Looping

Description:

During the Looping, the pilot passes above the middle of the canopy. This is one of the oldest aerobatic manouvres what was invented around 1994 by the acro pioneer, André Bucher.

Entry from Asymmetric Spiral:

Build up a dynamic Asymmetric Spiral. Once the timing is good and you have lot’s of energy, reverse the turning direction of the Asymmetric Spiral and pulling the next turn to the other side, just like in a Wing-Over.

When you start practice this trick, start extreme weight shifting quite early, just after you pass the highest point in the last asymmetric turn. Then pull the brake just before you would swing back straight under the glider. By doing this Looping won’t be so high, but faster and safer. Then, if you feel confident, start the looping later and later (even after you pass the lowest point) until you roll very high above the glider. If the pendulum is big enough, the lines will be tight all the way, so you don’t have to brake the glider at the highest point, however sometimes you have to brake very hard to prevent a huge collapse.

Entry from Deep Spiral

At the old times, before the Asymmetric Spiral was invented, the pilots entered loops from Deep Spirals, but many times they ended up falling down next to (or into!) their canopy. I strongly advise you not to try this technique unless you are very confident with Loopings entered from an Asymmetric Spiral and you have a dynamic glider.
Actually, because there’s more energy in the Deep Spiral than in the Asymmetric Spiral, you can do the highest and the most beautiful Loopings like this. In general with gliders which make nice and high wing-overs, it’s really easy to do the Spiral-Loop. Anyway, it can be very risky!

Accelerate the glider into a Deep Spiral gradually by braking and weight shifting. After a few turns, when the glider is already in front of you (the leading edge starts to be facing the ground) and the centrifugal force is already pushing you back in the harness, release the inner brake immediately, shift your weight to the other side as much as you can (take care to dive symmetrically under the wing, as you come out from the spiral) and add massive amount of brake input at the lowest point or even a bit later. Take care of the outside wingtip while you are accelerating into the Spiral. If it collapses you may lose lot’s of energy , so you should reopen it and stabilize the descent again before starting the Loop. If your glider has the tendency to do this, you should apply some outside brake in the Spiral to prevent it.
Make sure to have enough energy for the Looping. It’s better to have more speed than less, otherwise you can easily get huge collapses and even fall into the canopy!

Entry from Wing-Over

You can also increase the amplitude of a Wing-Over gradually until you do series of inversions but it needs a really dynamic glider.

Exit:

Bleed out the energy gradually completing 1-2 turns.

Dangers!

If you don’t have enough energy to loop you can easily get very big collapses and cravattes, and there is a high risk to fall among the lines or even into the canopy. Be very advanced with big Wing-Overs and Asymmetric Spirals, before you try this trick.