My Environment
especially weather, terrain, other people.
My Plan
A well-grounded vision for the day.
Myself
and my equipment.
My Environment
As a hang glider, paraglider, paramotor or speedwing pilot you are constantly exposed to the elements and are making performance and safety decisions based on an ever-changing environment. Environment refers to your surroundings, conditions, and context that interact with and impact you as you fly. Environment includes the area/site topography, weather, reason for and type of flying you are undertaking, and the influence of other people. It can vary widely in scale and complexity and plays a crucial role in your thinking (both conscious and unconscious) and your behaviour from that initial decision to fly before leaving the comfort of your home, on launch, in flight, and when and how to land.
Weather
Weather is one of the most important factors in your ability to fly a paraglider or hang glider safely through the sky – it features as a causal or contributing factor in a high proportion of free-flying incidents and accidents. A deep understanding of weather and aerology across launch, in the air, and over your landing is exceptionally important. You can almost never stop learning about the weather – it’s important to be constantly curious and commit to continually developing your understanding of the sky.
The following resources are a collection of information on understanding weather and interpreting forecasts of the day. They don’t amount to a complete course on free-flying weather (consider taking one) but are a good starting place to begin building on the basic (and likely barely sufficient) knowledge learned in your flying training.
Weather to Fly – Weather Forecasting 101 by Honza Rejmanek
Beginners Meteorology – HG/PG Meteorology for Beginners by Skynomad
Checking My Environment
Checking the Forecast? Useful sites for reliable NZ forecasts
NZ MetService NZ Government general weather forecasts site.
MetVUW forecast charts NZ-based 6-hourly weather forecasts
Windy Czech-based global forecasting app originally focused on wind, now all-weather
PredictWind Specialist wind forecast site originally built by and for sailors.
SkySight Specialist GA and soaring sports forecasting site. Requires paid subscription.
DrJack NZ RASP BLIPMAPs Specialist soaring prediction site built for gliding. Sponsored by NZHGPA.
Intro to Rasp RASP intro video for NZ – by Joe Ward, NZHGPA paraglider pilot.
HowWindy (CURRENTLY NOT WORKING 2JUL24 – need to check this again)
Zephyr NZ weather station app – Combines data from Harvest, MetService, & Holfuy weather stations
Reading the forecast is not enough. You must also compare what you read with what you see in reality. Ask yourself: what do the forecasts say I should expect? Am I seeing that here on launch? If not, why not? What’s going on? Is it expected to change? How will all of this affect my plan for today’s flying?
Topography
How to Avoid Rotor Video by Flybubble. Rotor and other aerological risks (like compression and funnelling) a common contributors to free-flying incidents, normally on launching and landing.
Navigation & Airspace
Go Pre Flight App NZ Pilots one-stop-shop for safety critical weather and airspace
Airspace NZ Airspace information from the CAA
Visual Navigation Charts (VNC) NZ aviation navigation charts
XC Track App Flight App (free open source).
Places to Fly in NZ
While a powered aeroplane or helicopter has the luxury of being able to fly from flat, designated strips and then nearly anywhere, our free flying disciplines are different. The places we fly must provide the ability to foot launch away from prepared runways and airports and a method to stay in the air without power – either through the provision of lift (for HG & PG) and/or an unimpeded decent path to lower terrain (HG, PG, & SF). In providing these benefits the sites we fly also present a number of physical and aerological risks. Understanding how the weather, aerology, terrain, and a fairly vulnerable flying machine interact is very important to your safety in free flying.
Official NZ free flying sites are generally covered by the site guide provided and maintained by the relevant regional club, if there is no site guide contact the local club directly. These are the essential starting points for understanding how flying sites work. Also essential is getting a site briefing from an experienced local pilot who can combine all the peculiarities, risks, and tips for you. Other sources of site information such as track plotting apps/sites, Google Earth, etc, are also useful for when you want to go deep on understanding a site.
