Their organizers are the Ukrainian Republican club of hang gliding, the Crimean aviation Museum complex and the joint venture “Sea”. This gathering tried to invite all existing paraglider pilots in the country, thus giving the Republican event status of open. In total on competition has arrived 18 athletes representing small groups of enthusiasts from Feodosia, Simferopol, Moscow, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Sevastopol, Ryazan, Novomoskovsk, Zelenograd and Zaporozhye.
One of the main organizers of the gathering, the Director of the Crimean aviation Museum complex E. V. Belousov puts the idea of it: “in our country there are disparate group of paragliding enthusiasts; they independently developed their own devices, organize flights. We tried to gather them all together so that athletes had the opportunity to compare your practice to compete in the ability to manage them, to exchange information and fresh ideas.”
So, September 1990, mount klementieva, the first flights of the participants at the paragliders. I must say that these machines differ from the habitual gliders and hang-gliders. And it’s not just a design, but some of the principles underlying the flight of a controlled parachute.
So what is a paraglider?
The idea of its creation was to combine the properties of Delta-wing and a parachute. Speaking the austere language of terms, a paraglider is a soft sumanadasa shell with a hollow rear edge and the air intakes at the front, fitted with slings for suspension of the pilot and control the machine in flight.
Let’s try to translate this definition into language more familiar to the General reader concepts. So, imagine a huge bag the size of the perimeter at about 10Х3 meters, but with a hole not in the narrow and one wide honor. Now imagine that the internal volume of the bag separated by cloth partitions at 18-25 cells. Mentally add slings, employees, as well as a conventional parachute for the suspension of the pilot and controls the camera, and you have a model similar to a paraglider.
Of course, its real design is more complicated. For example, the shell of the glider (also called a dome) actually has not a rectangular shape. If you look at it from above, you can see that it is wider in the middle part, and narrower at the edges. The material from which sewed the dome, is a synthetic varnished cloth sailing (abroad mainly nylon; in the USSR, because “nylon” deficit, it is nylon).
Design modern glider:
1 — intake, 2 — rib, 3 — dome, 4 — stabilizer, 5 — left group lines, 6 — left brake, 7 — loose ends, 8 — right brake, 9 — right group strop.
The main requirement to the material of the dome — complete airtightness. Largely depend on the aerodynamic properties of the device. But the ribs (strips of cloth that divides the shell into cells) the requirements are less stringent. Sometimes they even specially made semi-permeable to ensure uniform filling. This is achieved either by selecting an appropriate material or manufacture of the ribs with holes. In addition, on the sides of the dome glider has two extra panels of fabric, which mission is to act as stabilizers (sometimes known as end gussets). Hanging straps are attached at various points on the lower plane so that when the suspension of the pilot to the machine occurs the load is evenly distributed on the area of the dome. Straps — left and right groups. Each group has a free end to which is suspended the pilot. The toggles are attached to the trailing edge and end of the so-called left and right brakes (the origin of these names will become clear later).
The suspension, which puts on the pilot, is a system of straps, in a certain way connected to each other and having free ends for attachment to suspension slings. There are several different modifications of suspended systems, which differ according to what position they provide to the pilot during flight. The first paragliders were flying vertically, now more modern flight is considered to be sitting or lying feet first.
Not to mention such advantages of the new aircraft, as lightness and compactness. In the air it gives the impression of a rather bulky design, and actually fits easily in your backpack and weighs only 6…8 kg.
Paragliding is not as complicated as it may seem at first. The easiest way to start in the windy weather; however, the start does not matter — whether it be slope or flat ground. Expanding vehicle “belly” up and to the front edge to the wind, the pilot attaches his suspension, comes face to face against the wind, and then podderjivaet front lines, thereby turning the dome. At the same time via the air intakes of the front edge of the air flow rushes into the cells, filling them (that’s where the above mentioned term “sumanadasa shell”). The airtight fabric ensures the tightness of the upper and lower plane and the trailing edge, whereby air-filled dome acquires a rigidity sufficient to raise in the sky pilot and not to lose a wing shape.
