Love your hang glider? Can't see going through the hassle of learning to paraglide? Maybe you even tried paragliding and just didn't like the sluggish response and the feeling like that of sitting on the tip of a ballpoint pen, with every little movement creating a canopy reaction that you didn't particularly want.

Controls on paragliders evolved directly from skydiving parachute controls. Originally, on round skydiving canopies the control lines actually warped the canopy enough to distort the openings that were cut and cause air to jet in one direction or another. These early control openings were called "slots" and were common on the first smoke jumper rigs. They gave the canopy little forward speed but allowed the jumper to steer into the wind. Later, skydivers started cutting panels away from the rear bottom of their canopies allowing air to escape out the back and giving some forward speed. It wasn't long before all sorts of combinations of slots; panel removal and various jet holes were showing up giving birth to a new generation of sport canopies, such as the Paracommander and the Crossbow. 

The first real leap forward in parachute design came with the development of the ram air square canopies. These were hardly parachutes as we had come to know them. They were designed with airfoils and could travel across the ground at a good clip, and perhaps even more important they could be flared.

No longer did a parachute jump terminate in bone smashing contact with the ground. Demonstrations of tip toe landings by the Army and Navy parachute teams soon brought the masses to skydiving. Turns were now initiated by pulling control lines that distorted the trailing edge of the canopy, creating drag on one side or another with the resulting turn in the direction of the dragged side. Flaring was accomplished by pulling both control lines thus slowing the canopy by creating drag and also creating a resulting pitch up. When  the elliptical  shaped, more efficient ,ram air paraglider wing  was designed in the 1980s,  it was a natural evolution of the skydiving  ram-air  parachutes, conserving the  same control system. Elliptical paraglider wings are controlled for the most part in the same fashion as the ram air square skydiving parachutes of today, using drag as the means to turn, stabilize, slow and flare the glider. Distorting the wing to create drag as an aerodynamic control results in not only turns, flares, and speed controls (good stuff) but also loss of performance, yaw, shifting of air within the glider, and pendulum effect on the pilot (bad stuff).

We hear the term "active piloting" a lot in paragliding. Active piloting really describes that series of minute control inputs required to keep the canopy over one's head and inflated symmetrically. Watching an experienced paraglider pilot from the ground we hardly see these movements because they are small and precise. He tries to feel what his canopy is doing : he attempts to make corrections at the exact time they are required. But make no mistake, he is  moving those hands all the time, keeping that glider over his head and himself centred under it, all the while he is simply creating drag with those brakes. Much like the experienced paraglider pilot we fly our hang gliders with a series of minute and precise corrections in pitch and roll to keep our glider going where we want.  When it all comes together correctly we forget our wing and gain that feeling we love of simply flying our bodies. So what's the difference between flying the paraglider and our hang glider?. 

When we attempt to transition from hang gliding to paragliding we sense that something is wrong. It doesn't feel like we are connected to our new wing, we miss that sense of exact control and feel. What we are missing is that direct, close link to our glider; we are missing having control of one of the true wonders of aviation, something aerodynamicists have searched for since the beginning of manned flight : the truly articulating wing. In other words a wing that remains whole and true yet can pitch and roll with no control devices to change its shape, or drag it through a turn. Until now a weight shift hang glider was the only flying machine that was controllable in this manner. In a paraglider we are hanging twenty feet or so beneath our flying machine, and to us, the experienced hang glider pilot, but new paraglider pilot, the feeling of pendulum effect caused by the drag induced by steering inputs is exaggerated and extreme. The sluggishness, the yaw and lack of feeling of what is happening to our flying machine is not fun nor is it acceptable to us. It is a sensation that, with experience, paraglider pilots eventually overcome, but many hang glider pilots don't seem to want to pay the dues to get through this period. We soon throw up our hands and walk away from the sport of paragliding  with bad feelings about control and safety. 

 About ten years ago French hang glider pilot Jean-Louis Darlet had the same feelings. He, however, did something about it.  He invented "the CAGE". Jean-Louis was an experienced hang glider pilot, a member of the French team,  and worked with Gerard Tevenot at  La Mouette in the early 80's. He invented the "French Connection (Pif-Paf) , and theorized before anyone else, that kingpost suspension (high hang point) would give greater and more positive control of hang gliders. He knew what was missing from paraglider flight ,and that it was the lack of feeling of what the wing was doing that turned off experienced hang glider pilots. He also understood fully the value of flying a whole, undistorted wing all the time, whether in level flight or in turns, or in the landing flare. He correctly theorized that  the adverse pendulum effects could be reduced by virtually moving the pilot  hang point higher, closer to the lifting centre of the glider, and that single point suspension, freeing the wing in  pitch and roll, would reduce canopy surge, and result in a highly efficient , non-deformed wing.

As a hang glider pilot ,your first flight on the cage will be a real treat. You will immediately  know that you are on to something here!  You are in a comfortable supine harness with your hands resting lightly on the lower rear control tubes of the cage. With only your fingertips you rotate the cage around the single hang point and begin a turn ;  you gently articulate the cage in pitch as you carve a completely whole, undistorted and unwarped wing beautifully through the sky. Through your fingertips you instantly feel the air as it affects the wing. When was the last time you had a feeling like this? I think you know that it was the last time you flew that particular hang glider that you loved best. When at last you are ready to descend and land  (if you ever are) you  can get down fast simply  by reaching  to the centre of the cage and pulling the single line that pulls big ears equally on both tips. With ears and a spiral dive,  safe descent rates of over 1600 feet per minute can be reached, as you corkscrew down fully in control of pitch and roll. 

There are currently  two models of the cage wing, the Lagon and the Paradigm. The Lagon is considered the entry level wing and it is important to master it before moving on to the Paradigm. Both models are constructed at Jean-Louis Darlet's small factory, JLD CAGE, near Argeles-Gazost, France. Darlet not only designed the cage structure, but with the help of a sophisticated computer program also designed the wings which are computer cut, and sewn at his shop. The cage is purchased as a complete system, Cage, Glider and Harness. 

The first thing you will notice about the Cage is that it is in a normal sized paraglider bag, along with the your harness, helmet and flight instruments. The second thing you will notice is the clever breakdown system of the Cage. One second it looks like a folded beach chair and the next second it is a control system rated at 7Gs, already attached to a beautifully constructed wing. Set-up time is about the same as a paraglider if not faster; and once you have learned  the proper launch techniques of this revolutionary type of wing, you'll be finding that it is so manoeuvrable that you can ground handle it and launch even in conditions that keep the paragliders on the ground ! Spend the necessary time to learn ground handling, and get completely comfortable with inflation and launch technique. Just like your hang glider, it is easy once you learn to relax and let the Cage do the work.



Webmaster's Comment

Steve Lantz is a former Naval Aviator and is presently a Captain for Emery Worldwide Airlines. He is president of Crystal Bay Aviation of Carson City NV. and is a Master rated hang glider pilot and a charter member of USHGA. He presently flies the SWIFT, Millennium, The Cage ,and  most anything else he can get  his hands on.