November 15, 2004 What is to be done when no take-off ground is available?
A paraglider is an air-filled 3D flexible wing with a pilot suspended from it by cords. Such an apparatus can take off from a hillside and soar for a long time by using updrafts. A portable motor with a propeller attached to the pilot's back will allow taking off directly from land.
However, a paraglider needs a smooth ground to take off from land. Counter flows must turn the wing, fill it and raise it to the take-off position. Then the flight itself starts.
But what is to be done when no take-off ground is available? The inventor from Krasnodar Valery Kiselyov has proposed to resolve this contradiction by separating (temporary, of course) a paraglider and pilot. This is achieved by using a long cable, one end of which is attached to the lower tips of the paraglider cords while the other one is attached to the pilot's suspension system via a light-weight winch.
A pilot ready for flight fills the wing with a lifting gas from a spray can, thereby turning it into a kind of balloon. The wing fills out with air, acquires aerodynamic shape and gets off, tightening the cable. Then the pilot switches on the winch and the cable starts shortening. Using the wing as a suspension point, a kind of balloon, the pilot rises to the sky. Under load, the flexible wing starts working as a wing of an ordinary paraglider, that is, moves ahead and gradually descends. It is important that the pilot can reach the wing by the cable before the entire structure lands. After the cable has been fully hauled in, the pilot switches on the portable motor and starts the flight.
|