So, the airflow picked up the camera. At this point, the pilot actuates the toggles, pulling or releasing them. This changes the profile of the dome, and hence the trajectory. The control of the parachute based on the principle similar to the principle of management of tracked vehicles: braking the left of the caterpillar rotates to the left, braking hard right to turn right. Apparently, according to this analogy, the toggles are called the left and right brakes. Left the lanyard is stretched and the glider turns to the left, stretched right, begins a turn to the right. Pulling both slings at the same time, depending on flight conditions, may influence both the vertical and horizontal velocity of the vehicle. In windy conditions, in the presence of updrafts skillfully driving lines, the pilot can turn, to decline, to gain altitude, do some aerobatics (for example, “spiral”) and even hang over one point.
Methodology launch a paraglider:
A — initial position, B — a coup of the dome and filling it with air In — take-off.
Start in calm weather slightly more complicated. Need only steep mountainside and a good run. However, in the absence of wind and, as a result, dynamic threads will be flying not floating, and gliding.
Evaluate each particular apparatus can be based on several principal characteristics. First of all, the area of a dome: modern paragliders she is 20…27 m2 . This value depends, for example, from the weight of the pilot. So, a glider with an area of 23 m2 can be manipulated by the pilot weight 60…90 kg. followed by aerodynamic efficiency, defined roughly as the ratio of the range to the height of the start in the absence of wind. The current devices it reaches 4 to 5 units. You can still call a number of indicators: the scale of the dome, chord its Central part, the elongation, the number of cells.
At a rally in Crimea was recognized as the best paraglider “Orion” people from Pheodosia O. N. Zaitsev and A. V. Chernovalov. And the highest perfection of their construction was marked not only by Soviet developers. On demonstration performances of paraglider pilots during the Cup of hang gliding sport “Yalta-90” apparatus “Orion” praised and German experts. And one of the Crimean enterprises have already produced a test batch of these paragliders and preparing for their mass production.
The configuration of the dome of the paraglider Orion design O. Zaitsev and A. Chernovalova. Basic data dome:
area of 23 m2 , elongation to 4, the number of cells – 24, glide ratio is 4.5, the mass of the pilot – 60…90 kg.
Unfortunately, the rally has not been submitted motoparaplane. Meanwhile, it’s a pretty interesting design.
The Amateur aviation enthusiasts have had the opportunity to meet some of them: the contest ALS these devices were among the presents. There are two varieties of motoparaplane: with the engine located in the container behind the pilot (like Carlson!), and with the engine mounted on the truck — same as the trike. In the first case, the pilot is hooked directly to the order and the second order is fastened to the trike and the pilot is placed in the chair.
Operated by a powered paraglider in flight in the same way as non-motorized design. Much more difficult to start on such a bulky apparatus. Ideally, this happens in the following way: set the trike, it folds out of the glider, which then starts the engine and the air jet from the propeller fills the shell and lifts it. However, the Amateur design is not yet so perfect that everything happened so smoothly — very often an air jet spins the dome, confuses slings. And if in windy weather, it is possible to first raise the dome and then start the engine, no wind start on the powered paraglider requires considerable dexterity and skill.
So, the gathering of paragliders in the Crimea was presented only non-motorized design. The competition program consisted of three standard exercises. In the first one — the flight and landing in the goal is most accurate was dnepropetrovets S. Danilenko. In flight on a given route most points scored Feodosia V. Kuryshev. His countryman V. Ponomarenko became the first in flight at a distance. And in the overall classification, the best result was shown by Zaitsev O. on your paraglider “Orion”. In the first exercise he was fifth in the subsequent two — second, which resulted in the winning score. Second place was taken by the difference N. Nalivaiko (twelfth and two third places in separate exercises). Third went to Vladimir Ponomarenko (the thirteenth, sixth and first places).
The first official competition paragliders took place. That is to say, summing up this event? Despite more than ten years history, this sport, which for all its characteristics promises to be the bulk remains in our country the hobby only a few enthusiasts. Weak advertising, the relatively high cost of devices, lack of materials necessary for their construction, the lack of training flights of these factors, apparently, will yet hinder the development of paragliding. However, the athletes themselves ambitious plans for the future: to make regular competitions in the Crimea, to organize their own center in Feodosia, to create an Association of para-gliders of the USSR.
V. ANTSEV
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Mount klementieva in Koktebel — a place special and wonderful in their own way. Fans of soaring rightly consider it the cradle of Soviet gliding, nascent in our country in the distant twenties, and hang gliding, the appearance of which happened before our eyes in the seventies. Today, at the turn of the new decade, the slopes of the legendary mountain was chosen by fans of the new aerial sports — paragliding: so, relay the makers of ultralight aircraft continues.