Techniques

Landing involves lining up for an approach into wind and, just before touching down, flaring the wing to minimise vertical and or horizontal speed. This consists of gently going from 0% brake at around two meters to 100% brake when touching down on the ground. In light winds, some minor running is common. In moderate to medium headwinds, the landings can be without forward speed, or even going backwards with respect to the ground in strong winds, but this would usually mean that the conditions were too strong for that glider.

Additionally, at around four meters before touching ground, some momentary braking 50% for around two seconds can be applied then released, thus using forward pendular momentum to gain speed for flaring more effectively and approaching the ground with minimal vertical speed. For strong winds during landing, two techniques are common the first, flapping the wing to make it lose performance and thus descend faster by alternatively braking and releasing around once per second though the danger of inducing a stall during this manoeuvre makes it an experts only technique, and the second, collapsing the wing immediately after touchdown to avoid being dragged, by either braking at maximum or quickly turning around and pulling down the D risers the last set of risers from the leading edge.