Why was that paraglider landing so HARD?

Sometimes the brakes on a paraglider just don't work, and you land like a sack of potatoes. Why? Let's talk about the landing flare and how to land on any slope, what the wind direction really does to your trajectory, and the mistake that pilots make that causes the hard landing.
With English and Spanish subtitles.
Learn more on flywithgreg.com/
#paraglidingsafety #crashlanding #safereveryday
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[@dwightbernheimer331]

Greg, love your videos. At almost 80 years old I fly my glider and my speedwing to just about the same Landing... I Flare high and drop in from 2- 3 feet so I don't have to run all LOL love your sense of humor, hope you get my sense of humor. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good-night

[@erikatakeuchi5074]

All so true (including being scared and killing the speed!) My memorable bad landing : I've pulled the flare too early, swung up and forward about 3 feet offthe ground and was unceremoniously dropped on my rear end. 😁

[@paralotnik2299]

I recommend that you properly attach the risers to the harness before the start.

[@KaiSyversen]

Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts. Much appreciated.

[@mrexplorerdouglas]

Greg, that makes total sense. I was taught to maintain speed well into the landing and that has served me well so far, but this takes it a step further. Looking forward to trying it out!

[@GregAnthonyHarris]

A superb resource! Thanks for making this.

[@best.paragliding]

Very helpful information, thank you!

[@aaroneye6591]

Thanks Greg! Love the vids

[@ziadwakim4114]

Thanks Greg. Great instructions as usual.

[@TomWatkeys]

Still a relative beginner. I find one of the best ways to help with landings is to get upright in the harness as early as possible. You feel more secure about the ground coming at you, and your center of gravity shifts a bit lower with your legs below you, which adds a bit more stability to your approach. You can't really weight-shift steer too well from this position, but you should be on your final leg so just touching your brakes for adjustments is enough. You also judge your glide angle a little better, I think it's to do with being a fraction closer to the ground, you can perceive it as an object you are GOING to land on rather than a surface just getting a little closer. use/don't use, works for me

[@jonrandall638]

I dont mean to be so offtopic but does someone know a way to log back into an instagram account..? I was dumb forgot my password. I would appreciate any assistance you can offer me!

[@jonrandall638]

@Coen Kaden I really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm in the hacking process now. I see it takes a while so I will reply here later with my results.

[@jonrandall638]

@Coen Kaden It worked and I now got access to my account again. I am so happy! Thanks so much you really help me out :D

[@theshakuni7804]

Thanks for the great info Greg. Waiting for the special landing video.

[@majortom8014]

Thanks for the very instructive video!

[@valtinhocarinhoso]

As always, learning with your videos. Maybe one day I will have the opportunity to learn in person. All the best.

[@waynemartin5247]

Thank You for the videos they are really good.

[@flywithBurak]

Hello Greg, long time no see! Could please talk at your usual pace, you sound like a lullaby this way ahha. Thanks for your amazing efforts that you've been making for a long time to make this community safer and better.

[@gotravelbug]

Ah this is just what I needed. Thanks Greg

[@RaphaelNussbaum]

That was helpful, thanks a lot!

[@masteripn3857]

Thanks

[@ohakuneyachtclub8753]

you are just amazing. what a talented teacher

[@booketoiles1600]

note for french viewers : what greb described is called "l'arrondi" by french instructures. The flare is similar but with even more sped from doing sme acrobatics beforehand, in order t have that super long flat glide before landing

[@niculupu5801]

Hi Greg, Very nice video... I would love to see a video on butterfly landing and some tips in case of thermal on landing approach...

[@ismailzeytun457]

Thanks alot

[@PhilippeLarcher]

Slowing too much happened to me in the training hill, the instructor was very clear that it was not good, and that's the only landing that got me to my knees over this beginner week.

[@CoIoneIPanic]

Great advice Craig and excellent hand movements to help explain. I didnt even need the closed captions to get your point about speeding up to slow down. It is similar to how I instruct kids to drift their vehicle properly- you need to keep turnin' left until you start going right!

[@gerrymalixi1807]

Hi Greg. You mentioned that we should "Not pump" the brakes. However, this is a technique I (and many other pilots) usually use in Oslob, Philippines to prevent us from overshooting our landings. What are the dangers doing this? Please note that we DO NOT pump too "deeply" when we do it. Just enough to slow the glider to a hover and eventually land. Please give me your comments. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you very much

[@pacmanflys]

excellent video

[@paulbishop7399]

cant wait to do my PG2 in November! Thanks for the inspiration Greg.

[@FlyWithGreg]

Fantastic, good luck Paul!

[@MrCoolcool666]

You'll LOVE it!!

