Hi, I’ve seen lots of pilots using this butterfly technique and when ive questioned them about it they all reply ‘yes, we use it but it’s not something we advise’. Can’t wait to see your video on it as I feel it may be useful.
Great tips with humour . If the wind is not strong , no problem. If strong set up with altitude center of LZ into wind , brakes off to assess penetration then plan landing . Stay well .
I learned to figure 8 until the target is almost behind you for a brief moment, wide then narrower, and lean into it. It gets to be like riding a bike after a while. Can't wait for the next one Greg!
Some years ago I set in for landing on a nice and large field. High voltage lines at the end. On 20m from ground I got a decent lift, hazard of hitting the line. Quickly pulled big ears to correct back on field. On the last meters you can release the ears to land soft.
Good video although I feel more of a caveat is needed with this advice because for most pilots its many months to years before they get control and understanding of height loss due to the sharp turns, pendulum control as a result of sharp turns and stall point feel (butterfly). Many new pilots will be watching this channel and thinking I can just do Sharp 270' loopbacks (not thinking of extra height loss and pendulum stability control required) or with butterfly technique (Not understanding or knowing the feel of the stalling point of their glider). The maneuvers being recommended are good but don't learn in the heat of the moment on your first out-landing, teach yourself at your local LZ/flying site with lots of room (and height) to learn just pick a point early into a big field and pretend that it's a small landing area and set yourself a goal to land before that virtual point. Learn butterfly (and stall point) at the coast low over soft sand (or even better SIV Training) and understand the effect different conditions have on your wings stall point. Great Video and explains things well.
Stress of running out of landing strip can have unwanted side effect of the inexperienced pilot suddenly increasing butterfly cadence with disastrous or backbreaking result. I like your deep slow n steady cadence.
You start with the question, "What do you do if you overshoot your landing field?", and provide some excellent, proven remedies - thank you Greg ... and James for the self-exposé ; ) Equally useful (IMHO) would be an addendum or sister video on pre-empting the many reasons why we might overshoot - it's not always last minute, lifty bubbles, especially in a small LZ with obstacles and trees around. We often line up for a landing, visualising what a perfect approach might look like, and when we pull it off, we mentally pat ourselves on the back - but this can blind us to other lurking gremlins that sometimes come out to play. My "favourite" overshoot cock-up, repeated more than once, includes late afternoon alpine valley landings, when the "bulk" of the valley wind is still being drawn 'upstream' by higher anabatic flow, but shadows have started to fall on some of the lower slopes, cooling the air to produce an early katabatic flow below or within the tree line. Result: you line up a nice into (valley) wind approach and get to 10-15m off the ground, only to find yourself accelerating forwards with extra 10+kph in this 'surface' or low level flow, already draining out of the valley. It's sometimes hard to spot this, especially if no-one has landed just ahead of you or there are no windsocks or rustling leaves. Thoughts?
in the Alps the standard approach is U shaped 'aircraft' approach, which has the advantage that half way through the 'downwind leg' you can change your mind and nip into the field to land into the katabatic flow. But you canalso achieve that with a gentle looping turn on your 'cocked up' approach ... you only need to achieve 90 degrees of turn to get a crosswind track that means your landing is the same as a nil wind flare .. quite survivable.
@Greg, In Switzerland and Germany students are taught a standard approach, in German "Volte" (example (1) text: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landevolte, (2) video: ruclips.net/video/BXTitaewb7E/видео.html). Such an approach is a requirement of the Swiss pilot exam, and the landing must be in a 30m circle for all flights. The main benefits of this approach is that the (i) descent, (ii) downwind and (iii) cross wind components can all be adjusted to ensure you hit the circle every time. We see a lot of visiting pilots using the "S approach" invariably with very mixed results. Concerning the "butterfly landing" I believe this would result in an immediate disqualification in the Swiss pilot exam, as the technique requires that the glider is flown close to the stall point. My point here is that, by practising the standard "Volte" pilots can very quickly improve their accuracy without any compromise on safety.
Thanks SkyShepherd, I'd gladly be disqualified and avoid overshooting into an obstacle :-) the butterfly flare is safe when done properly and is not an approach, it's mostly used to fix a surprise or error in an approach. I understand the aircraft approach pattern and it could have been used here, but its not always the best .. it suits large club fields with traffic.
In XC flying, pilots will often fly into thermic lift on landing approach, which can mess up the base leg of the U approach ... so pilots need to know how to figure 8 (NOT S) on the base to safely land in all conditions. I'm all for the U approach in your typical alpine valley landing field, but not in your typical XC in drier climates
Your background is our lake at home. Chrigel had to land there during the last XALPS, in the green slope left of your head. Quite fitting for the video
This is such an important video bec it just explains safe landing in an easy way. Been through unsafe overshooting and crashing as a beginner. Before attempting paragliding independently one needs to know safety margins in landing. Glad found your videos 🙌
With me been a skydiver we got told to loop my s turns to always keep the landing upwind of you, I was watching and screaming at him to turn back on himself super gud tip, and I finally got to use the butterfly technique excellent to spot landing great video
But one thing, butterfly approach can be very risky. If there is a wind gradient near the ground, you will crash and get injured. So try to avoid this and do the correct landing approach.
I'm aware of such helpless situation , establish your self a landing system : Ground rule , down wind approach , turning 180 degrees in against the wind to do your final leg , this works to the right or left . Important , the way of landing needs to be in your head early and high enough :)
Nice Video Greg, love watching these...they are good learning tools and even better how to reminders for advanced pilots. It's interesting how one of the most fundamental mistakes pilots make is a failure to commit. This pilot failed simply because nothing he did involved commitment and actions based on that commitment. Everything he did was way too tentative, he did not comitt to any of his turns, height loss requirements, the final result was being bitten and failure. i am not a paragliding instructor, however I am a trained school teacher and success I believe has a direct correlation with commitment.
