Paragliding Tip "MUSHROOM LAUNCH" 🍄🪂 (⚽ Ball to 🧱 Wall to 🚀 Launch 🤩)

Flybubble Carlo shares some paragliding tips for launching the wing from a ball, starting with the glider mushroomed up. We generally recommend first going from a ball ⚽ to a wall 🧱 before launching 🚀. Steps: 🍄~⚽~🧱~👀~🪂~🏃‍♂️~🚀~🤩

3 steps:
1. ⚽ Ball
2. 🧱 Wall
3. 🚀 Launch

7 steps:
1. 🍄 Mushroom
2. ⚽ Ball
3. 🧱 Wall
4. 👀 Check
5. 🪂 Inflate
6. 🏃‍♂️ Run
7. 🚀 Launch (and 🤩 Smile)

HOW ABOUT LAUNCHING THE WING FROM A BALL?

It is of course possible to launch the wing straight up from a ball. When everything goes right, this works well, saves time, is fun and - let's face it - looks pretty cool. 😎

Some solo and tandem paraglider pilots like to launch from a balled-up wing, especially in stronger winds. Some believe this is the best way to launch in stronger winds. Some also do this to launch from a very small launch spot, not big enough to fully open the wing. 🪂

However, there's a hidden danger to launching the wing from a ball. It's harder to properly check the wing and lines when the wing is balled-up, so there's a greater risk of inflating the wing with knots, line overs, cravats or combinations of all three. This tends to be especially bad - most potentially dangerous - in stronger winds, because it's easier to lose control, faster, and the consequences tend to be worse. However failing to spot knots, line overs or cravats can have harmful consequences in all wind strengths. ⚡

If you're lucky the problem will fix itself (e.g. the knot opens) or you're able to fix it (e.g. you clear the cravat) and stay in control. Even so this may well result in a failed or (wisely) aborted launch. D'oh! 🤦‍♀️

If the problem proves more... knotty, and the wind is stronger, you may soon find yourself involuntarily partaking in the alternative activity of para-dragging, with potentially injurious consequences. If flying tandem, you'll take your passenger for a drag with you. Double d'oh! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️

Sometimes you might find yourself airborne - willingly or not - only to discover that you cannot fix the problem in-flight. Triple d'oh! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️

If you're lucky the problem is minor and you may be able to continue flying. Most of the time however this means limping down to landing with limited control and your wing not flying right, which can make landing very tricky. Quadruple d'oh! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️

If you're unlucky, it's also possible that you lose control and end up with an 'uncontrolled landing' (aka a crash). The wing may have an uncontrollable turn or a tendency to stall/spin, or both. This could cause you to uncontrollably turn back into the hill, fall out of the sky or be unable to reach a safe landing. Ay, caramba! 😱

For these reasons at least, we don't generally recommend launching from a balled-up wing. We tend to only ever launch the wing from a ball ourselves for fun, 'throw and go' style, and we don't tend to do this in unforgiving wind conditions and situations. In rare circumstances, we might use it to launch from a spot where it's not possible to fully open the wing . Mostly we'd choose not to launch from that spot, and try to find a better one. 🤓

Having said this, there are times we launch from a ball. When everything goes right, it works well and saves time - and is pretty fun and cool. 😁

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