Paraglider Performance Comparison - You can help
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About this Project

Why I did this.
When trying to compare wing performance, we are left without the tools to perform a valid comparison. Trying to use a wing manufacturer's claims is equivalent to listening to car salesmen, boosting performances to suit your appetite. This project is designed to provide you with data that can help you make valid comparisons and rely on measurements performed independently from the companies than have a direct profit in selling you a wing. You should also be able to get a grasp over the trade-off in performance in comparison to a wing's Universal Rating.

How I did it.
I used the JavaScript language, which is an extension of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), to set all the data I collected from my magazine collection inside the source code, and establish functions that will generate on-the-fly a table that can be used to do comparisons of wing performance. I used the Java language to create the graph of the Polar Curve.

Trying to choose your next wing ?
For some advice, see Choosing Your Next Wing, which is part of Tips for Paraglider Pilots.

Disclaimer.
The author will not be responsible for damage or financial loss resulting from the use of this project.

"To do" list. In order of importance :

• Consider sink rate as possible min value, for data points without speed. Parapente Mag sometimes does not give the speed for the reported minimum sink rate (Arcane, Omega 6).
• In addition to the headwind, also consider lift/sink. Transform GRw into GRwl.
• Show the best GRwl speed in the polar curve plots.
• Fix the crash under Mac OS and Netscape 4.7. Note : No problem with Mac OS and IE5, Windows 95/98/NT and IE (4, 5, 5.5) or Netscape.