How to Progress in XC Paragliding - Tips w/ Flying Karlis

Paragliding tips on how to progress in cross country flying, with my friend Flying Karlis. We talk about which glider you should use for XC, when to launch, how to fly your first 100km, what you need on your paragliding flight deck, how to glide, b-c connections and rear riser control, and a bunch more. Karlis is 5x Latvian Paragliding Champion and an experienced acro pilot. He does online paragliding mentoring and in person instruction. Link below.
1:47 Don't change your Gear
6:18 Start a bit Later in the Day
10:35 Take your time
12:17 Glide Effeciently
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www.flyingkarlis.com/karlis-j...
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[@happywatermelon9024]

Karlis is cool and his video analytics of flights and incidents are worth watching! His channel is great!

[@FlyingKarlis]

I glad you like it, thank you for being part of it! ☺

[@dutchcondor]

Hi Ari, and Karlis, fully agree with all your points. Maybe even add an extra one: choosing the correct/suitable flying site. Maybe the local site which is perfect for nice top-down-flights is not the best for the XC in certain given weather conditions. Choose a place/route with no airspace restrictions. And enough escape landing spots. It was in the past my biggest 'show-stopper' when deciding to go for bigger cross or not, the 'fear' of not being able to land if I could not find lift on time. It took me time/experience to get the confidence that you WILL find new thermals on the route.

[@OffSurfaceAdventures]

Sometimes it helps to choose a place with easy public transport access to come back without a lot of stress.

[@JERFALCON]

Great tips guys! Thanks 🤙🏼🦅🏴‍☠️

[@naxofruta]

Thanks for the content man! This is really usefull. Greetings from Chile!

[@FlyingKarlis]

Glad you find it useful!

[@CopycatLiu]

Very helpful for first 100k ! Thank you for all these information !

[@FlyingKarlis]

Happy to hear it was helpful.

[@OffSurfaceAdventures]

So far, the theory. I knew I could fly 100 km with my A-wing and open harness, but... After I tested another wing in spring, I had to buy it because of the great handling and whoops I was under a High-B, no 50 km on my A-wing. The temperature on hot days is still low when your cruising altitude is 3000-4000 m. It was a great day and I started too early - I must get more patient and observe longer! -, the second launch was at 14;30 with developed thermals and 6 hours later I landed at 133 km with a big smile on my face. Now I struggle a bit with the decision of whether to upgrade my open harness (mutli staged speedbar, maybe a cockpit, ...) or to get a pod harness. The short answer to the title is: Just fly! PS: I don't have any field which tells me the km-mark I am currently at (which might also be a good point). I fly because of fun and not statistics. That's why I left by buddy alone at 100 km and got me out of a low safe with a great evening thermal to add another 25 km on top, just because it was a great day and still hot at lower altitude :D.

[@F3AAmerica]

This is exactly the video I needed! Thanks for the great content, as always! ;)

[@AriintheAir]

So happy to hear that it was helpful!

[@FlyingKarlis]

Glad we could help. 🥰

[@elizabetev3780]

Thanks, really great basic tips from Karlis! Also cool to see Latvians do well in the sport, they are rare cats :)

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you Elizabete, I'm glad you find them useful! Are you planning to come to Alps to extend your flying season for the of-season in New Zealand?

[@AriintheAir]

Glad you liked it! He's great!

[@elizabetev3780]

@@FlyingKarlis right now Im happy with progressing here in New Zealand surrounded by fantastic PG community here that helps a lot with growth in the sport. Alps surely are on the list and hopefully see you there one day!

[@FlyingKarlis]

@@elizabetev3780 Glad to hear that you have great community around you! New Zealand also offers some incredibly technical flying, great place to learn! Let me know when you plan a trip to Alps, I'll be around! :)

[@SkidzFPV]

Awesome!! Really good information that I needed. I’m looking at trying my first XC coming up in spring. Have got some decent thermalling over the winter, been hard to get all the way to Santa Barbara, and I’m close to the Sierra’s, so Dunlap and Tollhouse being my local sites just don’t work this time of year, but spring is really good and not too terrifying, summer of course gets pretty intense, but is still usually doable for me as long as it’s not 100° and high pressure.

