This idea will probably get me killed

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Or at the very least hospitalized, for serious injury as well as suspected mental instability. But I digress.

Basically, last night I had a dream I was flying on a hang glider of some sort. Since then, my mind has been brimming with ideas for this kind of "giant kite" large enough to carry a somewhat slender 150-pound male human (namely, myself) strapped to the ground facing side. I'm thinking some heavy-duty nylon tarp material over a lightweight PVC frame (1/2 inch to 3/4 inch piping should work great.) All I have to do is get some kind of climbing harness to attach to the bottom (should be readily available near the Vedauwoo area), then some kind of winch to hold the cable, and let the Wyoming wind do the rest.

What do you think?

I thought they had those. Sounds awesome! Be careful!

It is better to use carbo fiber rather than PVC. I think PVC may very well break.

You would need gale force winds to hold you up and sometimes kites dive bomb into the ground faster than if they simply fell (especially when getting them up and bringing them down) so that would be incredibly risky.

Does sound dangerous, maybe you could get the same effect if you had a helium ballon on the end of a long steel wire. I think that some sort of helium filled ballon was used in the UK in the 1980s for the training of paras.

The helium ballon will lift you into the ait without the need for a constant wind.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

up in the air is an awfully long way up, to catch an unfortunate draft back down to the ground. i know of at least one hang glider pilot who is now a quad [paralyzed] from just such an accidental downdraft. if this happens to you, and you survive, you will have many years of paralysis ahead of you. you are worth taking extra precautions. such as reconsidering your present plan.
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just my 2-cents' worth, adjusted for inflation

3 words:

get a dummy.


Such experiments are fun, but leave the test pilotage to someone made of plastic.

I agree about the PCV -- probably too weak/flimsy. Carbon fiber would probably be hugely expensive. Maybe aluminum tubing (also a bit expensive, tho, last time I checked).

sounds cool but if you want an easy way to do this then you should kitesurf. In strong winds i can easilly jump 40 or more feet high within about 1 second and can glide for 50-60 metres along. It is the most astounding thing. or you could get into paragliding.

still. this sounds like an interesting idea but without knoing a lot about aerodynamics and stability i would not try it. ready made hangliders are not that common anymore because they are unstable enough already. paragliders are where it is at.

Exactly, for a tough job, hire a dummy. And he doesn't mind if you laugh when he gets horribly injured.