FreeFlight
The Journal
How to Read a Wind Window Before You Launch
A practical walk-through of headwind and crosswind components, why the angle of the wind matters as much as its speed, and how to build the habit of checking both before you commit to launch.
Understanding Wing Loading: Why the Same Glider Flies Differently for Every Pilot
Wing loading is simple arithmetic — total weight divided by wing area — but it quietly shapes turn speed, stall behaviour, and how forgiving a glider feels. Here's what the number actually means in the air.
Glide Ratio Explained: How Far Can You Really Go From That Altitude
Glide ratio tells you how far a wing travels for every metre of height lost — but wind changes what that number means over the ground. Here's how to think about both.
Reading Thermals: The Weather Signs Every Pilot Should Know
Long before you feel a thermal in the wing, the sky and the ground around you are often showing signs of where and when it triggered. A guide to reading those cues.
Choosing Your First Harness: A Beginner's Guide to Fit and Safety
A harness is worn on every single flight, yet it's often the last piece of kit new pilots think carefully about. Here's what actually matters when choosing one.
What to Expect from a Paragliding Course: From Ground Handling to Your First Solo Flight
A realistic look at how a beginner paragliding course is usually structured, what each stage is actually teaching you, and why the ground-handling phase matters more than it seems.
Big Ears, B-Line Stalls, and Spirals: An Introduction to Descent Techniques
Sometimes you need to lose height quickly and safely — an overview of the three most common controlled-descent techniques, what each does, and why they belong in supervised training, not a first solo attempt.
Planning a Flight From Numbers — and Where They Stop
Most of what decides a flight happens before you get to the hill. Here is what the arithmetic can settle in advance, and where it stops.
What These Numbers Cannot Tell You
This site computes glide ratios, wing loading, sink and climb rates, wind components and harness bands. It is worth being explicit about what none of them…
Polar Figures vs the Glide You Actually Get
Every glider comes with performance figures, and every pilot eventually discovers their wing does not achieve them. That gap is not a defect in the wing or…
Harness Sizing Is Two Numbers, and They Can Disagree
Harness sizing looks like a single question and is really two, which is why the answer sometimes comes back contradictory.
Reading Your Vario: Climb and Sink as Numbers
Climb and sink are the same measurement with opposite signs, and both are just altitude change over time. Turning them into numbers you can compare between…