How many people fly down instead of hiking down?

[AlpineK]

[video:youtube]

more like this?

 

 

I could see this happening. All you need to do is order ski wings off da web then jumped off the closest slope you can find.

 

[OlympicMtnBoy]

That looks totally awesome and I'd love to give it a shot, but maybe just the 100 ft hill with a farm field landing part.

 

I believe these small wings trade more speed and lower glide ratio for the ability to fly in less desirable winds than large paragliders, but maybe someone who actually flies will correct me there. It doesn't mean they aren't susceptible to fluctuations in air currents (which of course you can't see and most people aren't that good at predicting). Take for example the above clip around 0:30 where you can see the guy's wing collapse with the likely colder air in that gulley and the corresponding loss of altitude and crash. I'm sure the pilots on this forum (Lowell?) could confirm the difficulties involved here of recovering (hopefully you don't tangle anything or crash into something first).

 

For those of you who haven't seen it, there is an excellent history of mountaineering paragliding in the NW from the NWMJ here by Lowell: http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/07/071_Paragliding1.html

 

And a chronology of first descents, fatalities, etc:

http://www.alpenglow.org/paragliding/history/nw-chronology.html

 

Like I said, would love to try it, and be scared a shit to take it up anything but the bunny hill.

 

Also I imagine you'd need to be a pretty damn good skier (ie: never have to thing about it) to do a lot of what you are watching, skiing at a high level while also waving your arms around and shifting weight to control the wing. Can't be pretty if you catch an edge and jerk your arm the wrong way either.

 

[McGinnis]

Great info and articles, hadn't thought of some of these things yet. Some of these guys/gals are crazy!

[ivan]

didn't someone crash doing this on mt hood a few years back?

[Hugh Conway]

Of the small number of people I've met who did it, all had paraglided or skydived before and were good skiers.

 

I could see this happening. All you need to do is order ski wings off da web then jumped off the closest slope you can find.

 

I'm thinking this would be a better mode of decent

[video:youtube]VsaZW_ow3rE

[AlpineK]

Jacky Chan had the best idea for rad descents

[video:youtube]

 

[j_b]

"Carpenter launched from the summit down the Southwest Couloir and turned to fly over the South Arete to the SR-20 hairpin. His 7-cell glider failed to clear the arete and he bounced and skidded down the vertical Southeast Face. The glider caught on a dead tree on the face. Carpenter was uninjured. An East Buttress climbing party (including Tim Wilson) lent their ropes to Twight, who lowered them to Carpenter, enabling him to escape from the face. Source: Jonathan Carpenter."

 

We were starting the hike back to the car when we saw it happen. Terrifying to say the least.

[Lowell_Skoog]

I've flown paragliders but not speed-flying wings. If you're looking for a mountain flying wing, you'll want to evaluate its launching and landing characteristics. In particular, how fast do you have to run to get off the ground and how "hot" do you come in on the landing. My impression (not based on personal experience) is that speed-flying wings are normally flown using skis, which enable you to get a lot more speed for takeoff than you could attain by running. Also, it doesn't matter how hot you come in for the landing if you have skis. These wings may not be suitable for launching on foot, especially in the constricted launch and landing zones that you often encounter in mountain flying.

 

In the years since I was flying (I'm pretty much retired) they've developed some remarkably light and good performing mountain flying canopies. But as I wrote in "On a Wing and a Prayer", most mountain fliers have concluded that climbing and flying are two distinct sports. You normally have to focus on one or the other. When you're flying, your plans tend to be 99% focused on flying conditions, not on the climbing part of it.

 

[ScottP]

Jacky Chan had the best idea for rad descents

[video:youtube]

[video:youtube]v=I6Ffr1U7KMY

[glassgowkiss]

I've flown paragliders but not speed-flying wings. If you're looking for a mountain flying wing, you'll want to evaluate its launching and landing characteristics. In particular, how fast do you have to run to get off the ground and how "hot" do you come in on the landing. My impression (not based on personal experience) is that speed-flying wings are normally flown using skis, which enable you to get a lot more speed for takeoff than you could attain by running. Also, it doesn't matter how hot you come in for the landing if you have skis. These wings may not be suitable for launching on foot, especially in the constricted launch and landing zones that you often encounter in mountain flying.

 

In the years since I was flying (I'm pretty much retired) they've developed some remarkably light and good performing mountain flying canopies. But as I wrote in "On a Wing and a Prayer", most mountain fliers have concluded that climbing and flying are two distinct sports. You normally have to focus on one or the other. When you're flying, your plans tend to be 99% focused on flying conditions, not on the climbing part of it.

Also note you'll have to add skis and canopy/harness for speed flying setup, so count on at least 10-12 pounds extra at minimum. That pretty much makes any technical climbing impossible, due to weight/size issues.