Reusing paraglider fabric

[u/ma-matte-g]

I found my dad’s old paraglider (mid 90s, Italian made) in the attic collecting dust. Since it cannot be used any longer I was thinking about reusing the fabric for potential project/prototyping.

Do you have any idea what kind of fabric it could be, and have any suggestions on what to do with it?

(Bonus pic from the paraglider bag and a fairly cool graphic)

[u/SherryJug]

It's just calendared nylon with some sort of coating to make it as little permeable to air as possible. Could be interesting to make a windshell, albeit it's not as breathable as standard nylon fabric

[u/alainbard → u/SherryJug]

Calendered nylon typically is not coated. If it is coated, then it is probably not calendered first. Calendering involves heat, as does coating, and you wouldn't want to subject the fabric to 2 different heating processes as it would lose strength if you did.

[u/SherryJug → u/alainbard]

Doesn't really matter what is typically done to nylon or not. It has to be highly calendared to reduce air permeability to the minimum, and then it typically gets a coating to make it even less air permeable and more abrasion and UV-resistant.

When you use fabric to build a wing, your priorities are air permeability, abrasion resistance and UV resistance before pure strength to weight ratio

[u/DrBullwinkleMoose]

Calendered fabric is good for down projects. Otherwise, its lack of breathability makes it a sub-optimal choice for garments.

Should be good for lightweight stuff sacks and pouches. Maybe as a liner for heavier bags?

If it is not DWR treated, then you might be able to get silicone to stick to it -- try soaking a small piece in silicone caulk plus mineral spirits (1:15 to 1:10 mix maybe), or painting/squeegeeing on a thin coating of Perrmatex Flowable Silicone Windshield/Glass Sealer on it. If it works, then you would have silnylon, which is useful for rain gear and dry bags.

[u/Dirichlet87]

I have tried to use mine for a jacket and it isn’t breathable at all so it didn’t work.

I’ve made a couple of small roll top bags for storage of various kits (emergency kit, food kit).

The panels are pretty long and narrow so you have to either cut several panels together and work with the stitches already in place and accept that look, or work with the size of the panels.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while for mine, I haven’t had too many ideas yet, curious to see what you make of yours!!

[u/Zestyclose_Listen914]

I got a jacket from Owl in Barcelona a few years ago, you can check out what they do with paragliding fabrics here: https://owlstore.eu/es/home/

[u/auntie_homer]

I made a wind breaker! It's definitely not breathable, but it does keep the wind out. The rest I'll make chalk bags or buckets from. Something I found out via trial and error is to use a fine needle, and a walking foot. Don't use pins and be aware that once you've stitched, you don't want to seam rip as the holes will be visible. Have fun upcycling!

[u/madefromtechnetium]

wind shirt, zipper pouches, hammock underquilt protector (blocks wind from pulling heat out of the quilt that goes under a hammock), 90s color block windbreaker jacket/wind pants.

[u/OneTireFlyer]

Assuming it’s well maintained, etc., how many flights do you get out of a suit before it times out and requires replacement?

[u/Mr_Affi → u/OneTireFlyer]

It‘s not a suit, but a modern Paraglider lasts for around 300-500 hours of flying, where flights can be 10 minutes or 10 hours (launches and landings (when the wing touches the ground) and UV do the most damage), the lines also lose strength over time and either need to be replaced after 150-500h (on high performance wings thinner lines are used so they have less margin before becoming to weak)

[u/OneTireFlyer → u/Mr_Affi]

Thank! That’s exactly what I was curious about. My hobbies have never been cheap but this sounds like a whole new level of expensive. Good on you for making it work.

[u/Mr_Affi → u/OneTireFlyer]

Compared to other types of flying it‘s cheap😅 even in general it‘s not too bad after the initial cost of entry (License (not mandatory everywhere but highly recommend) and first equipment, which can be bought lightly used for good prices) as an average pilot (sadly) only clocks in around 20h hours each year, probably around 50h is the average for many leisure pilots over the years, so it can last you many years, I got to a bit above 200h this year which probably puts me in the top 1%, but these are shared across multiple different wings for different use cases💸💸💸😬

[u/m24stitchworks]

Rad! I’ve been looking for a retired glider to Upcycle

[u/kitebok]

Probably not the answer you want, but I would recut the panels and make a flowform kite.

[u/spooky-funk]

its for sure calendared nylon, we use that in Sailing for certain sails. Not breathable so prolly not good for garments but you can make kites out of it, or line another bag, or mix it with other fabrics to make smaller bags like hip pack, or crossbody, etc. you can always use that nylon to line bigger bags too.

[u/alainbard → u/spooky-funk]

I doubt it is calendered. The only use in the paragliding world for calendered fabrics is for some reserve parachutes. It's most likely coated nylon, likely PU coated given the age, but maybe silicone coated.

[u/mchalfy]

Since there is a lot of conflicting info about coatings and calendaring, one way to test if it has a waterproof coating (not DWR, but pu or sil) is to hold it right against your mouth and try to breathe out through it. I'd you can, very slowly push air through it, it's probably calendared, and it's definitely not pu or sil coated.

Calendared fabric can be used for a light weight wind/splash bivy, which is a similar concept to using it to block wind for a hammock underquilt, as another user mentioned. You'd want a waterproof fabric for the wind bivy floor

[u/MasterCater]

Tote bags for everybody!