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| WELL, It's brightly colored, it's made of nylon and it looks rather like a large inflatable airbed drifting lazily overhead with a pilot hanging underneath on a little seat. What's more, he seems to be able to make it go where he wants it to, Amazing huh? That's a paraglider! |
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| A paraglider is the most basic form of flying machine that man has yet devised, a sort of cross between a glider and a parachute. It is simply a self-inflating fabric canopy, without fuselage, tail, undercarriage or engine, but because the canopy, like the wing of an aircraft, is a classic airfoil shape, it will always try to move forward into the air stream. By manipulating his rigging lines like a normal parachutist, the pilot suspended underneath can change the shape and angle of the wing to steer the paraglider, By taking advantage of favorable breezes and thermals - rising currents of warm air - he or she can sometimes stay aloft for hours, soaring over the countryside like an eagle. |
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| Not surprisingly, Paragliding thrives in areas like the Alps or Rocky Mountains, where you can depend on sunshine, blue skies, plenty of up currents over the sun-warmed rock faces, and lots of nice high mountains to fly off. Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, is ideal. You can take the cable car to then fly all the way down to the bottom again. Paragliding is a growing sport and quite simple to learn. It is also much safer than it looks, and serious mishaps are rare. "In one sense it's rather like skiing.. The basic techniques are quite easy to learn, and after that, it's largely a question of practicing under the eye of an expert." Paragliders can be towed into the air on the end of a winch-drawn tow rope ,just like a full-sized glider. Paragliding, using the most basic form of flying machine, is a growing sport.
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