US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

Hang-glider-wanna-bees-on-parachutes eat your hearts out!
He is probably going 100 mph or more.
This is real flying. It's way beyond paragliding!
Paragliding, in fact, is a joke.

I just watched the first video and it was AMAZING! It's late so I'll have to watch the second one tomorrow. : - )

The big advantage that using a hang glider for speed runs, as opposed to small PG's, is that the cleaner flying HG will store and utilize energy much more efficiently and be able to climb out higher if approaching an object at the glider's elevation.

If the "oops factor" comes in - the HG pilot has a greater chance of gaining enough altitude, by slowing down, to avoid a collision with ground based objects (like ridge tops).

Frank C.

Frank Colver wrote:The big advantage that using a hang glider for speed runs, as opposed to small PG's, is that the cleaner flying HG will store and utilize energy much more efficiently and be able to climb out higher if approaching an object at the glider's elevation.

If the "oops factor" comes in - the HG pilot has a greater chance of gaining enough altitude, by slowing down, to avoid a collision with ground based objects (like ridge tops).

Frank C.

The paraglider version of speed flying is certainly MUCH more dangerous than the hang gliding version - as you say above. Since 10/29 I have just watched the second video by the same hang glider pilot and it is almost as good. But I'd never want to do the same thing on "speed gliders" (i.e. small paragliders) also connected with what you say above.

What I'm wondering is where is "SG"? His user name on HG.org is Speed Glider. But where is he? Has he become a sham? A fake hang glider pilot? The hang gliding world wants to know!

Well I for one always liked Speed, weather that Speed is from my 14 to ne Indy Headed SR CNC Ported Headed, Solid roller cam, equal length Merge collector Headers,440 Engine. Or My aas of now May of 2022, My Predator has yet to loose a Speed Gliding Contest. My Predator also has enabled Me to have some great XC Flights. Predator! What a design, John really did well designing the Predator, what a Flex Wing.

wingspan33 wrote:What I'm wondering is where is "SG"? His user name on HG.org is Speed Glider. But where is he? Has he become a sham? A fake hang glider pilot? The hang gliding world wants to know!

Good questions Scott. Jack Axaopoulos ("SG") has his foot on the throats of everyone on hanggliding.org, but he never posts about flying himself. It's really sad that people brave enough to fly a hang glider will cower in fear of Jack's wrath.