In such a situation there is a method I learned (from a DHV trainer) which is using "big ears" (auf Deutsch: Ohren anlegen). Of course, learned and practiced under supervision of a certified trainer. At the right time you just pull in the ears down to about 1-2 meters above landing then release them entirely. By that I mean you do not ease the ears out, but let go of the lines completely. Your ears will pop back in at a different speed depending on glider, load, etc. so that is where the practice comes in so you know how high to release the lines. You need to know how quickly your ears pop back in and apply brakes accordingly. I use this method often when a landing area is very busy and you really have to pick your spot. I will post a video in the near future on my channel. Again, this should be learned under supervision at a safe altitude before actually landing like this.
I flew mostly at a site with a fairly small LZ and used big ears quite a bit. Another tool in the toolbox is the B-Line stall, but you'd generally use that at a bit more altitude.
Great video Greg, and the points are well made. I kept squirming in my chair! Loop back!!! Not sure about landing in a river bed tho, unless you can see its pretty sandy, and you dont have to wade through deep water! Good to see you last week!
This HAS to be the BEST possible way to explain landing approaches (or most other aspects of flying!) This IS BRILLIANT! I always thought about - WHY this isn't the most common way to teach vs using whiteboards or gestures to explain the concepts! We do have LOADS of footage (good AND bad) to do most of it in such slick manner - as you do in most of your videos & especially so in this series. Cheers!!
Excellent advice. I'll keep this in mind on my paramotor landings. Even though I have power where you might not, being able to spot land on an engine-out or just generally is an excellent skill I need to acquire. I searched your channel for butterfly landing and found none -- can you make a video? I'd love to know more.
@@FlyWithGreg Wicked! I'll be looking for it! I fly a powered paraglider, so I'd be interested in which wind conditions a butterfly landing makes sense. From the videos, it looks like this works best in higher winds where you're struggling to get on the ground where you want to land.
As stated before, always best to check the air upwind of the LZ, to avoid any surprize on final. Following some sink to the ground, minimizes the risk of being lifted and overshooting, or getting dumped hard when falling out of a thermal at low height. So fly past the LZ, then fly a nice oval to the ground. Failure to check upwind, means going blind into LZ air; S-turns should only be used in training, or as a last resort!
Did a bit of a butterfly landing the other day. I set up perfectly for the landing area, but kept getting lift so had to do some figure 8s. Felt I was still to high so gave the brakes some gently tugs and came down just in front of where I was aiming. Been overshooting landings a bit lately so this was good to watch. Fortunately, most if my flying is coastal and we have several kilometers landing strip! Lol
A really helpful video! I tend to come in high and try to lose the altitude near the target because I fear shorting, so it's important for me to learn how to deal with more-than-expected lift emanating from the LZ.
One evening, the wind had died while I was landing with my 18m2 paraglider (The wind was rather strong when I started flying that day). I arrived too fast towards the end of our landing field with barb wires & several cows on the other side... I used the same technique I used with my other pragliders without knowing that this model didn't like pumping. It pulled be backward & droped like a stone... Luckily I was only at about 10m above the ground & suffered minor injury thanks to my airbag...😭😭😭
very good. i would just warn people, when doing these extended (green) loops to avoid over-shooting to always be careful a) with how fast you get with a downwind component (even if it is just a little behind-ish) and b) if already stressed never stall at this altitude.... what people sometimes do when doing tight turns shortly before landing ... they are little heavy on the brakes already, then the tight turn takes them a little to far, they break even more.... and then.... we go to your SPIN video just with 20m of altitude left :D if you dont know what you are doing, you better fly into some tree or someting straight out :D
i overshot a landing.. landed in the next field.. because i pussied out over trees due to the turbulence they made.. but this was in a crash-course.. and only one out of 12 landed in the right field.. a former speedrider landed in the wrong field..she taught me more about practical paragliding than my instructors ever did.. they were more interrested in the money than me actually learning to groundhandle
We call it something like downfigure8ing not S-inng (abachteln) in German. It is imo more accurate description, as you explain to holding the line before final approach. Great video as always Greg 👍👍🍀
S and 8 aporoaches are two different things : when doing S each turn gets you closer to the terrain, while an 8 approach sees you staying at the same horizontal distance, doing your 8 above the terrain entrance. (and are pretty hard to execute without biting on the terrain if there's not a moderate amount of wind.) Of course from an aerial perspective, you can be doing the exact same turns, the only difference is the wind strength.
@@xistsixt and @bookman etoiles well it isnt that easy language wise... they actually are very different in my book as well, fun thing is, in some languages you get different explainations. I have had this happen with belgian students (who flew a different schools in their home country). When instructed to make an 8 approach, they started (what i call) S-ses and eat up their landing field. On debrief this confusion was made clear. What i took away from this: especially when talking to a multi national group, always explain at least verbally AND visually.
It may sound strange, but.. what if early legs-out limits pilot ability to maneuver before landing? This first mistake (slow S-turn) may be it is connected with less effective pilot position? Legs at the footplate may help to feel and control glider as usual, and it is not a big deal to throw legs out from "half-foot-out" landing position. Please dont blame me, it is just my opinion.
Its a good question, weight shift has an impact on turning, but not nearly as much as pulling adequate brake. In this example the pilot has a split leg harness which is easy to weight shift even sitting upright.
I would say that it's important to be able to fly the glider well out of the harness. Where I'm from we call this "edge of the seatboard flying". Basically, you are out of the harness, but your head is still behind the risers so you can still get 80-90% of your weight shift authority. Once you are just about to land you can lean farther forwards and stick your head between the risers to be fully in the landing position. I like this technique because if you practice it a lot, you will feel very comfortable getting out of the harness at high altitudes which is one less thing to think about once you are on your final and you will be more prepared if you hit sudden sink/have a collapse/ or need to PLF your landing. Greg is always talking about getting your landing gear down early and I 100% agree--your back/spine is one of the most delicate parts of your body and a rolled ankle is a much better injury than fractured vertebrae. That's my perspective at least!
