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Vario seat, sellette de pilotage.


The "vario seat" is an harness of paraglider provided with a wood or policarbonate plate of seat (like the majority) but with the difference that the bands are anchored under this plate. A vario seat don't have main musketoons, and the bands fix directly to under the plate chair.

The concept was applied to the first paraglides and had quite a lot of success towards 1990, especially in the paraglides of the manufacturer "ITV International Technique Voilerie" where all their models (except the basic ones) brought.

The system is simple and intuitive: inclining the weight towards ahead transfers the weight on the leading bands and the wing speeds (the same as to apply the pedal of the classical accelerator), applying the weight behind the wing takes incidence month and him ralentitza, inducing the weight in a side or the other one the wing tour towards that side. The combination of this four movements in a well regulated chair to the pilot and to the wing produces a very effective control about the wing and a sensation of very soft and pleasant flight.

If the chair is badly regulated, the wing not him much stable aerodynamically and moreover we find turbulencia strong, then the paraglide can be difficult to control, and have problems like together to have the too much perforated wing or losses to soak too much slow in the stopped position. This difficulty and the fact that the paraglides with chair of pilotage had less gone out commercial brought progresivament to their abandonment.


It has rained quite a lot from 1992 in that the champion Robbie Whitall won the worlds of paraglide, precisely using a "Firebird Ninja" provided with a vario seat.

From the Laboratory we believe that it is possible and interesting to adapt vario seats again on some current up-to-date paraglides of class Standard, 1, ó 1-2, and we are carrying research in this sense.

From the position neuter, it is very easy to transform the movement of the chair into the equivalent for the accelerator. The rank among the position neuter and the maximum angle of incidence the one that is necessary is to study with detail and to put ribbons of limitation in mode that does not leave the paraglide in stall. It is easy to adapt chairs of pilotage on paraglides of three bands and that of four, like the majority of current paragliders.


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Fig 1. Geometric principle of a vario seat of three bands.


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Fig 2. Principle of operation of a vario seat of three bands provided with limiting strap
for great angles of incidence (type ITV Meteor)


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