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In a nutshell - in the UK - the situation is this:
It is MUCH easier to train and qualify to fly as a paraglider - about half the time it takes to train and qualify as a Hang Glider. And physically, it's much less taxing - you don't have to carry a heavy HG back up the training hill each time.
Flying schools make at least half their money (some say much more) from selling gliders and accessories to newly-qualified pilots. THEREFORE, they want as many qualified pilots as quickly as possible.
THEREFORE, many schools in the UK switched to training Paragliders instead of Hang Gliders some years ago.
Because of this, we now have MANY more Paragliders than Hang Gliders in the UK.
Another reason is that the public has been conditioned for many years to regard Hang Gliding as a dangerous occupation, peopled by crazies, whom the men in white coats haven't quite caught up with yet. This idea took root in the 70's and early 80's - well before the invention of Paragliding.
I talk to a lot of punters (the public) (in american= 'wuffos'?) on hillsides. They all say something like:
'Ah, I always wanted to have a go at that Hang Gliding, but the wife/girlfriend wouldn't let me, 'cos it's too dangerous - but I'm gonna have a go on one of them there parachutes'.
Note the word 'Parachute' - a 'safety' item - how can a 'parachute' be dangerous? They're there specifically to save your life, aren't they?
It therefore follows (in the public mind) that Paragliding, BECAUSE it uses 'parachutes', MUST be safer than Hang Gliding, which we all know, is only indulged in by suicidal loonies.
(The REAL figures, when I tell these members of the public, are that Paragliders are considerably more dangerous than Hang Gliders - they collapse into a bag of washing at the slightest provocation, and the hapless pilot plummets into the ground ('augers in'!) valiantly tugging on the control strings as he does so, in an attempt to restore the shape of the thing.)
However, BECAUSE the public percieve Hang Gliding to be dangerous, and Paragliding NOT to be, THIS reinforces the effect of more pupils entering Paragliding training than Hang Gliding training. The schools are delighted, and turn then out onto the hills in double-quick time, usually BEFORE they've had time to hang around and absorb some of the principles of air law, and the safety rules associated with flying on hillsides.
Hang Glider pilots, because their training is longer and more arduous, tend to arrive on the hill with a better grasp of these matters, and therefore tend NOT to fly (unknowingly) in a manner which annoys, inconveniences, and endangers other flyers on the hill.
I have to say also (and in all of this, of course, I generalise) that Hang Gliding, BECAUSE it is difficult to learn, attracts the sort of person who is in it long-term (it's a common joke in PG circles to comment unfavourably on the age and number of children of HG pilots!).
Paragliding, from an HG perspective, seems to attract a much more transitory type of person - possibly BECAUSE it can be picked up quickly - and we tend to see in PG pilots a larger number of the type of person who is:
Rock-climbing last year.... Paragliding this year.... Pot-holing (Caving) next year.....
These people tend (I emphasise TEND) to not care about site rules, or whether their behaviour upsets the landowner or not - after all, they're just passing through, and if the site doesn't open next year - well, it's no problem, they're off doing something else.....
They are also notoriously unaware of how their flying (because they have such limited experience) can cause danger or invonvenience to Hang Glider pilots. They're fully occupied just controlling the paraglider, with no attention to spare on accident-avoidance, or plain old-fashioned courtesy..)
A typical thing is, because of the slower speed of flight of a paraglider, is for the pilot to just 'hover' stationary in the lift band in front of the takeoff area, thus blocking other HG pilots from taking off. Thus happens because the forward speed of the paraglider is just cancelled out by the wind blowing onto the hill - the net groundspeed is zero, and the PG just 'hovers' over one spot.
This forces HG pilots to fly out of the lifting air in order to go round him (they cannot fly as slowly), and they risk losing the lift, and going down to the bottom of the hill, thus terminating their days sport, or at least losing an hour and a half, in order to derig, pack up, climb back up the hill, and re-rig the glider.
Therefore, you'll understand that inexperienced PG's are the bane of many HG's lives - they lose us flying sites, by thoughtless actions and attitudes, and they seriously inconvenience our flying, and in the worst cases, cause death and injury.
And - beause of the factors I outlined above - in the UK, they outnumber HG's by 2-to-1. You can't get away from them. The buggers are EVERYWHERE! In Europe, it's probably 4 or 5 to one. (What, you thought England was part of Europe, you Gringo? Don't be so silly! We're not the same as them foreigners over the Channel.....!)
You probably don't have these problems to anything like the same extent in the US, because you're considerably behind the rest of the world in your PG-HG ratio, but it will come, it will come.....
Many UK Paragliders (and let me say here that I know many PG pilots here that are just a good and considerate as HG's - and probably a damn site better pilots than me, for a start - we are generalising here from a HG pilot's perspective) comment on the fact that they never see hardly any HG pilots out on the hill.
That's because the HG pilots tend to only come out on days when the wind is too strong for PG's to fly, and so they'll have the hills to themselves on that day!
What has therefore evolved is a situation where HG's and PG's are separated temporally, by windspeed. However, there is a certain overlap of conditions, where BOTH can fly, and this is in the lighter end of the HG windspeed scale, where staying up is difficult. It then becomes particuarly annoying, on those days, for an HG pilot to be faced with a hillful of hovering PG's, hogging the liftband, and making him fly out, and round, them, thus risking falling out of the sky to an ignominious 'bottom landing'.
These above, are not my personal attitudes (except when it happens to me!), but are an oldtime HG pilot's attempt to explain to a newcomer the history behind, and reasons for, current attitudes in the two sports.
Once again, I say: It's not that PG pilots are, by type, uncaring or callous, it because MOST OF 'EM HAVE MUCH LESS EXPERIENCE, AND AREN'T INTENDING TO STAY IN THE SPORT. Once they gain a certain amount of experience, and airtime, then we usually coexist quite happily.
One other factor that seems, by common consent, to be a truism here, is that Paragliders tend to be financially better-off than Hang Gliders. Hang Gliders comment with incredulity on just how many of Paragliders have JOBS, Gawd - even CAREERS!
They are renowned for buying the latest gear all the time (the Ski-ing disease), and having flying suits in fluorescent colours that'd give a rhinoceros a migraine at 50 paces.
Paragliders comment with incredulity on how Hang Gliders are incredibly scruffy, and never seem to do anything for a living. (It's notorious that many more HG's seem to be out on the hill on weekdays, with hardly any PG's around, but on weekends, PG's grossly outnumber HG's!)
HG's also seem to fly with the same harness and equipment for 10 years or so (a jailable offence in PG eyes), and never clean any of it!
A notable PG commented recently that it seemed to him that all HG pilots were either part-time house builders (so they could knock off work and vanish if it got flyable, presumably), or had something to do with computers (probably stolen ones).
PG pilots cars are typically middle-management motors, with no sign of rust whatsoever. (Remember, those of you in the US, that in England, its almost impossible to be more than 60-70 miles from the sea - things rust a lot more!)
Hang Glider's cars seem to be often vans, utilities, or ancient 4-wheel- drives, or beatup saloons older than your grandma's birth certificate!
I think it's a truism that Hang Gliding is a much bigger part of Hang Glider pilots lives than Paragliding is of PG's lives - in general. HG's sacrifice career and money to spend time doing what they love - flying.
PG's have careers, and jobs, and fit flying in somewhere - which is why they don't stay in it so long. Because they're not so committed, they get less upset than HG's about problems such as site congestion, etc.
I'd be interested to know from US readers if the same, or similar observations apply over there.
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