![]() ![]() Patrick has always been interested in flight and was intrigued when hang-gliding first started. Many people enjoy the thrill of flying a hang-glider – Patrick Monro, director of Aqua Air Adventure, is no exception. Meet Patrick Monro – passionate about hang-gliders This turns them into microlights and means they can take off and climb from flat ground just like a normal aircraft. Some hang-glider pilots attach small motors and propellers to their hang-gliders. If there is a stronger breeze, the glider will start gaining altitude. For example, if a glider is flying over a vertical coastal cliff and there is a light breeze blowing in directly from the sea and the air is being forced vertically upwards by the cliff at 3.6 km/h, the hang-glider can fly along the cliff without losing height. In order to not lose height, a hang-glider must find air going up as fast as the glider is descending. A hang-glider descends at the rate of about 1 metre per second (a slow walking pace of about 3.6 km/h). If the air is still, it will slowly descend. The aerofoil is then drawn up into the area of low pressure, producing lift. ![]() Meanwhile, the downward and forward motion of the wing compresses the air flowing under the wing. The aerofoil forces the air flowing over the top of the wing to travel faster, thereby ‘stretching’ it to produce a low-pressure area. The aerofoil shape of the wing stops the hang-glider from dropping like a stone. The weight produces the thrust that keeps the aerofoil moving through the air. This is the weight of the pilot and the wing. Gravity is the main force on a hang-glider. It has to be launched from somewhere high like a hill or mountain. The pilot still operates tandem flights and has attached an extra security cord to ensure the mishap doesn’t reoccur.Since a hang-glider is unpowered, it can’t take off from low ground. Le Matin Dimanche reports that the American is unperturbed by the event and is planning to return to Switzerland to try hang-gliding once again. FOCA stopped short of a permanent ban, saying that the pilot’s aptitude was not in question.ĭuring the Attorney General’s hearings, which took place in June but only this weekend emerged in the media, an accident report noted that the flight took place at an average speed of some 59.3km/h and at a height between 30 and 50 metres above ground should the man have fallen, the report estimated, he would have hit the earth at a speed of 113km/h. The sentence comes after an earlier fine of CHF800 handed down by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) and the suspension of the pilot’s license for two months. ![]() The whole thing was captured on a video that went viral, clocking up some 10 million YouTube views.Īlmost a year later, the pilot, who described the event as “the shock of his life”, has been sentenced by the Swiss Attorney General’s Office to a fine of CHF1,000 ($1,028) and 120 suspended day-fines for having “disrupted public traffic through negligence”. The October 2018 flight of an American tourist in Central Switzerland turned sour just after take-off when it turned out his harness was not properly fastened.įollowing a two-minute white-knuckle ride during which he hung on at speeds of over 60km/h, the emergency landing resulted in ‘merely’ a fractured wrist and a torn bicep ligament.
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