How to Do a Hand Check on a Hang Glider

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is David Duke. Welcome to Expert Village. OK, the next part is the hang check in this make sure I'm hanging in the right position and that all my hang straps are untwisted. I'm going to hook in here. This is my backup hangstrap. And this is my main hangstrap. This is actually a ladder, it's great for training in, but don't usually use except on training ladders. I actually am going to skip the backup for today because I want to hang a little lower on the ladder. These straps are one piece down through here and they'll hold a couple of tons and this Caribbean is steel. It'll hold literally tons. And I close my Caribbeanner, and go down for a hang check. Make sure I'm hanging about the right distance off the bar. This is where I want to be. This is where I fly. Look back up over here, make sure none of my lines are twisted. That I am hooked in. This would be a notable failure if I wasn't in my back up strap, but today, for being only two feet off the ground, I want to hang just a couple inches lower so I'm not going to use this today. Probably the second biggest causes of major problems and it's completely avoidable but what happens is you've been hooked in, you forgot something and you've got to go out and walk to get it, you forget that you're hooked in you don't go back to hook in and then you fly off. And if you're flying off anything other than a slop you'll be off the edge of a cliff before you realize you're not attached to your glider and then you really are in a hang glider and it's a dangerous situation. But it's completely avoidable. So we have some checks we go through to make sure we are hooked in."