An introduction to hang gliding

Now hang gliding is a sport that I have dabbled in some years ago. The main thing in common is that the pilot does hang underneath the wing of both kinds of aircraft! However, this sport is very different from paragliding in some respects. For a start, hang gliders are rigid-winged craft that in most cases have material stretched taut over an assembly of spars. The pilot hangs in a harness from near the center, and holds onto a horizontal bar to control the craft in the air. When the pilot shifts his or her weight, the craft can be made to climb or dive and turn from side to side. These gliders are transported on the roof racks of a car. Many motorists have seen the long narrow bag on another car and wondered what was inside!. By contrast, paragliders look and fly something like sports parachutes. The pilot hangs in a harness attached to the lines, and controls the craft via 2 'brakes', one on each side. Pulling one brake line at a time will turn the paraglider, while pulling both at once slows down the forward speed and descent rate of the paraglider just prior to landing. The basic flying skills are easier than those for flying a hang glider. Transporting a paraglider is as simple as lugging a large back-pack around. They can be put in the boot (trunk) of a car or even taken on board a commercial plane flight. As far as being able to fly free like a bird, the sensation is similar in both craft! Hang glider pilots will claim that they are the most bird-like of all. I kind of agree, having flown both kinds of gliders myself. Each form of soaring has its own special attraction though.

Planning for an adventure

Before planning for an adventure that is of high risk, a person should consider the following.Someone who understands the character of his own life must have some sort of view of its different periods, but must also be aware of its finitude. But this fact of finitude has important repercussions for our attitudes towards the different epochs of a single life. Older people sometimes envy the young for having so much of their lives left to live, and the young, in turn, often feel sorry for older people because they have so little time remaining. Having a substantial amount of time left is thus often thought to be of positive value, and judgments about how fortunate a given person is at a given time seem to depend not only on what is happening to him and what he is doing at that time, but on our estimation of how much time the person can reasonably count on in the future. A corollary of this view might be that we should consider the unity of life to be understood in the context of finitude. Might this not give us reason to value certain lifetime slices more than others without being drawn to the idea that we are necessarily irrational? Why is temporal egalitarianism thought to be obligatory for the prudent-rational planner? It is not for no reason that the utilitarians thought propinquity and certainty were criteria for moral judgements. Other things being equal we ought to prefer those acts whose satisfactions are nearer in time or more certain to be the consequences of our actions. Of course the key idea here is ‘other things being equal’. And how are we fully to know the conditions of the future in our planning rationally for it?

Adventurous activity and its risks

There are people in the world who are interested in risk and risk-taking would surprise no-one I venture. That there should be such a thing as the philosophy of sport, and a well-established tradition of scholarship in it, surprises most academics I meet. That there might be philosophers, professionally interested in adventure, risk and risk-taking may well, however, raise more than a few eyebrows. A person sceptical of the legitimacy of these interests might well ask: ‘Aren’t philosophers to be found in their dust-crusted studies; wearing slippers and ancient woollen sweaters pondering the meaning of great theses?’ Or, less ironically: ‘What do they know of wild water, falling from the sky, climbing mountains and traversing ice and snow with ski or board, who pride themselves merely on clarifying the nature of thought and language and their relations to the world?’ Or, perhaps the more informed and comically inclined might ask: ‘Is it not the case that the only slippery slopes they know of are the ones from informal logic?’ Such a set of biases is not entirely unfounded given the stereotypes of philosophy and philosophers. It is this relation – between ‘prudence’ and ‘rationality’ – that will be the object of these introductory remarks about the idea of a philosophical interest in adventure sports and risk.

Finding Sports Instruction

Many people every year decide to try their hand at a new sport. However, it is not always as easy as dropping by the local park for a game of drop in football. What if a person wants to learn to play hockey? Or if someone has just moved into a new house near a golf course and wants to pick up some pointers on how to play, and get the most use out of their new location? Finding sports instruction can be a challenge, but it doesn't have to be. Knowing where to look is half the battle.
First, research is important before a single piece of sports equipment is purchased. "Is this sport right for me?" is a question that must be honestly answered. Will there be ample time and space to practice? If a person is interested in pick up games or even joining an amateur league, are those things available locally? If not, how dedicated is the person to driving a long distance to pursue the sports hobby? The best way to fail at any given sport is to fail to think it through before deciding to begin.
Next, go to the location where the sport will take place. If it is ice skating, drop by the local rink. If it is golf, head to the golf course and go to the clubhouse. Talk with the staff and find out if anyone offers lessons locally. Many times, sports facilities will offer group lessons for low cost for people to try their hand at a new sport. Being with others who are taking the same lessons can also be a great way to make new friends. However, if more intensive instruction is desired, private lessons can also be arranged. No matter which method is chosen, the benefits of sports instruction are greater skill and enjoyment at the game of choice.

A gliding experience !

When was your first travel by flight or by ship? Your stomach would sure have had its share of butterflies when the engines started and the big machine started to make a move. Yes, everyone who is on their first travel on a airplane would have had this special feeling of exhiliration and endless thrill. When the machine starts to make its initial move and the wheels underneath you start to roll, you feel something inside you which says "Get ready for the first true ride of your life" and yes, it was never wrong. Minutes pass by and you calmly settle down for some stuffs to gulp down your throat which provide some relief to the butterflies that were flying in your stomach. This first experience of flying can never be erased from our memories and people share to stomach hurting laughters to their family and family. This blog of mine is aimed to share that travel experiences of mine which i usually share with my friends and family. Truth to tell, life in itself is a gliding experience indeed and these travels that we share are just a part of the big gliding experience.