Why four motors, instead of one motor?

Still have it. It was a Winter flight suit with fleece lining made by SUPAIR :smiley:

Here’s my input on buying a paraglider.

#1 Work with a dealer/school that’s focused on selling their product. If they spend as much or more time bashing the competition, RUN don’t walk, RUN as fast as you can to another dealer. In the long term, this will be one of the best decisions you will ever make in your flying career.

#2 If the dealer starts spouting off about their own professionalism or engages in another form of confirmation basis or tells you they want you on “The Team”, see #1.

#3 Support your local instructor or school if it is a viable option. Having a local resource for advice and/or potential issues/repairs is worth more than saving a tiny bit by going out of the area.

#4 Avoid buying a glider on eBay, etc. I’ve never, ever heard of anyone actually getting a good deal. There is usually a reason someone is using one of these venues to sell their equipment; It’s junk they can’t unload anywhere else.

#5 Be realistic about your ability and goals. It’s much better to fly a glider 100% of the time rather than have the glider fly you the 1-2% of the time when conditions are lousy and/or downright dangerous.

#6 Stick with a glider that is either EN or DGAC certified. A few smaller manufacturers will only certify the more popular sizes while the XS or XL sizes for example are not. This may not be a problem but from experience, you don’t want to be the test pilot. If the glider is EN rated but not DGAC, double-check with the manufacturer whether it’s appropriate for PPG. I have seen a beginner level paraglider used for PPG that had issues with powered flight. As soon as the pilot went to the throttle, the glider would start to roll each time. No throttle, no roll. After several tries, he exchanged the glider and was much happier.

#7 If your flying an OpenPPG, skip the trimmers. Since there isn’t a torque issue, they aren’t needed. All paragliders are sold with a speed system and are much more efficient than trim tabs. Besides, if a pilot forgot the trim tabs were engaged and then added the speed bar, it’s going to be real ugly real quick.

#8 With regard to a reflex wing vs. a non-reflex paraglider, check out page 224 in Jeff Goin’s PPG Bible. Reflex airfoils have the benefit of increased stability at higher speeds but require a different steering technique/design.

Good luck. Have fun. Fly high. Fly far.

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@Critter Thanks so much for the info, very helpful. One more question, and sorry if it is a dumb one. Are trimmers on every wing and you’re saying just don’t use them? Or are there specific wings that have them and some that don’t?

In aviation, there are no dumb questions. Our mistakes are not on the same caliper of other activities…

In general, most PG wings don’t have trim tabs. Some of the mini-gliders and maybe a few competition gliders are the exception. While almost all PPG wings do have trimmers in order to overcome the issues with torque. Check the manufactures website to be certain. Some gliders used for both purposes are sold with different risers - one set with and the other set without trim. However, since the OpenPPG uses a PG harness (nice!), most PG wings without trimmers should work fine.

2 1/2 good resources for gliders:

www.paraglidingforum.com
www.http://ziadbassil.blogspot.com/ (The best site for independent reviews of PG wings. The magazines favor their advertisers and are beyond worthless.)
www.para2000.org (This site is no longer active and you have to use www.archive.org for access.)

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Nova and U-Turn have wings that are also certified for Paramotor use.
You can get them with standard freeflying risers, or with risers that include trimmers.

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Great info! And thanks for the links!

One small addition, most, but not every free flight wing is certified suitable for tow. If a wing isn’t tow certified I would guess that it shouldn’t be used with an OPPG either.

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Also, there can be two types of risers with trimmers for PPG. The regular length for low hook-in units and shorter ones for the high hook-end motors.

U-Turn and Nova along with the small French company Nervures are a few of the brands that offer riser options with their gliders. I’m sure there are more.

U-Turn even has a glider, the Progress, that they claim is designed specifically for ePPG. However, the description really doesn’t offer any benefits directly for ePPG.

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The EN doesn’t test or certify paraliders for towing. A manufacturer may recommend against towing a specific model.

Additionally, the forces generated during PPG and tow are not comparable. On tow, an inexperienced winch operator/driver can easily exceed the operating parameters of glider. Combined with the potential for lockout, and it’s not a fair comparison.

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Hey Critter. When I got my PG tow endorsement, back in 2002 admittedly, we used a rigid bridle connected to both the hang loops. On a PPG there are goosenecks to transmit the thrust to the riser hang loops. Surely they’re a bit comparable?

I’m with you. I was pretty much only considering the situation where a glider locks out during tow. With either towing or PPG, once the paraglider exceeds the critical angle of attack, it will stall.

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Can you expound on this a little? Both of the harness on the OpenPPG website say they are PPG harness. Is it because of the lack of weight? Or lack of torque?

What is the Roman Scale Effect? Google was … Unhelpful

Basically, the max weight before the weight of the motor tips you back and looses it parallel ground thrust - you would be looking at the seagulls while sitting in free-flight mode engine off.
Phil:)

Since the harnesses have low hook-in points and can be removed from the motor for free flying, I referred to them as PG harnesses. While not maybe technically correct, they aren’t harnesses with high hook-in points or some other design feature to counter the torque and unable to be used for PG.

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