Control

Pilots have four methods of control at their disposal: weight-shift, brake input, rear riser input, and bridge input. Weight-shift should always be used as the primary method of control. Brakes, rear risers, and bridge are supplementary to weight-shift, and also offer control of angle of attack.

Turn radius is proportional to velocity squared. That is to say that a small change in velocity has a large impact on turn radius. It follows that your brakes are very effective at minimising your turn radius. This is important to remember when flying in terrain that requires sharp turns. Sometimes, you simply must fly on brakes in order to reduce your turn radius to the demands of the terrain.

Learning to switch smoothly and quickly between controls is important for safe and optimal terrain flying, and also swooping. Never practice this while swooping, and never practice this in proximity to terrain. Always train these skills with plenty of margin from terrain, as you may be surprised by the difference in turn radius and handling. It will also take time to become comfortable and fast at switching between controls. While flying terrain, you must be completely confident in your ability to manage your control input. Therefore, you must not try new techniques, such as changing control input, while flying near terrain.

In addition, I suggest that you focus on maximising your speed, rather than your proximity with terrain. Speed increases your margin, while proximity to terrain reduces it. Proximity to terrain comes naturally with time and practice, and therefore should not be a priority while learning to fly smoothly, safely, and precisely. As such, you can safely experiment and develop your piloting with reasonable margin from terrain. We call it speedflying, not slow flying.

Why fly on brakes?

Brakes offer the highest roll rate of all control inputs. Brake input also significantly reduces your turn radius, as a result of a slight reduction in velocity. Therefore, brakes offer increased agility compared to rear riser and bridge input.

I recommend that newer pilots only pilot using weight-shift and brake input. At lower wing-loads, the response from rear riser and bridge input is less pronounced, and pilots should focus on improving their piloting skills with accurate weight-shift and precise brake input. Pilots who skip learning to fly well on brakes will never be as agile as those who learn this fundamental method of piloting.

Why fly on bridge?

Piloting on bridge offers a few advantages over brake and rear riser input. As competent paragliders will know, you should never simultaneously apply speedbar and brake. It follows that brake input while trimmed for speed, with reduced angle of attack, is suboptimal. While not dangerous, as speedwings are designed with this use case in mind, the physics remain the same.

Here we reach a crux, an intersection between optimal piloting and appropriate advice for less experienced pilots. I suggest that newer pilots do not experiment with bridge input until very familiar with brake input, rear riser input, and also stall point on the ground, across all methods of control.

Flying in proximity with torrents of water is one situation where turbulence can be expected. This is not due to thermic activity or wind, but due to the movement of water inducing movement in the air. This effect is amplified by terrain surrounding the water preventing the energy from dissipating. As such, you must be very cautious of flying in cracks with torrents of water.

For less experienced pilots, I suggest that if you encounter turbulence, you immediately close your trim system to increase your angle of attack.

For pilots who are comfortable with active piloting on brakes, and have developed a good awareness for stall-point, read on...

If you wish to fly through turbulence with proximity to terrain, it is crucial that you remain aware of the dangers and how to mitigate them. Turbulence poses a risk of collapse, even more so with a reduced angle of attack. Reduced angle of attack is particularly dangerous at low speed. You are most likely to experience collapses if you reduce your angle of attack in turbulent air at low speed. Your glider is most stable while flying with a higher angle of attack.

Active piloting on bridge allows a pilot to fly with a reduced angle of attack, at high speed, while actively controlling angle of attack to maintain stability through turbulence. For experienced pilots who are comfortable with active piloting on brakes, and are very familiar with flying on bridge, this is a powerful technique for dealing with turbulence at high speed.

In my opinion, flying through turbulence on brakes with reduced angle of attack offers less stability than bridge due to lower speed, deformation of the aerofoil profile killing any reflex in the design, and also the persistence of the low angle of attack at the leading edge.

Why fly on rears?

Rears offers a compromise between responsiveness and reduced turn radius of brakes, and greater speed and turn radius from bridge input. This compromise offers both good agility and high speed. This is only effective while flying at a reduced angle of attack, with trim system set for speed.

How do I choose between brakes, rears and bridge?

Personally, I use all 3 methods every flight. Mostly, I fly terrain on bridge, and rears if I need to reduce the turn radius. I will use brakes if the terrain demands it, but I try to stay out of these situations, favouring speed and larger turn radius.

If I encounter turbulence, I fly on bridge to increase my angle of attack immediately, while maintaining speed.

I do not recommend that you try to imitate my flying style, but take your time to master all techniques of glider control, with a focus on weight-shift.

Again, weight-shift must be the primary mechanism of control.

Adverse Roll

Adverse roll is the effect of the glider initially producing lift as a result of brake or riser input. This initial lift occurs on the braked side, the inside of your turn. For this reason, it is important to master the relationship between weight-shift and hand inputs.

To prevent adverse roll, and to enjoy intuitive and efficient handling, you must lead with weight-shift. Then follow with hand input, ideally to amplify, but also to correct if necessary.

Leading with weight-shift has the effect of turning the glider by increaing the load on the inside, while preventing adverse roll.