NZ Flying Sites
Auckland site guide
Tasman site guide
Canterbury site guide
Southern site guide
Worldwide Flying Sites
Paragliding Map – Live weather, forecast, webcams, photos and more
My Plan
In a world that values hustle and speed, it’s easy to overlook the importance of flight planning. We’re constantly told to move quickly, to adapt, and to make decisions on the go. However, anyone who’s been unfortunate to have suffered the consequences of an incident or accident knows that rushed or no planning can lead to a recipe for poor performance in our general daily flying, competitions, or self-development for mastering the art of free flight. As the old adage goes, “Prior planning and preparation prevents poor performance.” While plans might need to change in the moment given conditions or otherwise, planning allows you to actually see a need for change in the first place, have previously thought out contingency options ready to go, and have prior knowledge of things that may or may not work that day. Your plan should include things like goals and intent for the fight, your risk appetite, and your actual plan for flightpath. Naturally, it must include consideration from ‘my environment’ and ‘myself’.
What’s my plan? Is it feasible? Do I reassess during the flight?
My Plan - Useful Resources
Flight Planning
Flight Plan 101 Weather, site, equipment and self-analysis by Flying Fever
Plan for success – The Simple Secret to Planning a Cross-Country Glider Flight, Video from Orange Pants
Fly XC Flight planning tool
Thermix App for planning cross-country routes by Bernd Gassner
Scenario Thinking and The Red Zone
Scenario Thinking Flightcoach Rocket Science What we can learn
Part 1 Flightcoach how to take risks in a responsible way
Part 2 Flightcoach how to take risks in a responsible way
The Red Zone – Truth about Safety Margins Video from Fly with Greg
The Spring Tune-Up Podcast with Nick Greece and Russ Ogden on identifying your weaknesses
Planning Trips and Competitions
The Spring Tune-Up Podcast with Nick Greece and Russ Ogden on identifying your weaknesses
Planning Your First Trip Abroad by Jennie Flemming
Hike and Fly – Getting Started by Supair
Multi-Day Hike and Fly Paul Guschlbauer plans for a Multi-Day Hike & Fly adventure
Competitions XC Tactics planning for New Comp Pilots by HG Comps
Myself
When the conditions are benign, the plan is sound, and the machine is robust and reliable, the last remaining variable is the pilot themselves. Powered aviation was arguably the first industry to understand this, first fixing the reliability of their aircraft and then, when accidents continued to happen, turning to the pilot(s) in command. This campaign challenges you, free-flying adventurer, to think just a little more like a commercial pilot as boringly, rule-followingly, process-championing, freedom-stifling as that may seem.
This means being a little more deliberate in understanding how you and your brain fit into the safety picture. It covers issues like your motivation and incentives to fly, your level of risk awareness and risk acceptance, how skilled and capable you are (or aren’t), how experienced and current you are, and how well you’re feeling, in general, and for today – in today’s weather, at today’s site, on today’s wings, flying today’s plan. It also means knowing a little about how your awareness, attention, judgement, and decision-making systems are likely to help you out – or trip you up.
This is a complex topic and this resource is not exhaustive. You’re best to take a life-time-learning approach to this topic, remaining open to learning new things and changing old ways. The below links are a sound starting point. Training in the topic is also recommended.
Getting to Know Myself
Learn to Know Yourself Better
Are you fit and ready to fly today?
IMSAFE checklist Are you feeling fit to fly today? Do I pass the IMSAFE test?
Flying after a break Are you current? How do you get back to flying after a break? Flybubble.
Is your mind working for you or against you?
The psychology of flight Where does your mind support good decisions or lead you to bad ones? Matt Harrison discusses the heuristic traps of adventure sports at an AHGPC club night.
The Dirty Dozen Originally built for aviation maintenance, this is a good video on 12 pathways to error contextualised for PG, PPG & HG pilots
“Get-there-itis” CAA’s Vector magazine. This is an example of continuation bias that ties us to plans even though conditions or other objective evidence suggests we should make a change – if only we realised.
Complacency: What Me Worry? Are you feeling too comfortable? SoaringNZ magazine.