This is my main reason for following your channels, paragliders, for more than 10 YEARS. living at an altitude of 678 meters above sea level, looking at my place of origin at a height... while wishing I could fly above the earth's surface... because a paragliding parachute WILL NOT BE REACHABLE FOR ME......
very interesting video, as usual. I would have used the lift to my advantage to get back to the field. But he was either scared, or did not really set his mind on the landing spot
Absolutely. It comes from having huge landing fields in the UK so pilots don't practice lining up one spot ... it just gets pushed vaguely somewhere ahead as landing progresses.
Dear mister Greg. My name is Alexander. I am from Georgia. Tbilisi. I am your channel new subskriber. Your videos are one of the best explanation off teqnice ever i seen. You are super professional and experienced master. Therefore I have one question: which wing to buy: Nova Prion5 or Davinci point? I am beginner and what are you think about this companys?🇬🇪
I think that some pilots never practice enough diving coordinated 360's and so they don't feel confident when faced with the need to do them close to the ground.
Watched this video on the drive to a flight and ended up needing to use this.exact move when I got popped close to landing on a very small LZ.. Any forward progression and I'd have flown through as it's a short launch/LZ combo.
Great dissection of a problematic landing for novice. I was wondering if the pilot had done a PTU procedure, there would been ample height and space fo correction. Could lose some height befor the down wind, and veering to base and then the final approach may have resulted in a more safer landing?
As a helicopter pilot who’s had to train for off airport autorotational (engine off) landings at least this part of paragliding I can easily understand 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 😁
@3:15 i would head left to drop altitude en prepair landing un the rivver, that seem the nicest place for me/// no wind or less there and rock i kinda tricky but the place u where heading is descending toward the wind seem...
Good question. Big ears approach is definitely useful in some situations, but I wouldn't recommend it over doing proper loops or a little butterfly as could have been used here. Big ears can complicate piloting and can be a real mess if you stall low, whereas butterfly is faster to recognise the approach to stall and easier to manage/adapt. Big ears is best with half speed bar, which means you come in fast and hard, so its best for windy landings and landing in strong lift.
Hi Greg, I’m a beginner, BHPA CP/IPPI3 and enjoy your videos. Your recommendation to figure 8 is what I learned, but given the pilot in the video didn’t do that, wouldn’t it have been better for him to try and land downwind in the good landing zone rather than keep flying upwind and basically get lucky by not hitting the bridge, water, or power lines?
Probably depends on the windspeed but yes, I would think avoiding hazards in anything but strong wind is probably more important than landing into the wind into a hazard. That said, you should have the control to land into the wind AND avoid the hazards. Don't compromise! :)
Thank you Greg, the landing part is most difficult part for me. Butterfly landing in my paraschool is no-go solution, that is something that we are instructed not to do. So what?
DHV is currently researching a new and potentially safer technique, less close to stall point, which they might incorporate into training in the future. It works similar to airplane landing flaps. You go low on the brakes, about carabiner height, but also engage speed bar, to decrease your angle of attack again at the same time. This gives you a strong curve in the profile, with bad glide ratio (which is good to have available for landings) but in a very controlled manner. Caveats are that not many gliders are actively tested for this so far, so unstable edge cases depending on profile shape and rigging are not well known. Order of setting and releasing is also important, since sudden brake input on full speed bar can lead to frontal collapses.
This is the video that explains the technique. The talk is on German but it looks like someone provided English subtitles. ruclips.net/video/pHmVgIqWUcE/видео.html
@@HermannLoose Sounds plausible. In theory at least. Same principle as on bigger airplanes with flaps on trailing edge and lowering the leading edge at the same time to create a high lift, high drag, slow flying wing with lower stallspeed. Question is, can this be achieved with a soft wing without creating problems?
@@Walkerjet200 Yeah, the main concern they voiced apart from whether people will maintain the correct order of steps was that it's not part of the EN or LTF certifications, so they would have to retest a lot of existing wings to flush out cases where it causes problems.
I'm not convinced it's safe. I'll comment on this in a proper video about the technique, but it does not replace the butterfly flare, it's more of a replacement for big ears approach. The butterfly is all about removing forward speed. Pushing speedbar inevitably increases forward speed and sink, so you're coming in hard and fast unless there is strong lift and wind. And for most pilots, in a stressful situation, having to follow precise sequences of bar and brakes is too challenging. You can stall that wing fast by coming off the bar, and you can collapse it fast by coming off the brakes at the wrong moment, and on some wings, just by pulling the brakes. During landing in a difficult spot? not a robust solution.
My flying school has a precision landing target at ALL TIMES! And whoever misses it - gets viciously mocked for it. The target is less than two square feet in area. You designate you landing SPOT and stay upwind from it until you touch down. Lift? Good, hang in there some longer. It is unimaginable to miss the landing by so much. Wouldn't even be allowed to try the exam for a license where I live. Schools giving licenses to anyone who can run down the hill without tangling up in the lines is an international disaster.
I must be missing something, but at 4:24 I feel like the left arrow suggest the pilot should turn and fly toward the bottom left (which is partially downwind?) and then turn a little more than 180 degrees to land toward the bottom right (which is also partially downwind?) I really want to understand this so any clarity would be greatly appreciated! I just got my P2 a week and a half ago and had to pull big ears last night in order to come down while flying the North Side of Point of the Mountain, Utah and the whole time I was concerned I might overshoot my landing. Fortunately I landed safely but I felt more lucky than skilled in that situation.
4:33 shows the landing tracks. 4:24 shows the looping turns done at altitude to fall back to the right approach. You'd use the same principles in a big ears landing approach, using weight shift to make wider loops.
Maybe it’s because I’m inexperienced. In the video just after he hit some lift and had to angle for the river- I looked up and checked the river bed and noticed the bridge and noticed a large tree. I think I’d have put myself into that tree having kissed the chance to land up slope.
How could you ever overshoot the landing zone with a paraglider? Landing that thing is like going down with an elevator, it's not langing, it's a step to the ground. Landing a hangglider is landing...
