Hang Gliding

Hang Gliding is an air sport and recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing, heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider, most often built from an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered with synthetic sailcloth to form the wing, with the pilot suspended in a harness beneath it and steering by shifting body weight against a control frame. Early hang gliders had a lift-to-drag ratio too poor for anything but a downhill glide, but by the 1980s improved designs let pilots soar for hours at a time, climb thousands of metres on rising thermal air currents, perform aerobatic manoeuvres and fly cross-country for hundreds of kilometres. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale and national aviation authorities regulate aspects of the sport, and professional instruction is strongly recommended and, in many places, legally required before flying unsupervised.