Alejandro Isaza <<alejandroisaza>>
writes:

I want to follow on Dieter Meyer post (a friend from Guatemala),
with this message to encourage Hang Gliding manufacturers to redesign hang
gliders.

I think very much the same as Dieter does and I am also worried, because it is
getting more and more difficult to carry a hang glider on airlines. It is
difficult to to carry them on airports and even more for the airlines to accept
them. I have heard many stories about pilots who have not being able to load
their gliders on airplanes, to the point that is getting discouraging to travel
at all with a hang glider.

I had to leave my hang glider in Rome once as the airline did not take it. I was
lucky not to loose it because others pilots traveling the next day were able to
load it in a another airline.

The truth is that a packed glider is still to big to be carried as luggage
around airports (perhaps the longest luggage you will see in a airport) and the
longest to load on a plane. They raise many eyebrows in airports and airline
counters, not to mention the passengers behind you in the line at the counter as
you fight !! With attendants to get your glider aboard.

I do want to send a message to hang glider manufacturers urging them to redesign
hang gliders so they can be packed to a much shorter size to be able to carry
them anywhere even if it takes more time for the pilot to assemble it.

I don't design hang gliders and don't know the difficulties about it, but I
think that if the length of a packed glider can be shorten 1 more meter they
would be better accepted by airlines. I see no problem shortening the keel by
disassembling the last part of it. Can the crossbars be attached to the leading
edges much forward? So that the wing tips can be made longer and thus when
disassembled shorten all ? Can crossbars be made in more sections? Wings in more
sections? Detachable crossbars? There has to be a good design to solve this
problem.

This is important for our sport !!! And is one of the great things hang gliders
have. The fact they can be carried anywhere to fly at different places around
the world. Otherwise we will be confined to fly only at our local sites and
sites close by and not be able to attend to international competitions.

So please hang glider manufacturers (WILLS WING, ICARO, AEROS, MOYES, BAUTEC,
AIRBORNE, etc) get into it and design hang gliders so they can be more easily
carried and accepted in all airlines. If you do, you will surely make a good
improvement to our sport, get a big applause from us and most important bigger
sales.