I think yes, it's a quite risky maneuver I heard since tou get to almost stall point, it's a bit weird Greg just says "go practice that" without further explanation or warning. Overshooting landing can be risky, but a low stall while trying to do a perfect target is an ambulance call at best.
yeah, `pumping the brakes` technique. As bookman says, when low and if turbulent can be dangerous> If you`re not comfortable with your stall point or if turbulant air, prob best to avoid IMO.
no, unfortunately 'pumping the brakes' is what pilots who haven't learned the right technique do, and that is risky and often results in a low level stall. Butterfly approach is a useful 'last resort' trick to fix an overshoot when other methods have failed. (you'll see Xalps pilots using it all the time in tight landing spots). I'll do a lesson on it sometime (although you can see it demonstrated in this video). In the meantime, the displayed exercise was 'landing crosswind' which is fairly easy to work out and practice on your own.
Greg, do you already have thoughts on this technique: ruclips.net/video/pHmVgIqWUcE/видео.html From an aerodynamics perspective it seems more stable, especially when used early and in a degressive manner to fine tune your angle on approach?
04:24 EDIT : MISREAD ARROW, WHOLE COMMENT IS MOOT On one of the drawings you recommend turning away from the terrain, but that can be a risky move, a downwind turn will always bring you way farther than expected and risks getting you out of range of the landing field. That's why wether doing S or 8 approach, always turn upwind, and that's why you need to start those two approaches at a lowish angle to the terrain since bad upwind turns will eat up the distance you need for landing.
neither of those turns are downwind, they show the pilot continuing an into-wind turn for long enough to make the exit track cross-downwind to correct the position. At the height this pilot is at, it's the right move.
Fly With Greg I must be missing something, but I also feel like the left arrow suggest the pilot should turn and fly toward the bottom left (which is partially downwind?) and then turn a little more than 180 degrees to land toward the bottom right (which is also partially downwind?) I really want to understand this so any clarity would be greatly appreciated! I just got my P2 a week and a half ago and had to pull big ears last night in order to come down while flying the North Side of Point of the Mountain, Utah and the whole time I was concerned I might overshoot my landing. Fortunately I landed safely but I felt more lucky than skilled in that situation.
I think you got it wrong. The biggest mistake here is the flight planning. There is no good landing area here. The landing field is way too bad. It's not flat. You have trees on three sides. You have a road and a slope on the fourth side. There is no error margin here and no good position to loose height. The best place for doing this is on the near right side, but it's again restricted by trees and even a house. Better to just loose height directly over the field and then glide down the slope with minimal height and eventually land. Or fligh to the far right side. There seems to be a fairly big field out there and no trees in the way.
I had a "Oh shit power lines" moment on a downward sloping land out field. I didn't want to overshoot into them, so I turned 90* and fly into the side of a slope. Fast landing, but not powerlines and not trees. Here is he video. I had about 2 hours post CP. vimeo.com/51862584
Landing in the bush and walk away from that is a good landing :) Pilot was thinking Not there oh not here this no not here definetely not here and he sees the bridge and he says thats a good landing point but he passes that lovely bridge. He could just cruise to the other side of the river. I have done the same mistake just needed butterfly landing but afraid or hessitated to do it and past a football field long landing endded up in an olive tree.
Hi, I’ve seen lots of pilots using this butterfly technique and when ive questioned them about it they all reply ‘yes, we use it but it’s not something we advise’. Can’t wait to see your video on it as I feel it may be useful.
Great tips with humour . If the wind is not strong , no problem. If strong set up with altitude center of LZ into wind , brakes off to assess penetration then plan landing . Stay well .
I learned to figure 8 until the target is almost behind you for a brief moment, wide then narrower, and lean into it. It gets to be like riding a bike after a while. Can't wait for the next one Greg!
Some years ago I set in for landing on a nice and large field. High voltage lines at the end. On 20m from ground I got a decent lift, hazard of hitting the line. Quickly pulled big ears to correct back on field. On the last meters you can release the ears to land soft.
As let go og ears and flear at the same time. Nice when little wind and lov wind gradient.
Quick thinking!
want to hear more about using big ears in such a manner!
Good video although I feel more of a caveat is needed with this advice because for most pilots its many months to years before they get control and understanding of height loss due to the sharp turns, pendulum control as a result of sharp turns and stall point feel (butterfly). Many new pilots will be watching this channel and thinking I can just do Sharp 270' loopbacks (not thinking of extra height loss and pendulum stability control required) or with butterfly technique (Not understanding or knowing the feel of the stalling point of their glider).
The maneuvers being recommended are good but don't learn in the heat of the moment on your first out-landing, teach yourself at your local LZ/flying site with lots of room (and height) to learn just pick a point early into a big field and pretend that it's a small landing area and set yourself a goal to land before that virtual point.
Learn butterfly (and stall point) at the coast low over soft sand (or even better SIV Training) and understand the effect different conditions have on your wings stall point.
Great Video and explains things well.
Yeah I learned with 8 approach but I've had more than one short (or sketchy) landing because of misjudged 8s and loss of altitude with sharp turns.
Greg, thx for your continued series. Important stuff you’re sharing with us.
Stress of running out of landing strip can have unwanted side effect of the inexperienced pilot suddenly increasing butterfly cadence with disastrous or backbreaking result. I like your deep slow n steady cadence.
