how do you make a paraglider? which is the right verb for it even; build? sew? make? last winter i had plenty of time to ponder the first question, an insatiable desire to get started and eventually a tentfly that i found in an abandoned house. will it be enough for a miniature glider? i was set to find out!
thanks to the guy who made this video tutorial – it guided me through no less than the whole process of making a (miniature) paraglider!
step 1: cut all the panels and ribs according to the plan
step 2: the step that i never could get my brain around; how to sew the panels and ribs together? it’s actually fairly simple for a single skin and i won’t explain it here as it’s well explained in the video tutorial.
step3: measure and knot all the lines, then knot or loop them to the canopy
step 4: make risers! i went more diy as the video tutorial; this is an old piece of brakeline of my actual paraglider with which i fly 🙂
voilà ! first demo, still without brakes and steering with the back risers
when i finished there was half of the tentfly left, so i made another one for my friend 🙂 on take two i decided to change the line setup to a twoliner and leave out the outermost panels (can’t really call them cells as it’s a single skin) to save some work. (and the way they deform in flight seems to be more contraproductive to me, that was another reason to leave them and end with a rib instead of guesstimating the lengths and placing of stabilo lines.. (see photo above))
