![]() I bought a used glider in college and picked up where I left off. I gave up on my own Rogallo design/build after crashing a few times and breaking it, which is why I lived to see 14 years old. I "read books" on it, which were largely picture book of guys in short shorts flying on dunes, and proceeded to teach myself. TL DR: Buy a used hang glider as your first glider after you have been through flight school from a certified instructor. #Hang glider design professionalIt helps the instructor or school pay the bills, and it allows a knowledgable professional pick the best wing for your skill level. Consider buying an inexpensive used novice or intermediate rated glider from your school or instructor as your first glider. Please, please, please contact a reputable flight instructor, go to a flight school and get instruction on their equipment before attempting to fly a hang glider. A good school will have multiple options available. After ground school, there are several ways to learn to fly: from a slope, by being towed into the air, or by flying tandem with an instructor. These methods include ground school, where you learn the theory of flight, control inputs for the hang glider, proper use of safety gear, and how one most successfully plans and manages unpowered flight. Modern instruction techniques help to ensure that a prospective pilot learns the basics in a way that he will be more likely to survive. Modern designs are much, much safer than the designs of the 1970s. There is a LOT of engineering that has gone into hang gliders over the last 40 years. It can be done, but it takes "active control." Less like riding a bike, and more like standing on a beach ball. This makes the ability of the glider to "self-center" lower, and may even cause the glider to naturally diverge from "straight flight" requiring more active control. Because higher aspect wings are harder to control with weight shift, the dihedral angle is lowered, or even reversed into anhedral. More advanced hang gliders (still Rogallo wings) will have a higher aspect ratio, which means that they are more sensitive to pitch control, and they will have less of the built in reflex (upturned trailing edge), so they don't provide as much built-in speed control. As the speed rises, the upturned trailing edge gains more and more power, which tends to increase the pressure of the nose to rise. At low speeds, the fact that the center of weight is forward the center of lift will cause the nose to fall, which helps to prevent and recover from stalls. The trailing edges are "turned up" a bit, which creates an aerodynamic lift effect that will cause the nose to rise with pressure that is proportional to speed. They also have a built in speed control, by the means of the shape of the trailing edge of the wings. This is like a well designed bicycle, where you can ride without holding onto the handlebars. This allows for the student to learn on a flight platform that is more stable and less responsive) so that they only need to make small corrections to stay straight and level. They have a hang point that is forward of the center of lift AND they have very slightly positive dihedral, which means that they will fly at a stable speed and won't diverge from their flight path when no control input is present. The beginning gliders have several safety featured designed in: they fly slowly, with high lift wings. You can buy a used glider for a very reasonable amount of money, and any flight school worthy of the name has equipment for you to use that is perfect for someone just learning to fly. Hang gliding is not the safest sport out there (I should know, I've been flying since 1989), and is certainly not something you should try for the first time on an untried, experimental craft. If you were an accomplished hang glider pilot looking to alter existing designs or make your own, you would not need to ask this question. Unfortunately, the history of "home-made hang gliding" is filled with tales of people dying. First of all, I do applaud your interest in aviation, hang gliding, and in making your own stuff. ![]()
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