[@NourLababidi]

thank you

[@FlyWithGreg]

You're welcome

[@daviddootson9016]

great video

[@johnmcglade6417]

Both of your videos on landing have been really interesting. Your point about the impossibility of landing on a down slope really hammered home the point of looking for a shallow up slope. Keep them coming.

[@timglassman2239]

Great video

[@the_pennine_paraglider]

Great info 👍 would love to see a video on butterfly landing please. It works for me most times, but I'd like it to work everytime! 😁

[@ufukgokbulut326]

I think it is a very difficult area for landing. The dark colored roofs in front of the landing area are heated, causing the air there to get warmer and the thermals to rupture. A difficult and risky landing.

[@FlyWithGreg]

agreed, it's likely to be super thermic, but the landing area was fine in the beginning (first wide field) which was nice and far back from the sheds.

[@concreteambassador]

I figured this approach out after taking a long flight 6 foot off the ground 😂 luckily in a huge field

[@SilverSniper75]

I had the exact thing happen to me the other day. Took off from a slope got lift and saw my landing below. Grabbed some brake and got even more lift. At this point the landing target came below me and I knew I couldn't get there. I overshot and was now approaching some houses. Had to think quick and did a hard turn and by that time I lost the hight and had to immediately flare. Even though I was going with a 7kmh wind I flared hard enough to run off the speed. But yeah that got my heart going. The next flight I made sure my hands were up and I was able to glide and land on target. Just weird that a small amount of brake kept me up with almost zero sink rate. This was from a 200m start. The swoop flare I will have to try as I tend to use too much brake on approach and have to hands up to build more speed and then flare instead of coming in and then flare.

[@aaroneye86]

Can you make the butterfly flare versus brake pumping video soon, I would love to watch it

[@ramonsmithnz]

Landing a Tandem in strong turbulent air, trimmers fully open to cut through the horrible stuff and give a great flare .

[@zoranmatesa1890]

I had worse landng than this. It could be bad thing to hit some rock in the field. But this is true, as the earth is coming up I break the glider so I have no energy to flare so I hit the field with no break effect at all. Yes, I have to unbreak the wing to have enough speed/energy to flare. Good point Greg, thank You!

[@alexbooo]

Please, can you do an extended version on flywithgreg covering different situations (top landing, not flat...)? I really need to attend a landing clinic! Thanks!! 😘

[@nityadasa5852]

great video! Can't wait for the butterfly landing tutorial

[@mmmmkkk]

Great topic Greg, but even though the 'fail' videos are educational I think the only real way to pass the message is to actually show different flare timing and 'mistiming' effects from the same perspective, ideally POV + sideview. I guess that's something even advanced pilots would be happy to see and for beginners it would be mind-blowing. In this one it's IMO actually hard to see the problem unless you already know what to look for... Especially the lack of flare is probably the least of an issue in this approach.. P.S. your mic configuration seems to have a lot of reverb, its a bit weird to listen. Anyway, happy to see all this content coming

[@alonsn]

Hello Greg, Thanks for another great video. If I arrive with speed but do not apply the early braking, and at a height of about one meter perform a committed flare by pulling the brakes all the way down - can I achieve a good landing?

[@5123rick]

Do this when paramotoring , speed is your friend, also not looking down at the ground but far in front stops that ground rush that makes you pull brakes early!! What is surprising is how much flare you can get by really burying the brakes when just before touch down. I see people not apply nearly enough brake

[@FlyWithGreg]

Good tips Rick!

[@rakeshpathak250]

nice video bro

[@matthiashauptmann9423]

Back in the 90ies, with slower wings, students were taught to slowly increase the brake travel until touchdown. This hasn´t been a sound recommendation back then and is poisonous now. I´m having the same approach as Greg, letting the glider overshoot intentionally to gain the speed and momentum to deliver a stepless landing. I´m not always successful, but hard landings have become quite scarce. There are situations though where I´d absolutely NOT recommend this type of flare: In turbulent conditions near the ground every overshoot can be hazardous.

[@ysoner]

Maybe not a tip but my favorite soft landing approach for occasions like in the video (slightly sloped terrain, ample available runway) is to focus on keeping flying the glider crossed upslope as long as possible, bleed the speed off and end up having a nice slow touchdown.

[@kaseicyou1288]

but that means itd be likely to be downwind and the timing for break should be in advance. one of our pilots seriously broke his ankle by having applied break as usual...

