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Glide Landing Question

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Hugh2
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Re: Glide Landing Question

Postby Hugh2 » Wed Jan 06, 2021 3:59 am

Too cool you guys, I read it only for the entertainment.

RomeUtah
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Re: Glide Landing Question

Postby RomeUtah » Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:41 pm

Fun personal observations from first real day of gliding for the year. For reference I fly backwards, strapped with a snowboard in a climbing harness with a waist harness on a 15m foil with 18m lines. Speed is my friend: When taking off slowly, I would accidentally engage a very fast rotation, super fun when pulling 3s 7s 10s on flat snow or against the hill on purpose, not as fun when dropping a 10m cornice drop and getting disoriented while making sure that im not pulling too hard on one side of the bar or another (powered loop on a 15m while pretending to be a human helicopter is not ideal). The proper move would have been to take the drop with speed leading up to it instead of getting close to it and slowly rolling off until my kite catches me. Taking off with speed also equals landing with speed. Fernmanus has a point when it comes to staying low and going fast (the novelty of just dangling wears off fast, and don't fly higher than you are willing to deck, relatively at least). We all break the later rule more than we would like to.
With speed when you are gliding backwards, the break stroke when done about 10-20 feet up rotates and pendulums you into a perfect landing position. I will try to get some video next time im out and someone wants to record it. When you go slow that break stroke becomes less effective and requires you to do more of a loop to land (a significantly harder landing as you drop out of the sky if mis-timed).
Also super fun thing to do is flying through the wind window back and forth, it allows you to speed up and slow down your speed as you cross the window, kind of like ridge soaring but without the skills and precision.
Just my observations from the last session

JTKiter
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Re: Glide Landing Question

Postby JTKiter » Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:18 pm

Good stuff, thanks. Glad you're getting some air time!

Here are some impressions from an advanced beginner/intermediate glider.
(I'm not saying I'm right and I'm not suggesting that anyone should take these thoughts as "advice".....)

It seems like some aspects of gliding are easier facing forwards and some facing backwards. I always face forward on skis but backwards on snowboard/mtn board. (mini-glides only on mtn board down a grassy hill)

Taking off for backwards flight is easier than ducking the bar and switching hands for forward flight.
Also, facing the kite (in backwards flight) is generally more comfortable because most of us have so many hours of kiteboarding under our belts.
For this reason, I tend to fly the kite more actively when facing backwards.

However, facing forwards and being "squared up" and symmetrical is safer and more controllable FOR ME.
I prefer to have an uninterrupted view of height and terrain and possible landing spots.
I feel like having the wind directly in my face allows me to read it better.
I never have problems landing while facing forward--but I definitely crater some landings on snowboard!
Misjudging height and/or getting gusted while trying to land while facing backward on snowboard makes things tricky.....

Again, these are my impressions and I'm no expert. I'm just throwing this out there in case someone is starting out, trying their first little glides and wondering about it.

The idea is to have fun while learning a very cool and exciting skill. Doesn't matter if you fly backwards or forwards--or don't fly at all.


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