You start with the question, "What do you do if you overshoot your landing field?", and provide some excellent, proven remedies - thank you Greg ... and James for the self-exposé ; ) Equally useful (IMHO) would be an addendum or sister video on pre-empting the many reasons why we might overshoot - it's not always last minute, lifty bubbles, especially in a small LZ with obstacles and trees around. We often line up for a landing, visualising what a perfect approach might look like, and when we pull it off, we mentally pat ourselves on the back - but this can blind us to other lurking gremlins that sometimes come out to play. My "favourite" overshoot cock-up, repeated more than once, includes late afternoon alpine valley landings, when the "bulk" of the valley wind is still being drawn 'upstream' by higher anabatic flow, but shadows have started to fall on some of the lower slopes, cooling the air to produce an early katabatic flow below or within the tree line. Result: you line up a nice into (valley) wind approach and get to 10-15m off the ground, only to find yourself accelerating forwards with extra 10+kph in this 'surface' or low level flow, already draining out of the valley. It's sometimes hard to spot this, especially if no-one has landed just ahead of you or there are no windsocks or rustling leaves. Thoughts?
in the Alps the standard approach is U shaped 'aircraft' approach, which has the advantage that half way through the 'downwind leg' you can change your mind and nip into the field to land into the katabatic flow. But you canalso achieve that with a gentle looping turn on your 'cocked up' approach ... you only need to achieve 90 degrees of turn to get a crosswind track that means your landing is the same as a nil wind flare .. quite survivable.
@@FlyWithGreg Agreed; one of my learning points was, "pick a bigger/wider landing field next time, not the edge of a carpark..."
@Greg, In Switzerland and Germany students are taught a standard approach, in German "Volte" (example (1) text: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landevolte, (2) video: ruclips.net/video/BXTitaewb7E/видео.html). Such an approach is a requirement of the Swiss pilot exam, and the landing must be in a 30m circle for all flights. The main benefits of this approach is that the (i) descent, (ii) downwind and (iii) cross wind components can all be adjusted to ensure you hit the circle every time. We see a lot of visiting pilots using the "S approach" invariably with very mixed results. Concerning the "butterfly landing" I believe this would result in an immediate disqualification in the Swiss pilot exam, as the technique requires that the glider is flown close to the stall point. My point here is that, by practising the standard "Volte" pilots can very quickly improve their accuracy without any compromise on safety.
Thanks SkyShepherd, I'd gladly be disqualified and avoid overshooting into an obstacle :-) the butterfly flare is safe when done properly and is not an approach, it's mostly used to fix a surprise or error in an approach. I understand the aircraft approach pattern and it could have been used here, but its not always the best .. it suits large club fields with traffic.
In XC flying, pilots will often fly into thermic lift on landing approach, which can mess up the base leg of the U approach ... so pilots need to know how to figure 8 (NOT S) on the base to safely land in all conditions. I'm all for the U approach in your typical alpine valley landing field, but not in your typical XC in drier climates
@@FlyWithGreg That's exactly what I was thinking: I would also make a landing volt. (And if necessary, reduce altitude with big ears.)
I’ve done exactly the same thing. Not testing sink and being too non comital on those approach turns to confirm your decent rate. A very apt reminder.
Your background is our lake at home. Chrigel had to land there during the last XALPS, in the green slope left of your head. Quite fitting for the video
You are so lucky! I put it up there to remind me of the dream ... where I'm headed if I can make this whole youtube thing fly!
Ah I thought it looked like Eibsee / Zugspitze, but somehow slightly off....
This is such an important video bec it just explains safe landing in an easy way. Been through unsafe overshooting and crashing as a beginner. Before attempting paragliding independently one needs to know safety margins in landing. Glad found your videos 🙌
From my limited AFF skydiving landing with downwind and finals I am glad that My thoughts were the exact same watching this footage
With me been a skydiver we got told to loop my s turns to always keep the landing upwind of you, I was watching and screaming at him to turn back on himself super gud tip, and I finally got to use the butterfly technique excellent to spot landing great video
But one thing, butterfly approach can be very risky. If there is a wind gradient near the ground, you will crash and get injured. So try to avoid this and do the correct landing approach.
I'm aware of such helpless situation , establish your self a landing system : Ground rule , down wind approach , turning 180 degrees in against the wind to do your final leg , this works to the right or left . Important , the way of landing needs to be in your head early and high enough :)
Nice Video Greg, love watching these...they are good learning tools and even better how to reminders for advanced pilots. It's interesting how one of the most fundamental mistakes pilots make is a failure to commit. This pilot failed simply because nothing he did involved commitment and actions based on that commitment.
Everything he did was way too tentative, he did not comitt to any of his turns, height loss requirements, the final result was being bitten and failure.
i am not a paragliding instructor, however I am a trained school teacher and success I believe has a direct correlation with commitment.
In such a situation there is a method I learned (from a DHV trainer) which is using "big ears" (auf Deutsch: Ohren anlegen). Of course, learned and practiced under supervision of a certified trainer. At the right time you just pull in the ears down to about 1-2 meters above landing then release them entirely. By that I mean you do not ease the ears out, but let go of the lines completely. Your ears will pop back in at a different speed depending on glider, load, etc. so that is where the practice comes in so you know how high to release the lines. You need to know how quickly your ears pop back in and apply brakes accordingly. I use this method often when a landing area is very busy and you really have to pick your spot. I will post a video in the near future on my channel.
Again, this should be learned under supervision at a safe altitude before actually landing like this.
I flew mostly at a site with a fairly small LZ and used big ears quite a bit. Another tool in the toolbox is the B-Line stall, but you'd generally use that at a bit more altitude.
Nice video as always!!!! what about "big" ears for losing some altitude and release few meters before touch?
Thanks for helping us fly better!
In smooth conditions, with a straight approach and some wind it can be a good altenative
Thank you Greg for your sharing....I often did it before... I'll do practise it in my next training. 👍👍👍👍👍
Great video Greg, and the points are well made. I kept squirming in my chair! Loop back!!!
Not sure about landing in a river bed tho, unless you can see its pretty sandy, and you dont have to wade through deep water!
Good to see you last week!
Nice job Greg, this was really helpful. I too, would be interested in learning more about the butterfly landing.
This HAS to be the BEST possible way to explain landing approaches (or most other aspects of flying!)
This IS BRILLIANT!
I always thought about - WHY this isn't the most common way to teach vs using whiteboards or gestures to explain the concepts!
We do have LOADS of footage (good AND bad) to do most of it in such slick manner - as you do in most of your videos & especially so in this series.
Cheers!!
Excellent advice. I'll keep this in mind on my paramotor landings. Even though I have power where you might not, being able to spot land on an engine-out or just generally is an excellent skill I need to acquire.
