America Vacation Guide
America Air Sports
Large balloons filled with hot air or buoyant gas have been used as flying machines since the 18th century. The earliest flights were made with hot air balloons that used either air or helium which were heated with a flame. Later airships were made that could be steered. Airships often had a more rigid structure and were sealed and unheated, boyuancy was provided by using hydrogen or helium.
The term general aviation describes any flight other than a military or scheduled airline flight, ranging from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights. As a result, the majority of the world's air traffic falls into this category, and the vast majority of the world's airports serve general aviation exclusively.
Gliding (also known as soaring) is a recreational activity and competitive sport in which pilots fly un-powered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes. Properly, the term gliding refers to descending flight of a heavier-than-air craft, whereas soaring is the correct term to use when the craft gains altitude or speed from rising air.
Hang gliding is an air sport. It is both recreational and competitive. The sport is closely related to paragliding and gliding (flying sailplanes) but using a much simpler and less expensive craft consisting of an aluminum- or composite-framed fabric wing, with the pilot mounted on a harness hanging from the wing frame and exercising control by shifting body weight.
Parachuting, or skydiving, is an activity involving the breaking of a free-fall from a height using a parachute. Skydiving has been used by the military since the early 1900s, including use in World War I and World War II.Today it is performed as a recreational activity and a competitive sport, as well as for the deployment of military personnel and occasionally forest firefighters.
Paragliding is a recreational and competitive flying sport. A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing, whose shape is formed by the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing. It is closely related to hang gliding, but quite different from parasailing/parascending, which don't involve free flight. Paramotoring uses the same equipment, with the addition of a small engine and propeller mounted behind the pilot, making it a form of ultra-light aviation as opposed to free flight.
An "ultralight" is a single seat vehicle of less than 5 US gallons fuel capacity, empty weight of less than 254 pounds, a top speed of 55 knots, a maximum stall speed not exceeding 24 knots, and are only allowed to fly during daylight hours and over unpopulated areas. In the United States no license or training is required by law for ultralights, but training is highly advisable.
BASE jumping is the sport of using a parachute to jump from fixed objects. "BASE" is an acronym that stands for the four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump:
- Building
- Antenna (an uninhabited tower such as an aerial mast)
- Span (a bridge, arch or dome)
- Earth (a cliff or other natural formation)
The acronym "BASE" was coined by film-maker Carl Boenish, who in 1978 filmed the first jumps from El Capitan to be made using ram-air parachutes and the freefall tracking technique, which effectively defined modern BASE jumping. BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than similar sports such as skydiving from aircraft, and is currently regarded as a fringe extreme sport. Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho is the only manmade structure in the United States where BASE jumping is allowed year-round without a permit. Once a year, on the third Saturday in October ("Bridge Day"), permission to BASE jump has explicitly been granted at the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The New River Gorge Bridge deck is 876 feet above the river. A body dropped from the deck will hit the water in 8.8 seconds. This annual event attracts about 450 BASE jumpers, and nearly 200,000 spectators.
"You can get anything you want @ CeeAmerica"