I was on a PG forum and a pilot offered to GIVE me one of his old paragliders that isn't suitable for flying anymore. All I have to do is pick up shipping. I was offered this after asking about using my 8 meter as a ground handling rig, most people said it won't be the same, this is where he came in and offered to send me his old glider to practice. Now it isn't "safe" to fly by standard guidelines, IE: its older and has a good amount of UV exposure and probably won't pass the porosity test, meaning it lets too much air through to offer up an acceptable glide ratio. Would i be able to use it on a low wind day for snowkitng, like 1-5mph? And then later after learning the sport, and how to control kites better like 5-10mph?

what is the PG forum you keep referring to?

IMO, if he's experienced, he may have a totally different opinion on what is flyable / usable compared to a complete novice who has no idea how to paraglide. One needs to be certified to paraglide and parachute. It is likely a very high A/R canopy and designed to lift.

Are you going to rebridle it? How are you planning to use it with skis? If you aren't rebridling it to fly on lines, your body is going to create a huge wind shadow on a light wind day if the thing is only a few feet from you. Additionally, I would imagine if you get lift, it may sustain it longer and higher than you desire. For safety's sake, I'd advise against it.

But that being said, I know nothing of paragliders.

Your pansh and NPW should be more than sufficient to ski with. If the surface is good you don't need much wind or kite to get going on snow.

paraglidingforum.com And in the US you don't need to be certified to fly, but 99% of shops won't sell you a glider if you aren't, plus there is ebay and craigs list where people will sell to anyone. He is from what i know an experienced flyer and so more likely then not the glider he is giving to me is a low AR slow big P1 canopy. And you can fly a paraglider on lines without rebridling it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCBua_VQwzg

And as far as getting jumps, not so much, i would look at flying back down more so than getting jumps, it would just be my super low wind kite.

Could glide guy maybe help us out here?

Let me start with the technical reasons you don't want to do this...A paraglider will certainly generate enough pull to drag you around, but the risers (bridles) aren't set up for four line control. When you turn a paraglider you pull down as much as 3 ft of brake line. Also kites are bridled to alter the angle of attack and most foils bigger than 3m can be depowered. The only way to depower the paraglider would be to put it way out on the edge of the wind and flag it down.
Now for the practical reasons you shouldn't do this....Putting lines on a PG like in the video is crazy. They didn't bother to rig any kind of safety, so if they had to dump it, it could have gone for miles. If it hit a power line, or anything like that there would be hell to pay. Also, if you happen to put the wing in a 400ft/min thermal you'd be off the ground and too high to let go without getting seriously F@#$d up in just 3 seconds.
The guy who is offering you the glider for free is not your friend and is not being very responsible. At Muller Wind Sports we cut up the old used gliders to prevent unknowing people from killing themselves with something they found while dumpster diving.
We are all accountable for our own actions, if you get hurt getting dropped or putting a kite over a powerline no one will cry for you but your mommy. The problem for the rest of us will be dealing with the bad press, the increased insurance or outright bans on use of public lands, etc, etc. that already interfer with lots of our recreational sports.

My advice is this...Go out and have fun but don't do anything that makes the rest of us look like a** holes.

Come on Glide Guy! Come out with it. What are you really trying to say here?:smug:

You couldn't have come along at a better time. You seem to bring a little credibility with you from the PG side. We tried to say "no don't do it" but couldn't get the point across like you did. He is a spunky kid (relatively speaking) and we don't want him to just unexpectedly stop posting here.

LOL! Well thats why I put it here, to find out if it's stupid or not. And getting alot of feedback I am not going to do so. And how could you do something so horrid as to cut up the gliders, that makes me want to cry! I would kill for one just to hang on my wall! LOL! Not mad just sad.

Thanks though,
Nick
NPWfever

Well, I'm guessing that while you'd hang one on the wall, some young punk somewhere would be tempted to jump off a large hill at their high school with one instead of a large kite without having any formal training, this with the fact that it's already past it's amount of safe flying time. I'm also assuming that they have serial #'s on them to identify them.

Someone investigating a possible wreck by some newbie with no clue would have no problem tracking down the guy that parted with the sail.

Sorry for ranting like an old woman, lol.

The sport flying community is ultrasensitive about bad press and community relations. We're self regulated, but we have to fly under the same rules as any aircraft. Transport Canada watch over us and when things go wrong everyone suffers.

Pablo is right, lots of guys would take a trashed old glider they bought on Ebay for $50 to the local hill and that could be a disaster.

Nick...You think you're sad hearing about us chopping up our old gliders. We had a lot of fun on those old wings and there are tons of very happy memories associated with all that rip-stop nylon and Dyneema, cutting them up was hard. But, l'd be really sad if someone got hurt flying on that old junk, they're just not safe.
If you get a chance to hook-up with someone who teaches paragliding in your area, you'll have a blast. Most schools teach a basic course for around $150. I hope you get achance to try it one day.

Yeah well I got my job looking at saving $ for buying a used PG and a proper set up, (and get training) but I found pansh and I NEEDED to buy an Ace. And now I am full on into traction kiting, and need a ton of other things that are sucking the $ out of my PG fund. So I guess I will have to do with hill jumping for now. I have a local school in Boulder Co. run by Granger Banks, called Parasoft and they offer a tandem for $150, a P1 for $350 and a P2 for $1500, but if you start P2 within one month of your P1 they refund the cost of the P1. I'm trying to talk my parents into getting me my P1 for my "sweet" sixteen. That sounds ridiculous coming from a guy, but it worked on my mom! LOL! But if most charge around $150 I might look into a different school.

Yeah and I would be one of those people who would jump off a hill with a PG, LOL! But not really, not to say the thought hasn't crossed my mind.... Hell if you are ever thinking about cutting up an old PG I'll pay for shipping (if this other guy falls through) Just to have one. But if you need some form of reasurance, cut off the risers. (I can rebridle! muhaahhhhaa!) NO JK JK I would f$*# it up and be like 300 feet up and they would all tear off. You would see footage on the news, and as I was falling a reserve made of 500 trash bags would come flying out of my backpack, lol.

Oh and also the guy giving me the PG is giving it to me for ground handling practice, it is unsafe for flying and that scares the fudge out of me. :singing:

It got a little heated here:

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=14692

Just a thought what If you modded the bridles to make it a depower kite? Then you could at least have some control over the power.

I saw a guy on a parasail down at seaside, people were having trouble flying with 10+m kites, he was parasailing with a buddy towing him up. He tried to get on a ATB, as soon as he started moving he was so overpowered it wasn't funny. Most runs ended in him getting yanked out and up by the time he moved 20ft, He gave up after about 5min. And this fellow had no problem handling the paraglider, looks like he knew what he was doing. I'd say this points to the fact that parasails do not make good traction kites.

LOLOLOLOL.... a paraglider is meant for a different purpose. I wish I'd been there to see it.
The problem is a paraglider is BIG and it's on relatively short lines, so to keep it in the power band AND get the leading edge on plane to track upwind or even across the wind the wingtip is just barely off the ground. I'm pretty good at ground handling a paraglider, and I wouldn't try to power an ATB on a bet with one. (but I'm old)

Dean