Paraglider blown back?! HOW TO FLY IN STRONG WIND! 

Thanks for sharing! Great stuff! And no doubt this took lots of work to create, so thanks for putting out this important info. In the spirit of constantly improving our collective knowledge, I have a few things to add... 1. You discusses Venturi being at the top of the hill... and aside from a brief mention of wind going around a butte, you neglect to talk about the same effect going on in wind wrapping around mountains. For folks flying in the mountains, wind wrapping around the mountains is where we experience it most. The gaps in the ridge that act like a funnel. A pass in the mountains can easily suck pilots through it! 2. You say venturi only happens at 12mph and above.... and I'd agree it commonly presents problems of being blown back above 12 mph, but venturi are present at ALL wind speeds. At 7mph a Venturi could cause 12mph or 14 mph winds and that could be enough to prevent a PG from making the LZ. 3. You said speed bar will will double your speed. I WISH! Maybe on an Enzo. For us mortals, that’s definitely not the case. Pretty typical numbers for a Low B glider would be 38kph trim and 50 kph top speed. A C is like 39 trim, with 58-60kph top. Definitely not double. We don't want to oversell the benefits of speed bar, lest folks get in over their heads. Folks should test it out and get to know their glider. 4. You said something like “never use big ears as this adds drag and slows you down.” This is generally true and good advice, but not universally. Some gliders the increase in wing loading makes you go a little faster. Know your glider. 5. Regarding the advice to get higher... I am 100% with you that higher means more time to think and problem solve... but let's remind folks that in mountain situations it often gets windier the higher you get. This wind gradient can sometimes be quite dramatic. This is super common during glass off while mountain flying. In those situations when I see a student's ground speed has slowed, I will occasionally have them pull big ears to get down lower, where it is less windy and they can penetrate better. Nit picking details aside, this is a great video. Thanks for sharing!

Good video. Got blown over the back for the first time a couple of weeks back. At the point of no return I did a turn and burn and just like you say, experienced my first bit of cross country and luckily found a bowling green among all the trees to land on. Scary but great experience

This is thus far the best video explaining venturi/rotor . Illustrations are very basic yet effective. Thanks Ari !!

Yep. This happened to me two years ago. Learned a lot from the experience

so true... so realistic... and so convinient explanations and advances. i've been blown back twice and i know really what y're calling about. thank you so much my freind!

Great video Ari! Nice visuals and clear descriptions. Thanks for helping paraglider pilots understand this situation.

Excellent video, cheers for uploading. I’m a new P2 and this video was a great help thanks.

Awesome video! I’m glad I’m not the only one who was terrified going backwards in the Venturi. I also had the misconception that speedbar was very risky so I only pressed half way. I learnt so much from this video, thank you!

Great video. Very clear and easy to understand.

Great video, thanks! I have to watch all of your videos. Bad time is good time to do it.

Awsome! I´m not one to subscribe to youtube channels, but after watching two of your videos you´ve earned yourself a new subscriber ;)

Excellent flawless victory.

concise and informative video -can never be reminded enough with complacency always lurking around

Great tips thanks!

Thanks for your insight, always great for thought!

Very well explained

very helpful, thank you

Thanks, very helpful.

Once I made exactly the opposite as you recommend. Excellent video! Thank you

Great video! Great illustrations! Thanks for putting that together. Look! You have 300 subscribers! Get it homie!

Great content, huge respect🙏🏼

Great video!!

Great video. Even love the sound track. Really helpful to have a sense of what to do in this situation.

Awesome and very Instructional video, thank you!

Enjoyed that one!............Can never be reminded enough of the dangers!! ..................thanks

Great video. Are you seriously going to leave us hanging without seeing the rest of the video? PLEASE POST!

Wish I would have seen this video before my crash at a ridge soaring spot as a fresh pilot. Ripped my hamstring while hitting the base of a tree. But could have got impaled on a branch. Consider myself lucky. After getting back under my wing I went to a ridge soaring spot in Costa Rica and learned lots. With the knowledge from CR and this video I definitely would have avoided the mistake. This video was packed with great tips. Thank Ari. Just subscribed to your podcast today.

really like your videos, and how you explain things, I wish when i started to have all this information. had to learn by trial and error. my only comment is that at the beginning of your videos its super loud compared to the rest of the video. keep sharing your wisdom and making this sport safer. cheers

First - thank you for sharing your knowledge. I love your videos and as new pilot, I am always looking for some extra tips that my instructors my not know or might teach a different way. So, thank you. Now, science geek alert. Air don't actually compress to any degree on the front of a hill. If you read engineering level text you will find that free stream air behaves as an incompressible fluid until about 300m/s and compressibility really kicks in about 0.7M. Not speeds we are usually worried about. Until these speeds, dynamic air pressure will change, but not the density, which is the definition of compression. Geek alert over. Thanks again for all the knowledge sharing.