Self-Reflection Mind Map Where does your knowledge serve or impair you? A holistic picture of safety issues in free-flying. Timo Schleeh
Risk management – how well do you understand and subscribe to the risks you’re taking?:
Before you kill yourself watch this What are the incentives for your flying in general? What might be driving your decision-making for today? What’s you’re attitude towards learning and being honest with yourself?
Risk Management FAI
Risk Management for Pilots by Tim Pfeiffer USHPA
Intermediate syndrome
This is an attitude unwittingly taken on by pilots who feel like they’re progressing well, but don’t have enough experience to fully understand what they’re doing. Recent research suggests the period that this affects people is a lot wider that previously thought – up to 2000 hours. This means that many recreational free-flying pilots may never progress beyond intermediate to ‘expert’!
CBM intermediate syndrome Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast
Are you getting Intermediate Syndrome? Para OZ Australia
How might age affect you flying?
The Senior Pilot CAA’s Vector magazine.
Cognitive Decline in Aging Pilots Presented by David Moody at the GNZ Annual Conference 2023.
TEM (Threat & error management)
TEM is a way to conduct a prior assessment of the threats and error conditions you may face. This three-part series is from SoaringNZ magazine. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Do we know what we don’t know? is from Plane & Pilot magazine.
Equipment
Free flight relies on reliable equipment such as wings, harnesses, mallions and reserve parachutes. Equipment failure due to defects, wear and tear, or improper maintenance can be dangerous, though abject failure of modern free-flying equipment is rare. Invest in high-quality paragliding equipment from reputable manufacturers. Regularly inspect and maintain your equipment as per the manufacturer’s guidelines. Check before each flight and ensure you have a current WOF. Replace damaged or worn-out equipment promptly.
A more likely equipment-related cause of incidents is a pilot flying the ‘wrong’ equipment i.e. that is the wrong fit for the pilot, site, task, or conditions; or inexperience with operating gear when it is needed – predominantly reserve parachutes. Of course, these are more decision-making and training issues than equipment ones. Be honest with yourself and seek instructor or senior pilot input as to what gear you might fly where and when. Learn your equipment well. Practice locating your reserve handle on every flight and when it comes time to repack, sit it on a harness swing and practise the movement required to extract your reserve from its container – research shows that most pilots can’t locate the handle quickly and struggle to get their reserve out.
Reliable reviews
Independent Gear Guide to Equipment Choice for PG XC Magazine
Matching your gear to your skill
Match the wing to your skill level by Rock the Outdoor
Choosing the right wing Video Flybubble
If All Else Fails and Something Goes Wrong
Emergency Preparedness
Make sure someone knows where you’re going and what your plan is. Consider carrying a GPS and/or a satellite communication/tracking device such as a SPOT tracker or Garmin Inreach device. Pack a small first aid kit. Ensure you carry enough warm clothing, water, and some food appropriate for the area and terrain you’re flying in.
NZHGPA – Who to Call in an Emergency in New Zealand The best emergency search and rescue organisations to call, depending on the situation.
There is risk inherent in flying - gravity wants to win
How might you stack the cards in your favour for a safe and successful flying career? One that keeps you in the fun zone and wanting more on your personal journey to mastering the art of free flight?
Getting a handle on this safety thing
The overriding determinant of pilot safety in hang gliding and paragliding is the quality of pilot decision-making. Skill level, experience, quality of equipment – all of those things are not determinants. What those things do is determine one’s upper limits. More skill gives you a higher limit, as does more experience or better equipment. But safety is not a function of how high your limits are, but rather of how well you stay within those limits. And that is determined by one thing: The quality of the decisions you make.
What can you do?
“Focus on the thinking part of your flying as well as the doing part.
Think about where you’re at now and where you want to get to –
on today’s flight as well as throughout your flying career.
What motivates you and where that might trip you up?”
Matt Harrison
Human factors performance psychologist
PG pilot. NZHGPA
You can call search and rescue directly
Save this number in your phone now!
If all goes wrong – this could save your life
Refer to your guide for who to call in an emergency in New Zealand. Save these numbers to your phone.