I searched your channel for butterfly landing and found none -- can you make a video? I'd love to know more.
yes I plan to
@@FlyWithGreg Wicked! I'll be looking for it! I fly a powered paraglider, so I'd be interested in which wind conditions a butterfly landing makes sense. From the videos, it looks like this works best in higher winds where you're struggling to get on the ground where you want to land.
As stated before, always best to check the air upwind of the LZ, to avoid any surprize on final. Following some sink to the ground, minimizes the risk of being lifted and overshooting, or getting dumped hard when falling out of a thermal at low height. So fly past the LZ, then fly a nice oval to the ground. Failure to check upwind, means going blind into LZ air; S-turns should only be used in training, or as a last resort!
Brilliant as always
Thank you! Cheers!
Did a bit of a butterfly landing the other day.
I set up perfectly for the landing area, but kept getting lift so had to do some figure 8s.
Felt I was still to high so gave the brakes some gently tugs and came down just in front of where I was aiming.
Been overshooting landings a bit lately so this was good to watch.
Fortunately, most if my flying is coastal and we have several kilometers landing strip! Lol
Isn't butterfly super dangerous ? Especially when flying on a thermal/turbulent day ?
nope. I'll make a video on it. key skill for fixing an overshoot.
@@FlyWithGreg Awesome, thanks Greg.
@@FlyWithGreg please compare with other techniques (bar or ears)
I've seen so many accidents on butterflys, I got to agree on a big warning on this
Nicely made Greg and explained well. Regards Rob
A really helpful video! I tend to come in high and try to lose the altitude near the target because I fear shorting, so it's important for me to learn how to deal with more-than-expected lift emanating from the LZ.
Big ears.
Cheers Greg, this isn't just paragliders, hang gliders and even sailplanes can learn from this video! 🤞
One evening, the wind had died while I was landing with my 18m2 paraglider (The wind was rather strong when I started flying that day). I arrived too fast towards the end of our landing field with barb wires & several cows on the other side... I used the same technique I used with my other pragliders without knowing that this model didn't like pumping. It pulled be backward & droped like a stone... Luckily I was only at about 10m above the ground & suffered minor injury thanks to my airbag...😭😭😭
The s-turn example is so good!
Very helpful no matter if its paramotor foot launchers or wheels it's about flying the wing, thanks man.
very good. i would just warn people, when doing these extended (green) loops to avoid over-shooting to always be careful a) with how fast you get with a downwind component (even if it is just a little behind-ish) and b) if already stressed never stall at this altitude.... what people sometimes do when doing tight turns shortly before landing ... they are little heavy on the brakes already, then the tight turn takes them a little to far, they break even more.... and then.... we go to your SPIN video just with 20m of altitude left :D
if you dont know what you are doing, you better fly into some tree or someting straight out :D
i overshot a landing.. landed in the next field.. because i pussied out over trees due to the turbulence they made.. but this was in a crash-course.. and only one out of 12 landed in the right field.. a former speedrider landed in the wrong field..she taught me more about practical paragliding than my instructors ever did.. they were more interrested in the money than me actually learning to groundhandle
When that pilot at 1.44 was approching the LZ could he have used Big ears? better than going XC into trees or bridge.
We call it something like downfigure8ing not S-inng (abachteln) in German. It is imo more accurate description, as you explain to holding the line before final approach.
Great video as always Greg 👍👍🍀
@@atolica that was in no way meant to be criticism, just a side note.... And what I wanted to say
🙄😊
S and 8 aporoaches are two different things : when doing S each turn gets you closer to the terrain, while an 8 approach sees you staying at the same horizontal distance, doing your 8 above the terrain entrance. (and are pretty hard to execute without biting on the terrain if there's not a moderate amount of wind.)
Of course from an aerial perspective, you can be doing the exact same turns, the only difference is the wind strength.
@@booketoiles1600 thx for the info 👍
@@xistsixt and @bookman etoiles well it isnt that easy language wise... they actually are very different in my book as well, fun thing is, in some languages you get different explainations. I have had this happen with belgian students (who flew a different schools in their home country). When instructed to make an 8 approach, they started (what i call) S-ses and eat up their landing field. On debrief this confusion was made clear. What i took away from this: especially when talking to a multi national group, always explain at least verbally AND visually.
@@Flightcoach absolutely 👍
It may sound strange, but.. what if early legs-out limits pilot ability to maneuver before landing? This first mistake (slow S-turn) may be it is connected with less effective pilot position? Legs at the footplate may help to feel and control glider as usual, and it is not a big deal to throw legs out from "half-foot-out" landing position.
Please dont blame me, it is just my opinion.
Its a good question, weight shift has an impact on turning, but not nearly as much as pulling adequate brake. In this example the pilot has a split leg harness which is easy to weight shift even sitting upright.
I don't think the pilot is upright there, they just went from pod position to sitting, which is way safer in case of turbulences
I would say that it's important to be able to fly the glider well out of the harness. Where I'm from we call this "edge of the seatboard flying". Basically, you are out of the harness, but your head is still behind the risers so you can still get 80-90% of your weight shift authority. Once you are just about to land you can lean farther forwards and stick your head between the risers to be fully in the landing position. I like this technique because if you practice it a lot, you will feel very comfortable getting out of the harness at high altitudes which is one less thing to think about once you are on your final and you will be more prepared if you hit sudden sink/have a collapse/ or need to PLF your landing. Greg is always talking about getting your landing gear down early and I 100% agree--your back/spine is one of the most delicate parts of your body and a rolled ankle is a much better injury than fractured vertebrae. That's my perspective at least!
This is my main reason for following your channels, paragliders, for more than 10 YEARS. living at an altitude of 678 meters above sea level, looking at my place of origin at a height... while wishing I could fly above the earth's surface... because a paragliding parachute WILL NOT BE REACHABLE FOR ME......
