As a paraglider pilot I found it pretty hard to compare different paragliders, almost none of the paraglider manufacturers provide performance data about their gliders. The choice of a glider is often based on the reputation of it and the trust we put on the manufacturer.

That’s why I decided to work on massively analysing flight track log files. At first it was only for me as I saw doubsque work on reddit and wanted to have the same results with more modern gliders. I then decided to create this website as I got pretty relevant results that deserved to be shared. I hope it will be useful for other pilots to compare a bit more deeply the performance between two gliders.

I will try to keep the data updated as much as possible, I would like to do monthly updates for the newest paragliders to be added frequently. I also wish to improve the statistic algorithm to be able to get better and better result. You will find below some details about the logic of computation and explanations about the resulted data.

Basile, french paraglider pilot.

How are the data computed ?

The data on comparaglider are computed based on public flight track log files over a wide range of flights and pilots to get average results over differents use of a wing and weather conditions.

Only the minimum 1 min long nearly straitght glides are took for computation, only the transition parts of the flight are relevant for compution as they are less impacted by the pilot. We don’t take in consideration the size of the wing and its weight load, neither of the pilots flying conditions (harness type, usage of brakes and accelerator) and flying skills. Comparison between 2 gliders may only be relevant on the same category as differences in pilot levels tends to affect the resulted data.

How can you interpret the data ?

In comparaglider you will find 3 types of data that are all important to look at for a glider. The speed in km/h, the sink rate in m/s and the glide ratio which is deducted out of both for every flight.

• The glide ratio is a good indicator of performance but not the most important one as it depends on the speed and the sink rate which can be impacted by a lot of factors.
• The speed can be a good tool to compare differences in acceleration under same class gliders. A better speed between 2 gliders may be translated in a better acceleration, it will be truer for the more demanding class of gliders as pilots will accelerate more often with them.
• The sink rate is impacted by weight load under the wing and the use of the accelerator. It is a good indicator as the less impacted by weather conditions.

Why light versions of some gliders appears with a bigger glide ratio ?

The glide ratio of the wing is a result of the horizontal speed divided by the sink rate. It is commonly said that modern performance oriented gliders have a better glide ratio accelerated than not, because the speed as a lot of impact as long as your glider keeps a decent sink rate.

For most of the gliders, the computed speed is closer to the trim speed than the accelerated speed. If you look for example at the comparison of the maestro 2 vs the maestro 2 light you will see that the non light version is slower but as also a slightly better sink rate. It is the same for most of the light versions of the gliders, we can deduce that a light version of a glider will sink more at trim speed and get quicker which result in a better computed glide ratio. But we can guess that the non light version will be better accelerated as it will keep a better sink rate.

What is the difference between the median and the average ?

In statistic the median is the exact middle result for a given sorted dataset. It is almost every time a better indicator than the average because it does not take into account the extreme values.