25 Jul Paraglider Classification: Classes A, B, C and D

When a paraglider is described as certified, the reference is a single European standard, EN 926. There are not several competing systems, although it is often told that way.

The standard has two parts

EN 926-1 puts the wing through structural strength testing. It checks that the glider withstands loads far above anything it will meet in flight, and that it survives a shock test without failing.

EN 926-2 is the one that gives the letter. A test pilot flies 24 standardised manoeuvres — inflation, take-off, landing, speed measurement, frontal and asymmetric collapses, spin recovery, full stall, B-line stall, big ears, spiral dive — and records how the wing reacts and how much input it needs to fly normally again.

The four classes

The standard defines each class in these words:

• A. Paragliders with maximum passive safety and extremely forgiving flying characteristics.
• B. Paragliders with good passive safety and forgiving flying characteristics.
• C. Paragliders with moderate passive safety and with potentially dynamic reactions to turbulence and pilot errors.
• D. Paragliders with demanding flying characteristics and potentially violent reactions to turbulence and pilot errors.

The scale does not measure quality or performance. It measures how much the wing forgives, and how much skill it takes to recover it.

What the classification does not tell you

It is worth knowing that the tests are flown in calm air. Take-off and landing are tested with wind below 8 km/h, and the collapses are induced by the test pilot under control. The standard does not reproduce real turbulence, because there would be no repeatable way to do it. A class A wing on a rough day is still a wing on a rough day.

The German LTF is the same standard

You will often read that a separate German system exists. That has not been the case since 2010, when the LTF was harmonised with the European standard. They now share the same manoeuvres and the same A, B, C and D classes, and a wing is certified with a single joint report naming both.

The old numbered categories — 1, 1-2, 2, 2-3 — were withdrawn at that point. And the DHV, often quoted as if it were a third set of rules, is a test house, not a standard. It was the only one in the German-speaking world, which is how its initials ended up being used as a synonym for the class itself. That numbering survives only in hang gliders.

Competition is separate

Top-level competition wings are not governed by the EN scale but by the CCC class, defined by the FAI with its own requirements. Acro wings usually carry no flight classification at all, or pass only the 926-1 structural test, because the manoeuvres they are built for fall outside what the standard covers.

What this means on a tandem flight

A passenger does not choose the wing. The pilot does, and commercial flying is done on certified gliders, which EN 926-2 also covers in two-seater configuration.

The Enminube tandem flies on a wing certified in class B, meaning good passive safety and forgiving behaviour as the standard defines it. It is not the most demanding class, and it is not meant to be. When the person up front has never flown before, what matters in a wing is that it forgives.

What really protects that flight is not the letter on the certificate but everything that comes after it. That the equipment goes through regular inspection, that fabric porosity and the reserve parachute repack are checked, and that the person behind you holds a licence and has the hours. Certification is the starting point, not the finish line.

If you want the practical side of all this, here is how safe tandem paragliding actually is, and here are the flying areas in northern Tenerife.