Great video I got pinned and was planning to pull big ears if I could not get out front. Only later learned that would not have helped. More awareness needed on this topic for coastal pilots. Funny things was as I was pinned on full speedbar a hang glider came and flew around me giving me a bit of a look. Pretty obvious by that point I should have been on the ground already. But as mentioned in the video just sat there and eventually made my way out front. Back and forth a bit but eventually made it out front and was able to land safely. One more point I found was that the safe compression zone was much further forward than normal so to get back I needed to be way out front to progress along the coast.

Great info bro,Im a motor guy but this is good stuff!!

Please do more videos about air movements and turbulence in XC flying. It's really interesting.

this will help new pilots for sure, good explanation ,applies anywhere.. I wonder if this new pilots radio friends explained this to him prior to flying this place? (I'm sure they did after)

This video literally saved my ass today.

100% great advice. Wish I had this knowledge a few months ago. I found myself in an "up and back" situation at Crestline, CA in the late evening. Luckily, I did most of what you suggested. Full bar, straight heading and trimmers out (freeflight/paramotor wing) with limited light left in the day, my head was stuck on getting down quickly and of course, safely. I basically spent 20 min straight on bar, but with big ears until I was out in front and low enough to land next to the highway. I can see why big ears wouldn't be the best thing to do in most situations, although I'm not sure if attempting a dark landing would be any better. Looking back there were plenty of signs not to launch that I ignored...lesson LEARNED. Another great video Ari!

Hey man I really want that footage😂

Nice one Ari!

Great tips man. As a beginner I was paragliding in China in high wind low penetration on launch and I was the first guy off. After an assisted launch I barely penetrated to escape the mountain. The next girl to take-off got blown to the leeside and crashed but was ok. All flights after (10) cancelled. It was terrifying just hanging there. I couldn't deploy my speed bar because I was afraid to let go of brakes even if put them in one hand so I NEVER USED THE SPEEDBAR. instinctively thinking of aerodynamics and maintenance of constant heading saved me. The instructors were yelling "speed bar!!!" in Chinese but at the time I didn't know the vocabulary for that. Got it on Video

Great information...thanks for sharing. 👍

I can’t believe it......only one person in 115 comments noticed that the pilot did not have his speed bar connected. This video should have pointed this out right from the start. Never ever fly without your speed bar connected. Also, this looks like a real dumb place to fly (especially without a life jacket) coastal wind/sea breeze can pick up really fast.......no place to land out front and it is a spine back with water behind....landing in water can, more often than not, be fatal. Also........if you are coastal flying, and you can see ‘white horses’ on the water (check the first couple of seconds of the video) then it is probably getting too strong to fly. This guy was very lucky to survive......did he?

Your channel is under rated ! Your videos are great, thanks for those amazing explanations!

Hi Ari, thanks for the great video! There‘s one thing I don‘t quite agree on: We have a local soaring ridge with a very level surface behind and there is a very dangerous rotor which can drop you from 20 meters right to the ground. It‘s not right behind the edge, but about 50-80 meters back.

Thank you for your video was a great help 💙🎶🎶🎶🎶

Please I want to see the full first video!!!

Really like the video, easy to understand and with good explanations. My only criticism is when you a referring to measurements you refer to metres and MPH. I am old so I understand imperial and metric but most people in the world now use metric. I will never understand why Americans refuse to change to a rational system like metric. There was I believe a time when the government tried to change the system but most refused to change. In Australia when referring to wind speed we generally talk about km. hr or at the coast Knots. But enjoyed the video.

Yeah, I know that feeling of being blown back. It’s not a nice feeling and the rods and screws in my back is a constant reminder ... I’m still flying though 😜

Like n500. Very helpfull dude!

Hi Ari, a question not related to the topic you have explained beautifully. What is the song that you have playing in the background?

Thanks for the video! Good tips with technique and strategy here. When discussing the area that lee turbulence/ rotor can affect, you're multiplying some very different units together. I've often heard a rule of thumb of "up to 2 times the height of the obstacle", I'm not sure where height in meters * wind in miles per hour = distance in meters of disturbance comes from, so I'd be curious to see your sources. I'm also curious about the cone that the turbulence seems to be confined to in your diagram, it doesn't look like other representations I've seen. My understanding is that "turbulence" is generally found underneath some angle from the lip, and kind of adheres to the lee side of the slope rather than leaving a wedge of undisturbed air on the lee side. This probably depends on your definition of turbulence (I'd consider the backwards eddy or even the calm air you spoke about as disturbed air/turbulence because it's not the predominant wind.)

Going up highly depends on the upper air layers. Lets say you're soaring in strong winds (lets say 25-30 km/h) on 2000 m above ground. You know that on 3000 m you'll have wind speeds of 40 km/h and 50 km/h on 4000 m. I'd say its better to stay low. B stall and big ears are obviously not smart. I know there is not data for every spot on earth but if there is a weather station even 200 km away on some comparable or better higher peak you can find some live data or if there isn't check the clouds before lunch. Best greetings from Switzerland :-)

Thanks for a video. What will be other exit option? Land flying backwards? In my area it is mosly forest.

Hi Ari. Thanks for your great videos. I had a close call on being blown back last year. I did indeed pull big ears though, because I knew from the forecast, that higher up the wind would be much stronger still. And I was getting higher fast. With ears And speedbar I was eventually able to escape, just. So what I’m trying to say, it may not be categorically wrong to pull ears, or what do you think?

