Ballast, glide-ratio and sink rate?

I know that adding ballast improves penetration by making the glider fly faster.

My paragliding instructor told me that the glide ratio remains the same but the sink rate increases for a ballasted glider. A glider with ballast will fly down the same glide path (say 1 in 8) as a non-ballasted glider but it will reach the ground before the non-ballasted glider because of the higher sink rate. As the glider flys over the same path in a shorter time it must have a higher airspeed.

Now I thought I learnt from my model flying days that adding ballast increased the glide ratio but the sink rate remained the same. A ballasted glider will have a glide ratio of say 1 in 10 while the same glider without ballast will have a glide ratio of 1 in 8. Both gliders will reach the ground at the same time as they both have the same sink rate but the ballasted glider will travel a greater horizontal distance as it has a higher glide ratio so it must have a higher air speed.

Obviously I'm talking about the same wing and pilot, the same vertical distance and no wind speed.

Which of these two theories is correct (if any)?

Adding ballast enables gliders to achieve best glide ratio at a higher

The first is correct The second may be only if you fly with wind in front. Ciao, Diego MINIPLANE paramotors

Adding ballast increase the speed the glider will fly without changing it's glide angle. So if means that that both the horizontal and the vertical speeds would increase. Usually the reason for ballasting is when conditions are good and you want to spend as little time as possible between thermals, or when you really need to fly faster in order to penetrate wind.

I'm afraid your instructor was correct. Adding weight will increase your sink rate. That's a fact. If you add weight you will have better penetration into a head wind, in other words you will have a better glide into the wind. Adding weight will not give you a better glide on a calm day. Just a faster ride down. Good advice..always listen to you

Yep. Speed increases... min sink rate increases, glide ratio is unchanged.

The other (possibly benficial) effect of ballast is that it increases the cell pressure, and thus the general 'solidness' of the paraglider.

Unballasted, I'm right at the bottom of the weight range on my paraglider, and I have serious trouble pumping out big ears ie I have to pump several times to get them out, and the wingtips seem very fragile... adding ten kilos of ballast puts me in the middle of the weight range.. it flies slightly faster, the wing feels more solid, handling is crisper, and pumping out big ears is easy.

Martin H.