Joe Greblo, he of flaring after you land fame, was telling me
about another technique that he has been encouraging his students to use. He
reminds me that while hang gliders don't have rudders while they are in the air,
they do when you are on the ground. With your feet on the ground you can yaw
your glider to balance it. You are not restricted to just roll and pitch
movements when you are on the ground.


This additional axis which you can use to control your glider can be used
successfully when you are approaching launch, on launch, and when landing, if
you get your feet on the ground. For example, say you are coming in to land,
close to the ground, one of your wings gets popped up. You have the choice of
controlling your glider by weight shift (the roll axis), or getting you feet on
the ground and then yawing the glider to straighten it back out.


Which one you would choose to use depends on how fast you are going and how
close to the ground you are. The wing popping up action most often happens when
you have slowed down and are about to put your feet down. Instead of trying to
save the landing with weight shift or an aggressive flare, just lower the angle
of attack and run out the landing, while you yaw the nose toward the lifting
wing.