{"id":9324,"date":"2025-06-18T23:17:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T06:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/?p=9324"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:45:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:45:36","slug":"paragliding-just-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/paragliding-just-say-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Paragliding &#8212; Just Say No &#8211; Collapse Risk is Huge"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_873\" style=\"width: 353px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/paraglider-wing-collapse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-873\" class=\" wp-image-873\" src=\"http:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/paraglider-wing-collapse.jpg\" alt=\"Paraglider wing-collapse.Courtesy of Dreamstime.com\" width=\"343\" height=\"229\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-873\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Paraglider Wing-Collapse<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy of Dreamstime.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Flying is a Deadly Serious Endeavor !<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>There are Old Pilots,<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>and there are Bold Pilots,<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>But there are No Old+Bold Pilots.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve lost several close friends to foot-launched flying, other friends are permanently disabled.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t want to lose any more friends. That gives me abundant right to be self-righteous about this !<\/p>\n<p>If this article saves one friend from harm or death it&#8217;ll be more than worth it.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been flying hang gliders around the world since the early 1970s: Fabulous soaring in magnificent places including England (my favorite is Devils Dyke), Norway (<span class=\"mw-page-title-main\">Bod\u00f8 where I set a Scandanavian distance record<\/span>), Belgium (ok, so we jumped off chairs because it is so flat), France(Puy de Dome volcano), Italia(secret), Espana (near Barcelona), Japan (Hakone Peninsula with monkeys), Australia (Burketown&#8217;s Morning Glory), even the Soviet Union (before it was just Russia). I was honored to be the first pilot to fly a hang glider in the tiny mountain country of Andorra(Arinsal ski resort) in 1976.<\/p>\n<p>Taught hang gliding in many, many countries (to many people who didn&#8217;t speak any English) &#8211; including North of the Polar Circle.<\/p>\n<p>I rarely mention my long safe hang-gliding experience but I&#8217;m taking this moment to let you know I&#8217;m not your run-of-the mill ill-informed spectator. I didn&#8217;t get to keep flying unscathed for this many decades by <strong>treating flying as an off-handed frolic, gambol or a lark.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With <strong>Windsurfing<\/strong> &#8211; when you make a mistake &#8211; <strong>you just fall in the water, laugh, get back up and keep playing<\/strong>. (Yes, you could get run over by an Aircraft carrier, but that&#8217;s almost impossibly rare.)<\/p>\n<p>With <strong>Paragliding, Hang Gliding<\/strong> or any kind of flying &#8211; <strong>you can easily Die &#8211; in just Seconds<\/strong>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a wonderful saying &#8212;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>There are Old Pilots,<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>and there are Bold Pilots,<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>But there are No Old+Bold Pilots.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With that firmly in mind &#8211; this is the advice I give to all those I care about :<\/p>\n<p>Paragliding looks lovely and serene. And it can be.<\/p>\n<p>But <strong>unlike Hang Glider&#8217;s rigid wings, Paraglider&#8217;s soft wings can, and do, <em>COLLAPSE in turbulence<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If your ParaGlider Wing collapse happens when you&#8217;re higher than 250 feet it is <strong>merely Heart-Stoppingly Frightening<\/strong>, but <em><strong>often<\/strong><\/em> recoverable.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s because most newer paraglider\u00a0wings are designed to re-inflate.<\/p>\n<p>*** But that <strong>Paraglider Re-Inflation Takes Several Precious Seconds !<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>*** If your <strong>Paraglider Wing collapse<\/strong> happens <strong>below 250 feet above hard, unforgiving ground &#8211; it can easily and quickly kill You &#8211; or maybe worse: You could end up Paraplegic &#8211; in a wheelchair.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Every Paraglider flight goes through a window 60-250 feet above the ground &#8211; Twice. Every takeoff and landing.)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>With a Wing Collapse at low altitudes, you don&#8217;t have enough seconds to re-inflate a collapsed Paraglider before you hit the ground.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now please take a serious moment &#8211; to <strong>imagine being dropped from 250 feet onto the ground, even Sand. The height of many bridges.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll wait.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Imagine how YOUR Body will BOUNCE when it hits the ground from that height !<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Right &#8211; that&#8217;s <strong>Damn Serious ! ! !<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Marina Sand Dunes near Monterey in California is one place that rarely has turbulence. It typically has some of the smoothest winds of anywhere. But even there, <strong>Wing collapse<\/strong> happens. It is very real potential and far <strong>too easily dismissed by overeager enthusiasts.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paraglider pilots might be more fun<\/strong> than wet-blanket fuddy-duddy, instructors like me. As example &#8212; recently soaring at <strong>Stanwell Park<\/strong> in Oz (Australia) with a gaggle of pilots, one paraglider pilot was flying with a cute Bear&#8217;s head costume.<\/p>\n<p>Later he flew his paraglider backwards. Bringing smiles from us watching; <strong>wry smiles to those of us long-time pilots.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, <strong>only a week\u00a0 later<\/strong> , a <strong>Paraglider pilot was Killed right there\u00a0<\/strong> &#8211; just a few feet below where I was soaring.<\/p>\n<p>As in <strong>DEAD.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rescuers hauling a mangled body back up a cliff.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Memorial service with family crying.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lost plans for his future.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>I hope I&#8217;m impressing on you that this flying is Really Serious.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you doubt any of this &#8211; just try a quick web search on &#8220;<strong>Paraglider<\/strong>&#8221; and &#8220;<strong>collapse<\/strong>&#8221; and ask &#8212; Why do paraglider pilots<strong> always wear a backup parachute.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Please <strong>Burn this into your Memory<\/strong> &#8212;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">. . . <strong>There are No Old+Bold Pilots.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Still Planning on taking that Paraglider Joy-Ride \/ Flight ???<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Its just a Dual Flight with an &#8216;experienced&#8217; Paraglider pilot.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>FIRST you NEED to PLEASE <strong>ask your proposed Pilot<\/strong> \/ Instructor &#8212;<\/p>\n<p><strong>*** &#8220;Have you Practiced Recovery from <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">all Seven<\/span> of these &#8212;\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">(Practiced in Flight &#8211; <em><strong>Not merely theorized or taken a Written Test on &#8211;)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>* 1) <strong>Stalls<\/strong> &#8211; Deep, Parachutal or Constant Stall ?<\/p>\n<p>* 2) ParaGlider in a <strong>SPIRAL ?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>* 3) ParaGlider in a <strong>SPIN ?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>* 4) Full Frontal <strong>Collapse<\/strong>, Symmetrical ?<\/p>\n<p>* 5) A <strong>Blow-Back ?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>* 6) <strong>Water Landings<\/strong> ?<\/p>\n<p>* 7) <strong>Asymmetric Collapse with a Cravat ?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>! ! ! If they answer Anything except &#8220;Yes&#8221; to ALL of these &#8212;<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>!!! DO NOT FLY with THEM ! ! !<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>!!! DO NOT FLY with THEM ! ! !<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>!!! DO NOT FLY with THEM ! ! !<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Period !<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Flying is a Seriously Deadly Activity.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would FAR rather be a killjoy &#8211; than your <strong>Pall-bearer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong># # #<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flying is a Deadly Serious Endeavor ! There are Old Pilots, and there are Bold Pilots, But there are No Old+Bold Pilots. I&#8217;ve lost several close friends to foot-launched flying, other friends are permanently disabled. I don&#8217;t want to lose &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/paragliding-just-say-no\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":13,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-consumer-protection","category-personal-danger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9324"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9569,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324\/revisions\/9569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}