Armin Harich Paraglides with his Kite - Kitesurfarea.com

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DEPARTMENT
HARICH
By Marina Chang
Flysurfer’s Armin Harich has put a whole new meaning into the term
‘big air,’ at least where kiteboarding is concerned. On September 22,
2005, Armin made kiteboarding and paragliding history by
launching his 17m Speed off of a 328-foot hill. A 10-minute soaring
flight ensued, and ever since Armin’s phone has been ringing with
questions from professional paragliding stunt pilots intrigued by the
possibilities of his short lived flight.
Don’t think that you can grab any old kite and
take it for a paragliding test flight. Doing so could
kill you, or cause serious injury, like paralysis!
Armin was a professional paragliding pilot and
competed on the World Cup circuit for 10 years
before kiteboarding took over his life. His
company is also part of Skywalk, a paragliding
manufacturer. As a developer, Armin’s job is to
push the design envelope. Most designers have
crazy, wild ideas that sometimes lead to
development while others are better left under
lock and key.
Armin is not even allowing test stunt pilots,
whose jobs are to turn paragliding prototypes into
pretzels to see how or if they’ll recover, to test the
modified Speed until more R & D has been
internally completed. However, he does see
paragliding, kiting and possible cross sport
developments resulting from his testing. So how
did this crazy German come up with the idea to
take a kite to the sky in the first place?
THE BIRTH OF AN IDEA
Bored one day and wanting to try something new,
Armin first took the Flysurfer Titan to the air in 2003. He
launched it off a 6-foot hill. His flight lasted 5 seconds. At that
moment, he thought a hybrid was possible, but the ram air
technology was not quite there to make testing safe. He tabled his testing
but the idea remained.
Don’t Try This At Home:
Armin Harich Paraglides
with his Kite
Armin takes the 17m Speed to test at
his local paragliding spot on the
Rhein. Location: The Rhine Lens: Flysurfer
Chillin in Bremen on Holiday
Lens: Andrea Simon
Two years later, he was again inspired to try paragliding with a kiteboarding kite because of the developments in stability and
construction of the Flysurfer Speed. It took him about 15 minutes to make the kite paragliding friendly by modifying the bridle
system, shortening the line lengths, and adding handles/brakes, needed to steer, maneuver and control the speed and pitch of a
paraglider.
Armin made a test flight off a 98-foot hill. His concerns were if the kite would take the load of a pilot flying in the air, i.e. if the
connection points would hold him without dropping him like a sack of potatoes, and if the speed of the kite, which travels
approximately 5 to 15mph faster than a traditional paraglider, would need him to run like the $6 million dollar man to avoid breaking
something at landing. His short test gave him the confidence to try the Speed on a bigger hill.
GAME TIME
The next day, the wind was too strong for Armin to fly his regular paraglider, which is roughly twice the size of a 17m Speed. He
admits that he was scared, but curiosity got the best of him and he decided to go for it. He laid out his 17m Speed and did a preflight
check. There was a buzz at launch. Armin is well known at this site and is a respected paragliding pilot but launching into high
winds on an untested wing made for kiteboarding? The locals waited with anticipation and concern to see if the test would be a
success or a disaster.
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Armin soared for roughly 10 minutes about 450 feet above ground level before heading out to a perfect landing. For a
kiteboarder, this is a very long time. For a paraglider pilot, it is a very short! However, he proved to himself that day that flying with
the Speed was indeed possible. His mind started racing about the possibilities.
THE FUTURE
Although paragliding has been around for over 20 years, the sport can benefit from the relatively new developments in ram air
design. Stability is still an issue with paragliders and the new generation of foil kites with their closed cell technology and extreme
collapse resistance could help them (paragliders) avoid deformation and loss of energy during some moves. Paragliding stunt or
“acro” pilots also see the potential for a new form of flying opening up, allowing them to do super fast tricks in high winds that
would normally ground them, with minimal risk of collapses. The stability of ram airs has additionally opened new doors for stunts,
like Swiss stunt pilot Stefan Tobler’s recent jump from a hot air balloon with a Flysurfer Speed (check out Flysurfer’s image gallery,
the photos are sick. Again, don’t try this at home!).
Flysurfer is at the very beginning of developing a hybrid kiteboarding/paragliding wing. The fact that kiteboarding and
paragliding development happens under one roof at Skywalk will definitely help the process. Tests are ongoing. The first step
toward a hybrid kite has already been accomplished with the Flysurfer Taco, due to release the first quarter of
2006. The patent pending Taco enables an instructor or user to transform a kite to a paragliding
ground trainer wing in just one minute. But, Armin and the team at Skywalk have some good
ideas for a new sport that will combine elements of paragliding with kiteboarding.
Armin says that only time will tell but hopes to pave the way to offering us some
great new toys in the near future.
The Kiteboarder Magazine does not recommend or condone
anyone trying these types of stunts or experiments with any
type of kiteboarding kite. It doesn’t take a lot of height to
break your back. Don’t be a jackass.
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Water, land, air or snow, Armin does it all.
Location: Wasserkuppe Lens: Jens Baxmeier