droplets on the top surface of a glider
that almost the entire upper surface is
the surface is not wet through. This makes
m the
drop formation that the airflow over the top of
the wing separates from the surface. This
phenomenon has been known for some time
from hang-gliding and gliding. With new
gliders, the droplets are absorbed less
quickly by the fabric. Thus, the newer a
glider is, the greater the number of droplets
caught on the top surface and the bigger
those droplets are, the greater the risk that
there could be airflow separation. We were
able to recreate these conditions by practical
tests and computer simulations, but they
occur very rarely.
It is the case in both of the above situations
that the control travel and braking distance
first reduce and then the deep stall is
caused, mostly by alteration of the brake
travel or angle of attack, e.g. by a gust or
thermal.
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