Crestline Soaring Society

As a point of clarification, 'suprone' is flying a hang glider in a seated position with one's legs ABOVE the basetube. 'Supine' is flying HG in a seated position with one's legs BELOW the basetube.

One can fly suprone without any modification to the hang glider but there is a small sacrifice of roll control (and pitch control to a lesser degree) since one's center of gravity is higher than it would be flying prone. Beginner or Intermediate gliders are better for suprone flying than higher performance models. One can fly HG suprone using a paragliding harness and a hang-point adapter. Wills Wing used to sell adapters, but there was so little demand they stopped making them. Finding a used adapter or having one made custom wouldn't be a big deal. For the PG harness you could use a very minimal one - elaborate back protection would be unneccessary and padding under the butt would just get in the way; both would add extra weight.

To fly supine one must modify the lower wires (front, rear and sides) to reposition the control bar so the basetube is farther aft (greater angle between the keel and downtubes) otherwise you'd have to reach out simply to fly at trim and full arm extension would be nowhere near a 'flare'. A glider rigged for supine flying can't (reasonably) be flown prone. The benefit of flying supine is that one's CG is nice and low, so roll and pitch inputs are quite effective. You'd be on your own working out the custom wire lengths and getting the wires made. You'd want to be careful not to alter the anhedral of the wings in the course of the side-wire changes. Launching and landing a supine-rigged hang glider are also more difficult than with a normal glider.

The seated position creates a lot more drag than flying prone, of course.

Good Flying,
Ken Howells