[@FlyingKarlis]

Great to hear! I am also planning some flights for this year. I personally think that it helps if you make a plan for the flight, especially for your first cross country attempts. I still do this when I plan 200+ km flights, I have a flight plan ready and during the day I try to follow it as much as possible, always ready to adjust it to the day. All the best on your attempts, would be happy to see the track logs once you have the! :)

[@SkywalkerPaul]

Great info ! 💯

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you, glad you found it useful!

Thanks 👍

[@AriintheAir]

Welcome 👍

[@inv.dvdplanet9821]

Nice program congrats. Very nice info here

[@AriintheAir]

Glad you liked it!

[@DAVINCIGLIDERSDlog]

[@Itsallgoodtogo]

Already sniffing the 100km with my recent 74km record :)

[@FlyingKarlis]

You're almost there! I find I fly better when I don't focus on the goal, instead on every thermal, glide and next thermal. The more I enjoy the process and take in the views the better I tend to fly. :) Good luck and I would love to see the track log once you get your 100 km mark!

[@markmcgoveran6811]

I bought that epsilon 9 and I appreciate this guy discussing the test. I like the lump test. If the pilot induces a problem and he has the courage to sit there like a lump will the glider correct itself. I'm trying to form a squadron of cloud seeding parachute flyers. My main goal is to drive to someone's field try and fly upwind slightly up to cloud base then turn loose a couple pounds of cornstarch. I enjoy your videos but I think you're a little bit too fidgety. I think that guy said less brakes better performance. Everything I read about the epsilon 9 says that I can just throw my hands up and sit there like a lump and it will save me if there's enough air between me and the ground. The only thing if I get in a hard lockdown spiral I have to shift my weight to the outside and apply the outside brake. I don't think I have to flying is all it's cracked up to be and I would rather just turn loose the brakes when I get high in the air. I don't intend to do much correcting on the glider as far as the pitch axis they said the wings pretty stable and if you had the balls to put your hands up and let the glider fly through the turbulence it was your luckiest course of action. There's no one else here but me so I have to be the first one off the hill every time. I considered putting out helium balloons on fishing string and seeing what they were doing. I was going to go behind a row of tall trees with a flat field next to it and see if I could make a movie of rotors and helium balloons just string up about 20 or 30 of them where they couldn't get tangled with trees and see if you could catch the wind they can go around like a washing machine.

[@svetre87]

Hello, thanks very much to both of you for this video. One thing didn't really convince me:"If you fly slowly u can make 100 k easiliy in 4 or 5 hours". Well take an EN-A glider and try to fly "slowly" with a mean speed of 25km/h. A En-A glider makes just above 40km/h on full speedbar, with a terrible glide ratio (sinking a lot). So at least twice of the glide time will be spent thermalling up. In my book this math resolves to , if you are lucky and all the time on speed bar, to a mean speed of 15km/h, which translates to at least 6 hours for 100k. (I am not considering super-strong thermals for this example.)

[@FlyingKarlis]

