How Does a Paraglider Fly?

First, let's get to know paragliding a little bit.
The paraglider is a very light aircraft. It is examined in 4 parts, the dome (main parachute), the suspension ropes (the rope connecting the main parachute to the straps), the carrier straps and the harness. (the harness device, the bag that securely connects us to the wing from 5 points and also gives us a position as if we were sitting in a chair while flying)

Let's examine paragliding together:

The paraglider is made of a special fabric that is airtight. There are air inlets on the front of the paraglider to take in air (flood mouth). So what exactly do these air inlets do? All aircraft must have an aerodynamic structure in order to hold on and glide in the air.

So what is this aerodynamic structure? I recommend that you think of the asymmetry of a raindrop to visualize it more easily. If you notice, all air tributes have a half-drop wing structure. Of course, there is an explanation for this in the field of aerodynamics, but I don't want to bore you with this information. If we go back to paragliding, the air entering from the air inlets (the flood mouth) inflates our wing and allows it to gain the full wing profile you see. Now we are ready to fly.

How does a paraglider fly?

Since the paraglider is a motorless aircraft, it is not possible for it to take off from zero, so what is required for us to fly? Since the paraglider does not have a motor, the factors that determine the duration of the flight are the height of the hill it takes off from and the lifting air activities. We will discuss lifting air activities in another article. The higher the hill we take off from, the longer we will spend in the air just gliding.

How does a paraglider fly? 'All aircraft take off and land against the wind' All aircraft have a certain wind limit. These limits are of great importance during take off and landing. In paragliding, take off limits can take off and land at a maximum of 30 km/h (wind limits may vary depending on the class of our parachute.)

We are ready to fly now

The appropriate hill for takeoff is selected and the wind is checked. Yes, we are now ready to fly. We spread our parachute against the wind and check our ropes. After making all our connections, we check the connections again. Everything is done… now we are ready to take off, in the appropriate wind range, we pull the ropes on the part of our wing that goes to the air inlets (flood mouth) a little bit to allow air into our wing. After our wing gains its full airfoil and comes to our top, we leave the hill by running a few steps. Now we are free…

We are free now

Did you know that we can determine the duration of our stay in the air? You can extend your flight for hours depending on the structure of the hill you take off from, the climate and geography of the region you are in.

Well, how?
How does a paraglider fly? 'Air is a fluid and always follows the easiest path.' First, hang gliding (backline flying) The structure of the hill is important in hang gliding. It needs to face the wind and be long in crosswise. The wind hitting the hill wants to pass over the hill in the fastest and shortest way. In this way, it creates a lifting line in front of the hill, this is where we can fly for hours. In an average wind (15 km/h) we can hang glide in front of the hill for hours.

Thermal activity

Thanks to thermal activities, it is possible to extend our stay in the air and go further away from our departure point. How does thermal activity occur? Thermal activity is a situation related to the warming of the earth's surface. The heated air on the earth rises as a mass to form clouds by breaking away from the earth's surface. We make 360-degree turns in this rising air current and rise with this rising air current. This air current only goes up to a certain height depending on the meteorological conditions of that day. If we want to make a distance flight. If we want to go further than the point we took off, we separate at the peak of this thermal current and start scanning the surroundings to find another thermal activity. Thus, we can travel kilometers depending on the geographical conditions.