For now, I was soaking up one of the most spectacular views I’d ever seen.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s quite clear that back then I exposed myself to much more danger than I could possibly understand.   Being close to terrain in turbulent conditions (and all thermals are turbulent to a greater or lesser extent) requires us to have good wing control skills.  Without wing control skills we are just “lucky” or “unlucky”.

In normal flight, there are only TWO ways we can control our wing.  We can either use our controls (brakes) or we can use our harness.  The goal of wing control is to minimise the chances of getting a collapse.  Collapses can dissipate energy so they’re not necessarily bad, but pilots who are good at wing control will suffer very few collapses, fly more efficiently and most importantly, fly more safely.

There are THREE essential wing control skills: The 3Ps

This second wing control skill is “feeling the pressure”.  It’s not really “pressure”, but rather its the tension on the trailing edge (but we needed another “P” – and most pilots call it pressure anyway).  What we’re basically trying to do is maintain equal pressure, the amount is usually no more than about the weight of our arms and where we feel one or both sides go soft it’s important to apply more brake until we feel that pressure again.  Sometimes this will be both sides at the same time, but often in turbulent air it will be one side or the other.

To feel this tension in the trailing edge, it’s important that we get rid of any tension in our arms and shoulders.  By being relaxed (even in the turbulence!) we’ll be able to feel what’s happening more easily.  Many pilots get pretty good at this skill as long as the turbulence is mild.  In more turbulent conditions we might need to use maximum brakes to find the pressure again.  As long as we release and let our arms be pulled back up again then we’ll be flying safely.

Some pilots say that applying brakes forces air forwards and that’s what prevents a collapse.  The reality however is that there’s very little air in the trailing edge of a paraglider and what we’re really doing with pressure control is momentarily increasing the angle of attack on the wing.  This rapid and dramatic increase in attack angle is what prevents the wing from collapsing.

An unloaded wing is more likely to collapse. Therefore, as we’re flying through turbulent air and we feel one side go slack we’ve hopefully already reacted using the brakes (second P!) It is however equally important that at the same time we let our body fall to the unloaded side.  (IMPORTANT DISTINCTION:  This is to avoid a collapse!  If the wing collapses we might need to load the other side (i.e. the flying side) in order to avoid the wing turning towards the collapse)  By relaxing our body we’ll keep the wing equally loaded across the whole span.  Many pilots do this without thinking.  Others seem to want to keep their body totally vertical to the horizon.  We could compensate by applying even more brake to the loose side, but the correct response is to let yourself – your body – go with the wing.

Remember the ultimate goal is to keep the wing loaded equally across the span.  Go with the wing!

If you put the 3 Ps into practise when flying you’ll be displaying excellent wing control and limit your chances of suffering a collapse.  These skills might become intuitive when gliding, but make sure you’re also putting the 3 Ps into practise as you thermal, controlling your pitch, reacting to the pressure and keeping both halves of the wing loaded throughout the turn.  This will not only help keep you safer, but also lead to more efficient thermalling.  Putting all three Ps into practise when thermalling might not come naturally at first, but keep them in mind the next time you go flying and you’ll start to feel more and more in control.  As always, the most important skill comes before we even launch, so more important than any of this is your decision to fly.  If it looks too turbulent for you, deciding not to take-off is the bravest decision of all.

All those years ago, on my very first XC flight in Annecy, the memorable highlight was the smooth glide across the lake.  I found out later, that my guide didn’t know which wing I was flying.  He hadn’t seen me and I was in reality perhaps a little too low to be making the lake crossing.  (I try to know which wings my clients are flying when I’m guiding!!) Despite my rather perilous crossing I did just make the other side of the lake.  Having crossed the lake (in Annecy you can normally arrive just a few metres off the ground and still climb in the valley breeze) I was able to climb again and even completed the task.  I must have made that crossing a hundred times since then.  Nowadays I battle those thermals with much more confidence and always climb higher before crossing that lake!