Even so most days in Summer offers ~10 hours flying time, some places start as early as 9-10am and works till 8-9 pm, not every day of course. Also the speeds are not accurate, trim speed for all wings is about 38 km/h accelerated EN-A goes to about 50 km/h. Sure you don't have the same glides or performance into wind, this is also why you need to choose a day that has less wind. Glides also depends a lot more on the lines you choose and on any given day. Some days you have smoother air, with a lot more lift around, which also increase your glides. Even if it takes 6-8 h to reach your goal, on a good day middle of summer this is possible. I flown 202km in two flights at the same day a - 12 km flight that I boomed out, hiked up to the nearby mountain and flew 190 km on my second flight, lost more than 1h30 min. during the hike. Second flight was with an average speed of over 31 km/h. I did this on a BGD Epic, which is certified as an EN-B, if you check the certification, you'll find that all tests except for full speed asymmetric (and this is B only with minimum load, with Maximum load it's EN-A, which I was flying at) is EN-A. A super safe wing, but more than capable to do 100+ in one day. Sure I was pushing the bar and being as efficient as I could. That was needed for 200+, for a 100km on that day, I could have flown it without touching the speed-bar. My point is that it is not the gear you fly, it is the conditions you fly in and more importantly, your skill, observation and capacity to see the day for what it is. These last points are by far more important, than having a lower passive safety wing. As with a high passive safety wing, you give yourself more room for error, which means you can relax more while controlling the wing and focus more on looking around and making good decisions in the air. Here's the track logs: 12 km Flight: www.xcontest.org/2017/world/en/flights/detail:seabirdlv/29.4.2017/08:07 190 km Flight: www.xcontest.org/2017/world/en/flights/detail:seabirdlv/29.4.2017/10:56 Test reports - para-test.com/reports/item/3593-bgd-gmbh-epic-s I'm happy to answer any more questions or clarify anything, let me know! ☺ Happy landings, Karlis

[@svetre87]

@@FlyingKarlis Thank you for your accurate response. I am with on most of the topics u speak off. Also that the day has a lot of time for doing 100km even with en-A glider. What I am not convinced of ist trim speed -> 38km/h and en-A top speed 50km/h. This is not realistic if you are flying this kind of wing in it's range. I am no pro, but I look at the speed I am flying and 38 km/h I had it only with PHI Maestro overloaded + 6kg. Also 12 kmh speed gain on A wing? Impossible in normal conditions, even some high B wings struggle to get that more than 10+kmh speed out of the speedbar. Let's agree to disagree though :) My takeaway in all this is -> no need to change to higher class glider. Much better invest energies in choosing to fly the right day and have fun!

[@FlyingKarlis]

@@svetre87 I should have specified, that the speeds are in a calm air, and this is very approximate. As measuring wings actual speed is a very complex thing to do. Air density, humidity and pressure will affect how fast the same wing flies. That said, when we where testing, wings we where trying to measure the speeds as accurate as possible and 38 km/h trim is about right for most wings as trim speed is actually about the same through out the range. Acceleration dose change as you go higher through the classes. I have seen speeds over 60 km/h on any wing and even over 100 km/h on some two liners fully accelerated, but these speeds always are with tail wind. In calm air, with no wind I have never seen speeds at 100 km/h on any wing. The biggest difference is how the gliders performs in turbulent air, the C's D's and two liners will have way better penetration and use of any bubble than an EN-A will have. This to me is a bigger difference, than the speed it self. Then we have to talk also about usable speed, are you able to fly the lower passive safety wings at their full potential. If not, then the advantages will not justify the increase risk flying them. I now fly a C wing, and I regularly over take D's and two liners as I use my wing to it's full potential, where the pilots on lower passive safety wings often are not able to use the wing to it 100% potential. Hope this clarifies that.

[@Itsallgoodtogo]

​@@FlyingKarlis Please show me one EN-A that goes 50kmh under full speed :D best I could do with mine was trim speed of 37km/h and full speed of at 43-44km/h and a terrible sink rate of 2,5m/s easily if not more. Granted I Was not at the top range. But I was up there with some extra water. Air Design eazy2 was my wing A. The difference is night and day compared to my new wing tho. My high B is actually capable of reaching 50km/h and only 1.6-2m/s sink rate. Didn't fly it long enough yet to give a more accurate number. BTW big fan. Already watched all your videos.

