How does weight shift turn a paraglider, and is it more efficient than using brakes/flaps?
Your centre of gravity is immediately altered with weight-shift causing a decrease in drag on the opposite side of your weight shift. That side then flies faster e.g. lean to the left decreases drag on the right of the wing therefore the right side of the wing flies faster, therefore enabling a left turn. By using weight shift your turning will be more efficient because the glider’s speed is not effected and no induced drag is provided from the weight shift turn. Conditions will determine whether weight shift is more effective than applying brakes, as it may be necessary to reduce ground speed to core a thermal, i.e. to increase drag and reduce air-speed.