[@gokitinggr]

Hi Greg, Thank you for analyzing my mistakes! Just to note that most of the time the wind was coming from right (30-40*, not uphill). Of course, most of you will see it from the ground speed. There was no element of surprise here. I know that it could happen on this spot and I had already something in mind how to react. Actually, I didn't "pump" the brakes hard (I had the feeling that it won't work anyway) but tried to move near the stall point (to decrease the speed and sink) . I felt, I'm too low for 8-turns and I was waiting for the thermal to pass by and "drop me" or to pull me higher in the air and to go for another approach. My strategy was to fly as slow as I can, hopefully the glider will sink more. I never thought about Swoop flare! It's something that I will definitely practice and observe in future! It's not the first time when the glider can't flare. Please, check my video: "Thermal Dancing and Asss Landing". I was trying to soar (slightly figure of 8), at next moment -> "I'm too low, there will be a landing", than -> pull the brakes for flare (last moment) but no pressure.... crosswind... I had to turn the glider into the wind. Anyway. @ 5:45 I'm not sure if I understand you? Do you believe that it's possible to do short Swoop flare before reach the rocks!? or after them, closer to the building? The wind was coming from the hot building, so I"m facing directly upwind. "Right here" is micro hover point at which I have to decide what to do next?!? I don't want to go any closer to the building, there are rocks in front of me (better to avoid!!), on right some small trees and on left down slope. I guess most modern wings will sink down with more brake pressure. The wind was not that strong at that moment (15-20km/h). Thank you once again! Please, check and Subscribe to my KZbin Channel. GoKiting! Fly Safe!

[@BennoSchmidtDE]

It would’ve been possible at any point during this video to do a flair landing. The important part is to choose a spot and then plan your landing accordingly, not to just cruise down the hill and take last second decisions. One great spot for a landing was pointed out by Greg. Do yourself a favor and always try to fly your glider as fast as you feel comfortabke.almost throughout the entire video you are one third or even lower on your brakes. Speed is safety in the very most cases, because of something happens to your glider you can use this dynamic energy of your glider to fix things (reinflate, flare etc). I would strongly recommend not going with your logic (the slower I fly the nearer I am at the stall point, the less effective my glider will fly) to plan your landing. This is very dangerous, not only because close to the stall point but also because there is no energy left in your system for a flare or recovery

[@gokitinggr]

@@BennoSchmidtDE Thanks for the reply! I will keep in mind but... I had exactly the opposite feeling.... trying the keep the glider directly above my head during the turbulence and trying to prevent collapses. This glider has big brake travel.

[@action-nerd]

Wow I haven't seen this info anywhere else yet

[@turkeyphant]

I don't know if they teach this but it seems to be common sense that next important to flaring (and then trying to be relatively into wind) is to be hands up prior to flaring!

[@jonathansummerfield8390]

Very nice! That's my usual way of landing. What I also like is to land out of a dynamic turn. It's basically the same thing. You convert energy into lift. I think a lot of beginner pilots have a misunderstanding of active flying. Some are constantly on way to much brake. Let that glider fly. Just very soft brake to feel it! Work the brakes to correct what you feel. Happy landings!

[@FlyWithGreg]

Good tip Jonathan. The dynamic turn is more advanced, more tricky to get the timing perfect because you introduce roll energy as well. So I don't recommend it for most pilots, first get the swoop flare nailed!

[@MrIcare14]

I am wondering, does he have a twist on his left risers ? Wouldn't that impact the behavior of the flare ?

[@FlyWithGreg]

he's a beginner so just made a mistake ... a half twist would have zero effect on the flare or handling. The line lengths remain the same.

[@sebastianmarshall1193]

Hi Greg, thanks for the new video! On my solo glider I manage this Swoop Flare quite well I think but on a Tandem, this seems much more difficult. At the weekend I was doing some tandem practise flights with another pilot in low wind conditions. We did five landings and didn´t really manage to get one really good flare, even with double wraps on the brakes. We have a Magnum II Light in the large size. Do you think that a very large wing like that is more difficult to flare? Any tips for particularly large wings? Will the position of the trimmers effect the ability to flair off speed? Thanks! Sebastian

[@TrebyZ]

I have the Magnum Light II as well and find it helps to take wraps on the brakes for the swoop flare. I set the trimmers to the line as the manual suggests and it works great.

[@lordangelusmc]

yes

[@Music_is_MyBestFriend]

I've only had 9 landings so far, and I've noticed I'm not consistent at all. I don't have the altitude feeling so far and I didn't really get it when and how much I have to brake. The best landings I've had, when I've managed to stand, were the ones when I felt I wasn't braking or braking very late. Is this what you mean? Keep hands up and just few cm above the ground full brake and keep running? Thank you 🙂

[@TonyEssig]

This landing technique work for powered paragliders also?

