Problem: The Paragliding Packing Battle
Ever had a battle trying to get a large pod paragliding harness into its backpack? I have a bulky Sup Air Sharmane Full Race harness. With its airbag and neoprene pod, it is often very awkward to get into the backpack. Sometimes, in our hot southern California conditions, we pack up after cross country flights in temperatures of 100 degrees (37 Celsius). Any less effort required to pack up in those conditions makes a difference to your mood and tiredness at the end of the day!As an competition pilot, I am also aware of the importance of a fixed and efficient routine on launch. All paragliding pilots learn routine safety checks before you fly. But often what happens before that as we unpack our gear is just as important in terms of your state of mind before you fly, especially if you are fighting the extra dose of nerves that come in a competition. Losing a key piece of gear or having to repack you backpack twice into your harness can unsettle you. The effect of this can be taking off in a less than optimum mental state, which adds just one extra small risk factor into our flying. This is something every pilot should be seeking to avoid.
Thinking about this all made me wonder why harness manufacturers don't more often build the backpack into the harness, making it exactly the right size for the harness. For some reason, when we buy a paraglider, a pack is almost always included. When we buy a harness, unless it is a rare reversible or convertible design, the pack is not included. Paragliders are almost always more or less the same physical size when packed. But depending on the design, harnesses are not! They come in all different styles and sizes and would benefit from having a custom fitted backpack. It would make much more sense for the harness to come with the backpack, not the paraglider. Perhaps this is historic and do with the high cost of a new paraglider or the result of self-promotion on the side of paraglider manufacturers.
Solution: Reversible Harness Modification
I wondered a few times if my harness could be modified to attach my existing standard Ozone backpack to the harness in such a way that it effectively became a reversible harness. After studying the harness closely and analyzing how I was packing it and what alternative ways I could pack it, I realized the modification should work well.Because the Sharmane Full Race is an airbag harness, I had to carefully insure that the airflow required to inflate the harness was not going to be impacted by any modifications, and also that I wasn't going to compromise the tension at the back of the harness which might have changed the safety or handling. On this harness neither of those things were a concern. Structural tension is achieved through webbing tapes inside the harness back, and the pieces I modified were neither aerodynamic or structural. This sort of modification may not work with all harnesses.
The whole process required about hour of thought and a page of scribbled design, a trip to the local craft store for lightweight nylon fabric, 45 inch zipper, stick on velcro and seam tape. I had to remove and discard the existing shaped storage fairing. The new backpack container had to be foldable, so I discarded the original foam shaping material as well. To replace the old storage fairing, using my sewing machine I created a lightweight storage container design with a zipper through the centerline, so it could be folded apart in order to reveal the backpack, which was sewn into the back of the harness.
Luckily, in my Sharmane harness, the whole back section was able to zipped out with just one seam needing to be unstitched. This made it a lot easily to sew the new lightweight storage container and backpack to it. Seam tape was essential along all cut edges as the nylon was not the rip-stop sort and frayed quickly. Next time, I'll buy rip-stop nylon like paraglider material. Some patient sewing skills were required to execute final step of stitching the bulky backpack to the harness back section. One broken sewing machine needle later it was done... I used adhesive velcro to replace the stitching on the seam, and then zipped the whole new construction in place.
The total work time was about 4 hrs.
The Result: Success!
After the modification was complete, setting up and stowing my packback become a delight. Unzip the back and let the harness fall out. Then the backpack easily flips inside out and zips neatly into the new storage container sewed onto the back of the harness. It takes 30 seconds or less.Packing up works even better than expected! Because the backpack is sewn into the optimal position on the harness for packing, the harness can't slide around during packing. It's always perfectly aligned with the backpack. Rather than fighting to stuff it in, it now goes in exactly the same way every time. The glider ends up at the top, which makes squeezing the air out easy to reduce the bulk. The built in harness cushioning is located perfectly against your lower back area, making wearing the backup more comfortable than it ever was previously. There is almost no 'stuffing' or awkward misalignment to worry about. Success!