Paragliders 2005

Paragliders 2005. Well, it was a good year with plenty of safe, DHV-certified and beautifully built paragliders from the world's top paraglider manufacturers. Let's take a quick peek at some of the most important stats and specs.

All manufacturers, as far as I know, who released a certified paraglider in 2005 are represented below. I've listed the canopies in order of rating from DHV 1 upwards, figuring that's going to be the most convenient for most people. It seems to be the case these days that a competition paraglider is less likely to be certified, hence you won't find many here. Actually, the DHV 1 / CEN Standard rating appears to be the most popular. At least based on the number of paraglider designs released by the manufacturers.

The purpose of the links below is to allow quick and easy comparison of information on the various paraglider designs in Paragliders 2005. The info is based on what the manufacturers typically publish for a new paraglider.

Here They All Are!

Some of you might be interested in a few general notes on the paraglider info presented above.

Pilot Feedback

A big thank-you to the regulars at Paragliding Forum, who provided great feedback while I finalized what information to include for my Paragliders 2005 pages.

These guys are very keen flyers whose opinions count due to their extensive hands-on experience. Here are some general points that came out with regard to choosing a new paraglider:

• more than one person remarked on how they consider DHV rating vs performance specs, rather than each by itself
• the old favorites sink rate and L/D are as popular as ever, I can relate to this as an ex-sailplane pilot :-)
• overall build quality of most wings and associated paragliding equipment has become remarkably good and consistent, in recent years
• speed range or top speed was mentioned more than once
• handling and feedback of course, but this is best determined by actually flying the wing!
• heavy control pressures at any time in brake toggles or speed bar are probably not a great move for any manufacturer

Need Even More Info?

Now I bet some of you are after even more information on a wing or 2 you have seen in Paragliders 2005. The best source for in-depth and complete info about paragliders would have to be at P@r@2000. Actually, spelling it as Para2000 is easier to type! You have to dig a little for some of the info, but it's all there.

Regarding the selected wing data on this site, Gérard Florit kindly gave permission for me to reproduce it from his great database.

That includes the nifty little wing graphic that I've re-colored to illustrate all the paraglider color schemes. In fact, the colors have been obtained from other graphics on Gérard's site.

Last updated: 3 Jun 2009

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