______________________________________________________________________________
21
safety-training (SIV) clinic, where you may learn to master your wing outside the normal flying
envelope under professional guidance.
Safety training manoeuvres should only be practised in calm air with sufficient altitude, and under
the instruction of qualified instructors. We would like to use this occasion to once again remind
you to never fly without a reserve parachute!
The manoeuvres and possible flight configurations described in the following may occur following
a conscious effort on the part of the pilot, through turbulence or through pilot input error. Any pilot
flying in turbulent air or making piloting mistakes may end up experiencing these flight
configurations and therefore find themselves in danger, particularly if they are not adequately
trained to master them.
WARNING! Mistakes during the execution of the following manoeuvres may seriously
compromise the safety of pilot.
Collapsing the paraglider
Asymmetric collapse
The UP Guru belongs to the new generation of paragliders that, as well as having very good
performance, also exhibit a high degree of stability. Wing tip collapses can almost always be
prevented through active flying. Once an asymmetric collapse has occurred, the pilot aims to
maintain flying direction through weight shift and careful application of brake input on the open
side. If the open side is braked too much it may stall, and the wing will enter a spin – this is the
classical recipe for cascading events (see the spin chapter). In rare instances a wingtip may catch
in the lines during asymmetric collapses (see cravats here below).
WARNING! All collapses that shall be practiced during a SIV must be performed with
folding lines. The Guru has additional attachment points for folding lines.
Cravatte
Our test pilots have found absolutely NO tendency towards cravatting in all the test flights the
Guru has been subjected to. But under extraordinary circumstances any paraglider may cravatte,
and if this happens the pilot should know how to deal with the situation.
The first step is to STOP any rotation, or, if this is not possible, to slow down the rotation as much
as possible – a cravatted wing that is left to its own devices may very quickly enter into a spiral
dive of such vehemence that the pilot cannot stop the rotation any more. Once the rotation is
under control the pilot attempts to free the cravatte by pulling on the stabilo line, perhaps in
combination with pumping action through the brake lines.
If neither of these approaches work then the experts may decide to try either a full stall or a brief
spin on the cravatted side – please note that these measures should ONLY be practised during
an SIV training over water.
WARNING! Should the pilot be unable to control the rotation it is normally best to deploy
the reserve parachute immediately. Uncontrolled and cravatted spiral dives are among
the most dangerous canopy configurations in paragliding
Full frontal collapse
A negative angle of attack occurring through turbulence or from simultaneously pulling down both
A-risers results in a full frontal collapse of the leading edge of the canopy. The UP Guru will
To Next Page
Loading...