[@nkronert]

At some point in my flying career I instinctively discovered the landing technique you describe and I must say it is pretty exciting taking a "dive" pretty close to the ground. But then I thought - doesn't this sudden forward surging of the wing increase your chances of getting a collapse close to the ground? The increased air speed should increase the pressure in your cells, but what if you hit some random turbulence right at that point?

[@FlyWithGreg]

it doesn't need to be a severe dive, just a slight acceleration for the initiation. The descent and bottom-out phase of the swoop usually helps prevent collapses, it loads your wing more as your momentum carries you towards the ground while the glide flattens out. If the air felt very rough I tend to want even more speed to give the biggest flare effect, to counteract the sink.

[@nicucrainic8106]

Thank you Greg for the very nice and useful lessons!!! My best regards!!!

[@rungmangrai9702]

someone please explain me more about into the meaning of air cross air with the air 😊😊

[@Jerbrown]

Have you tried PPG? If so, what do you like/dislike compared to PG?

[@matiascorvinus1769]

my favorite way to practice is doing pendulums (at the beach) and landing up the slope. braking and surging a few times to get a big pendulum and then correcting is a great way to practice as well I find

[@DjIsaacsOfficialSite]

What is flaring? Is that when you open brakes outwards?

[@danielgonzaleztejedor9486]

Is to pull both brakes down to the max when you are very close to the ground and land. You need speed to do it. Birds do the same when aproaching their nest.

[@simlc78]

Is the paraglider correctly connected to the harness?! Not clear but the left side looks wrong...

[@jasonstruthers1015]

Hook it for safety!

[@Mr.AG.]

Hi, what about big ears in this situation?

[@FlyWithGreg]

it's much better to make the right approach, but yes, big ears would work on the final 'box' he got himself into. As there are many opportunities for landing crosswind I'd prefer that, just making sure you get a good swooop flare.

[@yanerik6850]

big ears would have reduced his wingspan for slaloming closer to the trees :)

[@Davidslik1979]

the pilot need to get out to stand position to push the brake equal to stop the glider from running forward or push big ears or make left and right terns whit full brake until the glider will stop from getting forward like that you can loose highe and land safely

[@MarkLoves2Fly]

I noticed the pilot was deep in the breaks. That is a recipe for a hard landing.

[@richardinspain2255]

Would you mind recording with more sound..can hardly hear you.

[@flying-oyvinator]

shouldnt he get more out of the harness to increase the drag his body makes? seems he is seated during the whole thing.. never landed downhill.. seems the conditions were too windy for a newbie.. but he has a harness with that thing you put your feet in.. thats not reccomended for a newbie.. is it?

[@dwilliamson8539]

If you just go straight up the slope, with the wind behind you and flare hard, you land just where you're aiming. It works on a hanglider. Fifty six seconds here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqekdqxofsiDpMU

[@truthlifefishing1730]

I didn't SUBSCRIBE and TAP the Bell Icon after watching "Fly with Greg" I landed on it.

[@fransknops5686]

Creating a pendulum close to the ground requires very precise timing. A better technique is explained in this video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnnQh5p_pryImac Note: it does not work on each wing. But for mine (Gin Explorer) it works like a charm. Sink rate is nearly identical to hands up flying, forward speed is reduced by 50%. So your glide ratio is cut in half. Timing is far less critical: close to the ground you step out of the speed system. But please practice it first with sufficient margin, preferably during a SIV training.

[@yanerik6850]

Did anyone else see the flat roof as a good landing option? ;)

[@aniruddhapandeyzcyvcfhdeg5061]

no, i would avoid that

[@petergarcia8225]

Angle of decent? Maybe needs a bit more of speed?

[@FlyWithGreg]

exactly. too much brake causes poor glide angle thus steep descent and when you try to flare, there's nothing there.

[@petergarcia8225]

@@FlyWithGreg a thank u, a thank u thank u very much. The show must go on. See yah next week...hehehe..lol jk

[@shiraz1736]

I remember deciding if i would fly a hanglider or a paraglider, after sitting down at the landing site for a few days i knew i was going to try hangliding, the predictability of a fixed wing makes so much sense.

[@nasty4096]

man i wish i had enough money to buy a wing

[@kaseicyou1288]

this is anti-instinct and needs some courage. but once you are used to it, it becomes a sign that differs you from the beginners :)

[@JohnHansknecht]

As a paramotor pilot, I'm a bit amused by the statement that free flight pilot would be scared of coming in hard. The true fear comes in when you have a 75lb spinning butt fan strapped to you. It's all good though. Same technique is used for both forms of flight. Thanks Greg.

[@martinpolach6171]

Did not fully understand ...hands up ?....swoop...?

[@johnfarbrother4614]

Thanks

[@FlyWithGreg]

Thanks John! That's a beer for me on the next XC landing.