Question from a relatively inexperienced pilot... Why don't you do big ears to drop a little altitude quickly?
very interesting video, as usual. I would have used the lift to my advantage to get back to the field. But he was either scared, or did not really set his mind on the landing spot
Absolutely. It comes from having huge landing fields in the UK so pilots don't practice lining up one spot ... it just gets pushed vaguely somewhere ahead as landing progresses.
Dear mister Greg. My name is Alexander. I am from Georgia. Tbilisi. I am your channel new subskriber. Your videos are one of the best explanation off teqnice ever i seen. You are super professional and experienced master. Therefore I have one question: which wing to buy: Nova Prion5 or Davinci point? I am beginner and what are you think about this companys?🇬🇪
I love your vids. Thx for your work mate.
Great stuff, Greg. Thank you!
I think that some pilots never practice enough diving coordinated 360's and so they don't feel confident when faced with the need to do them close to the ground.
Watched this video on the drive to a flight and ended up needing to use this.exact move when I got popped close to landing on a very small LZ.. Any forward progression and I'd have flown through as it's a short launch/LZ combo.
Glad it helped you!
My paragliding coach says same thing like you.
Could he have done a full 360 turn as well??
I would have also rather landed a little cross wind!
Gracias Greg
Hi Greg, thanks for your great tips. Good stuff.
Will Wing
Excellent video dude!
Love the lessons, being prepared for my training at Abington
Great dissection of a problematic landing for novice. I was wondering if the pilot had done a PTU procedure, there would been ample height and space fo correction. Could lose some height befor the down wind, and veering to base and then the final approach may have resulted in a more safer landing?
Great discussion
Brilliant. Thank you 👍
As a helicopter pilot who’s had to train for off airport autorotational (engine off) landings at least this part of paragliding I can easily understand 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 😁
Thanks.
Oooooof, that was rough! :( Thanks for the video!
Overshooting is perfectly okay! Especially if you fly a big FAI-triangle and want to squeeze out the last meters!
@3:15 i would head left to drop altitude en prepair landing un the rivver, that seem the nicest place for me/// no wind or less there and rock i kinda tricky but the place u where heading is descending toward the wind seem...
Never land on or close to a river If you don't want to endanger yourself.
Thanks 🙏
What about big ears? Can we use that? Any hazard if doing so?
Good question, I was wondering the same ;-)
@Dominik W. What i meant was, if we make the approach with big ears, then there are less chances of overshooting.
they can be used, I've certainly done it. but it is task loading at a critical time
I like your videos, I'm starting my training to become a pilot next week!
Best of luck!
Nice job Greg
Good stuff Greg.............thanks for putting this stuff out there!..................subbed, thought I was?
Nice explanation.
Hi Greg, what about using Big ears on approach and on landing? Is it safer than Butterfly landing? thanks
Butterfly landing are dangerous. Ears are (almost) never dangerous, but you have less control of your descent
Good question. Big ears approach is definitely useful in some situations, but I wouldn't recommend it over doing proper loops or a little butterfly as could have been used here. Big ears can complicate piloting and can be a real mess if you stall low, whereas butterfly is faster to recognise the approach to stall and easier to manage/adapt. Big ears is best with half speed bar, which means you come in fast and hard, so its best for windy landings and landing in strong lift.
wont it be better just to do big ears or b stall ?
Couldn't you turn at some point and into wind to slow you down and land on grass
The problem is it is sloping downhill, so doing that means you never touch down.
Hi Greg, I’m a beginner, BHPA CP/IPPI3 and enjoy your videos. Your recommendation to figure 8 is what I learned, but given the pilot in the video didn’t do that, wouldn’t it have been better for him to try and land downwind in the good landing zone rather than keep flying upwind and basically get lucky by not hitting the bridge, water, or power lines?
Probably depends on the windspeed but yes, I would think avoiding hazards in anything but strong wind is probably more important than landing into the wind into a hazard. That said, you should have the control to land into the wind AND avoid the hazards. Don't compromise! :)
Daniel Redding Yes, definitely. I was thinking more of having a plan C or D, with plan B being figure 8s prior to the landing zone.
Thank you Greg, the landing part is most difficult part for me. Butterfly landing in my paraschool is no-go solution, that is something that we are instructed not to do. So what?
DHV is currently researching a new and potentially safer technique, less close to stall point, which they might incorporate into training in the future. It works similar to airplane landing flaps. You go low on the brakes, about carabiner height, but also engage speed bar, to decrease your angle of attack again at the same time. This gives you a strong curve in the profile, with bad glide ratio (which is good to have available for landings) but in a very controlled manner. Caveats are that not many gliders are actively tested for this so far, so unstable edge cases depending on profile shape and rigging are not well known. Order of setting and releasing is also important, since sudden brake input on full speed bar can lead to frontal collapses.
This is the video that explains the technique. The talk is on German but it looks like someone provided English subtitles.
ruclips.net/video/pHmVgIqWUcE/видео.html
@@HermannLoose Sounds plausible. In theory at least. Same principle as on bigger airplanes with flaps on trailing edge and lowering the leading edge at the same time to create a high lift, high drag, slow flying wing with lower stallspeed. Question is, can this be achieved with a soft wing without creating problems?
@@Walkerjet200 Yeah, the main concern they voiced apart from whether people will maintain the correct order of steps was that it's not part of the EN or LTF certifications, so they would have to retest a lot of existing wings to flush out cases where it causes problems.
I'm not convinced it's safe. I'll comment on this in a proper video about the technique, but it does not replace the butterfly flare, it's more of a replacement for big ears approach. The butterfly is all about removing forward speed. Pushing speedbar inevitably increases forward speed and sink, so you're coming in hard and fast unless there is strong lift and wind. And for most pilots, in a stressful situation, having to follow precise sequences of bar and brakes is too challenging. You can stall that wing fast by coming off the bar, and you can collapse it fast by coming off the brakes at the wrong moment, and on some wings, just by pulling the brakes. During landing in a difficult spot? not a robust solution.