Hey cool video, can you send the link to the video in the beginning of the video, really want to see how it end!

HI Ari. I was blown back in the Pyrenees in Spain. I was learning to fly. only about two hours experience. The valley winds blew me back on my skywalk mescal dhv 1. I was over a forest with no landing in minutes. I eventually got low and down into a river after avoiding high tension power lines and 100 foot trees. I had to lift my legs over the boulders as i skimmed over the water. Then I had to grab glider before it filled with water and dragged me down stream. I had no time to get scared. This was just one of the terrifying lessons that week. I have been blown back about four times in total. Very scary.

What are the attachments you mentioned that allow you to pull speed bar with your hands? Any chance you have a link or a picture? I'm looking for something like that for my kiting wing. (And thanks for the nice video!)

Great video, as always. But what's with the panflute music?

I like your videos. The music is distracting. Thanks for the tutorials.

In the 1980s I was flying my Seedwings Sensor 180 along the ridge of the White Mountains. Curious sight, a pilot on the ground folding up his glider. I look up and figure out what's going on - no penetration. Pulling the bar to my knees, I would descend into the canyon in front of me. Wanting to live to fly another day I choose to land on the ridge too - just like flying Funston! I think there was a venturi effect created by the canyon in front of me. Perhaps I could have moved through it. Bar to the knees, as I'm dropping my ground speed is minus 4 mph, walking speed backwards. The control bar is two feet off the ground, it leaps out of my hands and slams into the ground. A Wile E Coyote moment later, I land on top of it. Four of us packed up our gliders and walked out. One fellow let himself go over the back at a low altitude and died. I saw him go over, I didn't see what happened after that.

Nice and clear. I have to disagree with what you are saying at around 15.35 about big-ears making you go slower. Most gliders don't have much change in overall airspeed with the ears in but some do go a few miles an hour faster. Only some do go slower. You should find out what your own glider's airspeed is with ears in. It is great if yours is one that does go faster in ears.

👏👏👏

I got blown backwards last week. And when I landed I got dragged backwards on the ground on touchdown. All good though!

Thanks for great lesson .... Have one question : Would you use speed bar going down wind too ???? Thanks....

Great video Ari, I wish I had watched it before. I am a beginner flying a EN A wing, last week I got myself into some bad trouble. I launched into light winds that turned strong very fast and found myself in the venturi on top of some high trees, applied full bar and was still getting blown back behind the trees. It was either treetop landing or trying to turn downwind. Unfortunately I was too low to fly over the rotor. So I turned downwind and got hit by the rotor pretty bad, had multiple collapses and hit the ground quite hard, luckily I was uninjured. I just cannot stop thinking about it, I know now that the best option is not to get yourself on that situation ever. But I keep thinking about what if I had thrown my reserve? Either from over the trees still facing the wind or just after I turned downwind. Do you think a reserve would've stayed open on the rotor? I have the ayvri log if you want to see it but I think youtube is not allowing me to put the link here. Thank you

I should have watched this before yesterday. I decided to pull big ears and land in a Venturi

Please can you cite the video you showed in the intro.

What would you do if despite using all the speed bar the wind keeps pushing you? Patience???

Super ;)

Won't getting the ears in increase your wing loading and help forward penetration. Also would getting on the speed bar after pulling ears help out better?

DON'T try and be aerodynamic, allowing more drag on the pilot will put you slightly behind the glider, making it pitch forward and gain some speed. It helps the speed system.

Ari, I’m afraid you misunderstand the word “Venturi” and the related physics. A Venturi occurs when a gas or fluid is forced through a narrow constriction. The phenomenon of high winds on narrow city streets is an example of the Venturi effect i.e. higher winds and lower pressure. There is no Venturi on top of a standard ridge where we paragliders fly. That’s simply the compression area (which you depicted as being out in front of the ridge). In your diagrams you should re-name this as the “lift band” and replace the word “Venturi” with “compression area”. Hope this helps, Dara.

Hey, just found your channel, great tips! I think it's worth mentioning that pointing straight into the wind is most effective when the wind is also straight 90* onto the hill. When it's not, crabbing with some small angle in direction opposite to wind might give some extra penetration and distance from the hill, as described here: skynomad.com/articles/ridge_soaring.htm Regarding big ears I think there are some situations where one could use them to avoid being blown back (e.g. grassy hill or dune where landing backwards is not a problem) but this is marginal use case, and in most situations one is better off with speedbar / building height / crabbing away / getting aerodynamic. What do you think? Anyway, subscribed, good content!

wow that a bad place to be. At least there is water...

F*****g miles por hour use the metric sistem already ;P

Yeah yeah great talk blablabla... But really, where is the end on the intro video?!?!

On the video the guy doesnt have any safe place to land in front or behind the hill he can reach, so not a safe place to fly. I have been blown back on a hill with flat ground behind the hill, I used the turn and burn technique, and landed in a full grown corn field. It was Not fun.