Connecting the Harness to the Paraglider

Video Transcript

"Welcome to expertvillage.com, I'm Patrick Eaves with Wingenvy Paragliding. In this clip, we're going to be talking about how to hook into the glider. First step is getting your harness on. You want to hook into your harness before you hook into the glider. That way, once you hook in you're in control. So you're going to make sure to connect both leg straps. Each harness is a little different, so you're going to figure it out on your particular harness. Your instructor will help you do that. The basic idea is make sure to connect your leg straps and your chest strap. Once you're in your harness, never partially disconnect. You don't want to just to disconnect your legs to go hike and get something because you may forget to click in. So once you're in your harness, you're all the way in. If you have to get out for any reason or want to disconnect, disconnect everything and get out of the harness. Your next step is going to be hooking your harness into the wing. So what you're going to do is give just a little pressure on the lines. Again, your holding onto the risers where they connect into the carabiners. What you're going to want to do is find your A risers. Make sure your A lines are on top and go to the leading edge of the wing with no other lines over them. Then you're going to find your rear risers, in this case, the D risers, and make sure they're going to trailing edge of the wing with no tangles or anything. You can hold the risers apart, make sure they're not twisted or anything. When everything looks good, you're ready to clip in. You're going to have a predetermined way, which you can turn around from the glider to launch. I usually teach turning to the left. You're going to have the risers held together parallel and you're going to twist them 180 degrees into the direction that your'e going to turn to launch. In this case, I turn left so I have the risers together. I'm going to go ahead and flip them 180 degrees to the left. Then holding them together parallel, I'm going to hook them into my carabiners making sure not to untwist them as I hook them in. Now I'm hooked in. When I turn around, what should happen is my As should be on the front away from me ready to fly. Once you've done this a few times, you won't need to check as often by turning all the way around. You can do what's called a half turn. In the half turn, you just turn half way and make sure that your As are away here, your As are away here. That way you don't have to fully turn away from the glider. Now you're hooked in and you're ready to grab your brakes."