23 Jul Paraglider Types

Talking about types of paraglider usually mixes two separate questions. One is how much the wing demands of the pilot, which is what its certification class says. The other is what it is built for, which is its purpose. The two are independent: a wing made for walking up mountains can be class A, B or C.

The class is not a type of paraglider

The letters A, B, C and D come from the flight tests of the EN 926 standard. They measure how the wing behaves once it has been deformed and how much pilot input it takes to fly again. An A recovers almost by itself, a D asks for a correct and quick reaction. What each test actually measures is set out in paraglider classification.

What the letter does not say is what the wing is for. It says how demanding it is to fly, and nothing else.

The purposes, which are something else

School. Wings that forgive mistakes, almost always class A. The point is tolerance, not distance.

Recreational and cross-country flying. The ground covered by class B and part of C. Better glide and more speed than a school wing, in exchange for more attention.

Competition. The FAI’s CCC class, not EN-C. It is a certification of its own, beyond EN-D, and is only used in category 1 competitions.

Acro. Smaller wings with reinforced lines to take the loads of the manoeuvres. They carry no flight class: they pass the EN 926-1 load test or are not certified at all, because the manoeuvres they fly fall outside what the standard tests.

Tandem. Greater area and certification for two people. They carry an EN class too, like any other wing.

Lightweight and hike and fly. The same design as a normal wing in lighter cloth and lines, so it can be carried uphill in a rucksack. Hike and fly is not a class, it is a weight.

The two most repeated confusions

The first is assuming competition flies in EN-C. FAI competition wings are in the CCC class, which exists precisely because the performance they aim for falls outside what the EN scale covers.

The second is calling acro EN-D. EN-D is the most demanding class of a normal flying wing, the one flown by a pilot with many hours in rough air. An acro wing is a different thing and carries no letter.

The wing a passenger flies under

On a tandem flight the passenger does not choose the wing, so it is worth knowing what is chosen for them. The Enminube tandem is class EN-B, the band where the wing is still forgiving but already flies well. For a commercial flight with someone who has never flown, going above that adds nothing for the passenger.

The conditions and the length of a tandem flight depend more on the air and the site than on the equipment, and the flying areas in the north of Tenerife run from Teide to the Isla Baja.