[gasdive]

Maybe I'm not being clear...

The ways to prevent whacks or fix whackers so far proposed are:

Take an oath to improve,
(I haven't done that)

Day or two on the training hill,
(No, never do that)

All fly low performance single surface gliders
(My GTR was as hot a ship as you could buy at the time)

Intentionally land cross/downwind to practice in case you need to land cross/downwind,
(I've never *intentionally* landeded cross/down just for practice)

Install a stall warning horn,
(I don't have one)

Practice,
(Yet I was able to flare the glider to a no-step landing on my first attempt, zero practice)

Fit flaps,
(none of my gliders have had flaps)

There has been a major improvement in instruction that hasn't yet made it into the mainstream,
(I learnt 30 years ago)

Maintain currency,
(I landed pretty well after 20 years of not flying at all, yet I'd forgotten how to put the glider together, can't get much less current than that.)

Flare correctly,
(I'm not sure about that, I got some style correction when I came back to the sport that changed the way I held the uprights, so I was either doing it wrong before, or doing it wrong after, but either way, I never whacked)

Teach people how to land correctly in the first place,
(hey!!!!!!!!! THAT'S ME!!!!!!!!!!! I think my instructor taught me correctly in the first place, but I think most people think their instructor does that.)

My personal favourite: Fly with a helmet that keeps your ears uncovered,
(Robert flys with a full face helment)

So there are people who show that all the possible reasons so far proposed for the whackorama that we see around us aren't the real reason.

So what *is* the real reason? Maybe the "taught correctly in the first place"? If so what does "correctly" mean and how should it be taught?

=:)

[FlyingTechGuy]

This all seems to be getting away from the original question - which is, why don't Paraglider pilots convert in larger numbers, if at all?

The same things that applied at the beginning of this discussion as it relates to PG vs. HG - still do. From many Paragliding pilot's perspective:

- Hang Gliders are a pain in the ass to carry
- Hang Gliders are a pain in the ass to transport and might even involve a different vehicle
- Hang Gliders take a long time to set up and pack away compared to bags
- Hang Gliders at the top of the performance category are more expensive than their Paragliding counterpart
- Hang Gliders cannot be hiked up to many launch sites that Paragliding pilots hike to, including ones that go through the woods.

Among all of these things, who whacks and who does not whack is irrelevant because that changes none of the above. Nor does that change the fact that MOST landings at a given shared site are in fact whack-less.

A Paraglider pilot only needs to watch many landings to see that landing well and consistently IS within the grasp of many HG pilots, whether they are flying SS or a T2C. And if it's possible for them to land well, then it is also possible for a would-be converted Paragliding pilot to land well.

And having flown both, I can tell you that many Paragliding pilots do in fact - get this. Because on the Paragliding side, most of the drama occurs on launch and not on landing. I've seen so many people get jacked up on launch in a Paraglider that it's not funny. But Paraglider pilots don't look at that and say "hey, Paragliders are unsafe because I saw several people get jacked up on takeoff." They understand there is judgment, conditions, and pilot skill level at work there.

There is no reason to believe that they do not equally realize this if they see a whack.

I believe as I stated earlier that most Paragliding pilots are in fact not serious about getting into Hang Gliding because of the factors expressed in the list above. And really a PG pilot that expresses hesitation solely because they saw a few ppl whack is a lame excuse. I prefer to fly HG because the hassle is worth it to me, and because I actually believe they are safer than Paragliders in several ways.

Lastly I'd say it's important to keep things in perspective. We've all seen some very bad landings in Commercial Airplanes. You know, the kind where the airplane cartwheels down the runway and kills most people. We don't see a lot of Hang Gliders cartwheeling and flinging the pilot about. Whacks are to be avoided, agreed, but they are not all that spectacular to be judged off-putting to any open-minded would-be HG pilot.

Just my 2.5 cents

[AirNut]

[AirNut]