The only videos y watch on youtube: tas speedrun / variety of music / paragliding
GREG,this video have thought Me a lot about paragliding thus video is the best
My flying school has a precision landing target at ALL TIMES! And whoever misses it - gets viciously mocked for it. The target is less than two square feet in area. You designate you landing SPOT and stay upwind from it until you touch down. Lift? Good, hang in there some longer.
It is unimaginable to miss the landing by so much. Wouldn't even be allowed to try the exam for a license where I live. Schools giving licenses to anyone who can run down the hill without tangling up in the lines is an international disaster.
I feel very seen watching those leg movements in the air.
Are you now flying with Greg or Flybubble? Confusion :D Love your videos though! ;)
I must be missing something, but at 4:24 I feel like the left arrow suggest the pilot should turn and fly toward the bottom left (which is partially downwind?) and then turn a little more than 180 degrees to land toward the bottom right (which is also partially downwind?) I really want to understand this so any clarity would be greatly appreciated! I just got my P2 a week and a half ago and had to pull big ears last night in order to come down while flying the North Side of Point of the Mountain, Utah and the whole time I was concerned I might overshoot my landing. Fortunately I landed safely but I felt more lucky than skilled in that situation.
4:33 shows the landing tracks. 4:24 shows the looping turns done at altitude to fall back to the right approach. You'd use the same principles in a big ears landing approach, using weight shift to make wider loops.
Has fly with Greg taken over from flybubble series?
Maybe it’s because I’m inexperienced. In the video just after he hit some lift and had to angle for the river- I looked up and checked the river bed and noticed the bridge and noticed a large tree.
I think I’d have put myself into that tree having kissed the chance to land up slope.
Looks like someone already landed near that house. There was a windsock there.
Is it okay to land in the woods if you are already a lumberjack?😷😁
How could you ever overshoot the landing zone with a paraglider? Landing that thing is like going down with an elevator, it's not langing, it's a step to the ground. Landing a hangglider is landing...
Butterfly landing..never heard of it. It is a little bit unclear for me. Is this the "pumping technique"?
I think yes, it's a quite risky maneuver I heard since tou get to almost stall point, it's a bit weird Greg just says "go practice that" without further explanation or warning.
Overshooting landing can be risky, but a low stall while trying to do a perfect target is an ambulance call at best.
yeah, `pumping the brakes` technique.
As bookman says, when low and if turbulent can be dangerous>
If you`re not comfortable with your stall point or if turbulant air, prob best to avoid IMO.
no, unfortunately 'pumping the brakes' is what pilots who haven't learned the right technique do, and that is risky and often results in a low level stall. Butterfly approach is a useful 'last resort' trick to fix an overshoot when other methods have failed. (you'll see Xalps pilots using it all the time in tight landing spots). I'll do a lesson on it sometime (although you can see it demonstrated in this video). In the meantime, the displayed exercise was 'landing crosswind' which is fairly easy to work out and practice on your own.
Greg, do you already have thoughts on this technique: ruclips.net/video/pHmVgIqWUcE/видео.html
From an aerodynamics perspective it seems more stable, especially when used early and in a degressive manner to fine tune your angle on approach?
04:24
EDIT : MISREAD ARROW, WHOLE COMMENT IS MOOT
On one of the drawings you recommend turning away from the terrain, but that can be a risky move, a downwind turn will always bring you way farther than expected and risks getting you out of range of the landing field.
That's why wether doing S or 8 approach, always turn upwind, and that's why you need to start those two approaches at a lowish angle to the terrain since bad upwind turns will eat up the distance you need for landing.
neither of those turns are downwind, they show the pilot continuing an into-wind turn for long enough to make the exit track cross-downwind to correct the position. At the height this pilot is at, it's the right move.
@@FlyWithGreg Oh my bad, I read the left arrow in the wrong direction, sorry ^^'''
Fly With Greg I must be missing something, but I also feel like the left arrow suggest the pilot should turn and fly toward the bottom left (which is partially downwind?) and then turn a little more than 180 degrees to land toward the bottom right (which is also partially downwind?) I really want to understand this so any clarity would be greatly appreciated! I just got my P2 a week and a half ago and had to pull big ears last night in order to come down while flying the North Side of Point of the Mountain, Utah and the whole time I was concerned I might overshoot my landing. Fortunately I landed safely but I felt more lucky than skilled in that situation.
I think you got it wrong.
The biggest mistake here is the flight planning. There is no good landing area here.
The landing field is way too bad.
It's not flat.
You have trees on three sides.
You have a road and a slope on the fourth side.
There is no error margin here and no good position to loose height.
The best place for doing this is on the near right side, but it's again restricted by trees and even a house.
Better to just loose height directly over the field and then glide down the slope with minimal height and eventually land.
Or fligh to the far right side. There seems to be a fairly big field out there and no trees in the way.
anyone has a link to the original footage?
facebook.com/jammyhl/videos/1051941218174208
Butterfly is my best (what i saw)
Bom dia .
As he gets nearer to the ground, he needs to unstrap his parachute from 200 feet and freefall the rest of the way.
Well, just go around.😁
finally he was landing with the WOUND :D
I had a "Oh shit power lines" moment on a downward sloping land out field. I didn't want to overshoot into them, so I turned 90* and fly into the side of a slope. Fast landing, but not powerlines and not trees. Here is he video. I had about 2 hours post CP.
vimeo.com/51862584
so sad , enjoing the flight , sufering the landing
i found myself screaming JAMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEES
That guy was pumping his breaks at the end because there was a power line right there at the bridge.
"breaks" 😆
🤩
Landing in the bush and walk away from that is a good landing :) Pilot was thinking Not there oh not here this no not here definetely not here and he sees the bridge and he says thats a good landing point but he passes that lovely bridge. He could just cruise to the other side of the river.
I have done the same mistake just needed butterfly landing but afraid or hessitated to do it and past a football field long landing endded up in an olive tree.
oops >_< Is he alright?
Pull those Big Ears in Lol
Like he ' s flying and landing, he must be a beginner, i think