[@FlyingKarlis]

​@@Itsallgoodtogo As I said earlier it is hard to measure actual speed of the wing. If you are getting 43-44 km/h than in certain conditions that will be 50 km/h. I can't show you any specific wing as I don't measure the speed. Also the top speed is not all that important to me, as you mention in your comment the glide is more important. A glider that climbs well and glides well is better than a fast wing. See if you thermal better you can double, triple and quadruple your speed, this is not possible on straight glides. The speed of cross country flying comes ~80% from thermaling well, finding the thermals, improving how fast you find the core and how efficiently you climb through out. And for that EN-A wings are better than high aspect wings, as they can turn tighter. For example, Back in 2017 I flew the Diva prototype in the world championships, it was by far the fasted wing around with a top speed at around 75km/h (I've gotten that wing over 100km/h 😅😅), but when it comes to glide efficiency and weak lift work it wasn't as good as the competitors. Speed alone is not enough. Hope this helps. So happy to hear that you watched all of my video!! Means the world to me and keeps me motivated to keep making them! Thank you!

[@SkywalkerPaul]

Can you fly with C risers control on an EN-A wing?

[@FlyingKarlis]

The short answer is - Yes. It won't be as efficient as C/B system or the two liner control, but it sure works! Sometimes I would take C's with 3 fingers and B's with two and try to make a C/B connection manually 😂 It dose seem to work.

[@SkywalkerPaul]

​@@FlyingKarlisThanks!

[@AMJB100000000]

It’s not the gear... well that’s all I have been blaming haha who else am I to blame hahah very good to know I fly 3kgs overweight on my buzz z5 and feel like I’m at a massive disadvantage... but I might have to change my attitude.. seeing as an en a 15kg overweight got 100kms

[@twingoman2000]

Definitely! If you are comfortable with and it is well checked and balanced, then don't worry about! Best hint also is, check weather and take your time at the start, look at what happens. Best case have a local there who knows all the things around (landscape and so on) best wishes to you 😉 By the Way, I also usually go with 10-15kg overweight 🙈🤣... Simply try to feel your Wing better, this is something which took me a long time to get every little action which you need to react simply just gentle.

[@AriintheAir]

HAHAHAHA! I love your honesty here man. Doesn't really matter what you blame if you just keep trying

[@Ripstop_pilot]

It's not the wing, it's the pilot....or is it? I'm not a massive fan of xc, I do very little of it to be fair, getting back from long distance has always put me off, so I have only done it when a retrieve is likily. At 60hrs flight time I managed a 23km flight in 1hr9 on a low B. At 270hrs flight time i managed a 60km flight in 2hrs20 on a C.(little if any improvement I think) 23km was ended by lack of finding lift. 60km was ended by interest in retrieval possibilities. Both days though far apart were from the same site in VERY similar conditions. Very few clouds, mostly blue so maping the ground for lift was essential. Flying the low B meant I lost a lot of height before I could reach the next potential lift source. The C gave me legs over larger areas to find more potential lift sources.

[@FlyingKarlis]

Sure the C wings glides better, and has more performance in general. But to use these advantages, the pilot has to be able to extract it from the wing. Most pilots I meet who has stepped up to soon only slow down their progression or wors. There's a lot to learn in Cross Country and having a wing that 'looks after' you - outweigh the performance that lower passive safty wings has, especially when you can't extract the performance, while increasing the active piloting needed.

[@AriintheAir]

Great response! Super glad you're answering questions here brother!

[@Ripstop_pilot]

@@FlyingKarlis totally agree. I too have seen people move up a class then watch their flying and wonder what made them think it was a good idea. I could say the same for myself as I dont do the xc too much (do I need a C) but I dont think I've plateaued due to the higher class, but that may be because I really enjoy the wing and keep pushing myself regardless of xc distance. I'd love a wing with better "passive safety " but I like the performance of the C, I like that it pushes me to use c riser controls more effectively and more active flying etc. I think that itself can make a better pilot. Yeah you can do 100km on an A but I'd rather it didnt take that long if I can do it on a C in 4hrs rather than 8hrs for example.

[@Ripstop_pilot]

@@AriintheAir keep up the great work ari. Well constructed food for thought can only be a good thing in our sport 👍