The Challenge of Flying Walkalong Gliders
Good designs for walkalong gliders must be stable in freeflight and fly slow enough that a person can keep up with the glider as it flies. Slow aircraft designs have low wing loadings (the ratio of total weight to wing area). Please see the table of walkalong glider wingloadings and minimum sink speeds. Typical flight characteristics are a descent rate of not more than 1 meter every 2.5 seconds. The glide ratio does not need to be particularly high, at least 1 meter forward for each meter of descent. The process of flying a walkalong glider in this manner is also called controllable slope soaring.

Because walkalong gliders fly at relatively slow airspeeds they become increasingly difficult to control when light
turbulence or wind shear is encountered. Thus the calmer the air, the easier it is to control the glider. Even indoors, forced air circulation and/or heating radiators will affect the movement of the air and thus the control of the glider. If you don't succeed in one area of a room, try a different corner or different halls or rooms as buildings may have good and bad neighborhoods to fly in. If there is air movement down a corridor, any protrusions produce turbulence and slower air. The gliders lack the fuselage and empennage we are used to seeing on most airplanes and are not as stable in turbulence. The gliders can be flown outdoors in calm conditions. These conditions usually happen when a temperature inversion is present. Temperature inversions are strongest in the early morning, before the sun has had a chance to heat the earth.

Bear in mind that walkalong gliders are using what is known as ridge lift to stay up. An excellent rundown of other forms of lift used by real gliders can be found
here (for a great shot of real gliders flying in ridge lift see the 3rd section titled "Racing in Ridge Lift"). In this picture the wind is blowing purpendicular to the ridge, allowing the gliders to fly up the ridge.

Picture of the
X-Surfer in flight (photo by Peter Hewitt).

Scientific American Frontiers
Flying Free Episode.

Flying a Walkalong Glider Using Controllable Slope Soaring

Videos of people flying walkalong gliders

Lesson Plans for X-Surfer Flight Instruction

Advanced Walkalong Glider Flight Technique

Bare Hand Flying of Walkalong Gliders

Copyright Phil Rossoni, 3/6/03