Paragliding and Hang Gliding
Porterville is an unspoilt country town offering diversity, hospitality as well as iconic paragliding and hang gliding opportunities to make adventure seekers from all over the world flock to the area. The mountainous region offers an ideal base from which gliders can initiate their flying experience, while the active sky and powerful thermals provide the perfect flying conditions.
The Groot Winterhoek Nature Reserve is the locale from which most paragliding and hang gliding takes place in Porterville. Many international and national championships took place here, most notably, the World Hang Gliding Championship of 1986.
Though conceptually similar, there are a few differences between hang gliding and paragliding. For starters, hang gliders incorporate a heavy type of sailcloth material, which is stretched over the gliding frame in order to create a rigid airfoil. Whereas paragliders utilise a parachute canopy that behaves as a wing and is composed of cloth cells, which have openings at the front.
This allows inflation to occur when it moves through the air and is called the ram-air effect. Paragliders are also lighter than hang gliders making the former easier to carry than hang gliders, which requires considerable planning to transport.
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