Paraglider Loops?...New Zealand Air Games

[rickdavids]

I wish I recorded the showing, because I can't find it on the internet...

Anyway, I saw a 30 second snippit about the New Zealand air games on my local Channel 9 news show and saw a freeflight paraglider doing loops. Yeah that's loop plural. He did at least three, maybe four, all in a row. The camera angle may have influenced, but as far as I could tell from the vid, these were actual up and over loops and not hard wing-overs.

Anyways, I was into the sport early, took a long multi-year vacation, and just tripping on stuff I find on the internet in prep for a return. So I ask, how the fook do you do a loop on a paraglider? Nevermind that, how do you do multi-loops in a row? Just wondering...

[irene]

You have to be named Raoul Rodriguez or Val Montant to do Infinity Tumbles..

[oj]

The basic recipe for looping: small glider, lots of energy, and a healthy dose of insanity.

Lots of vids at justACRO.com or search YouTube for paraglider infinity.

[andy]

What we generally call a loop is actually more of a roll with the pilot going over the top as in a wing-over all the way over, it can be propogated into maybe three loops but is extremely difficult to keep the energy.

However as OJ and Irene said the infinite tumble is also a high energy SAT type maneuver that retains energy and the movement is like a person jumping rope or a "true" loop. The world record is something like 120 in a row. Check out infinity tumble on you tube, or paraglidetv.com. There are probably only twenty or twenty five people in the world that can do this, and so far no american has performed one, although Brad Gunnuscio has been getting close with us at the lake.

More info on acro moves can be found on justacro.com

Andy