Brake spider
A brake spider is the fan-shaped branching of the brake lines on paragliders up to the gallery lines attached to the rear edge ( leech ) of the canopy. It thus represents the rearmost line level of the paraglider. The name alludes to the similarity with the legs of a spider (or its web).
By operating the brake lines, the rear edge of the canopy is pulled down with the help of the brake spider, thereby increasing both the lift and the drag. The function roughly corresponds to that of the aileron on an aircraft wing , but in contrast to an aircraft , the two sides of a paraglider are not coupled, so that they can be operated either in the same direction or in opposite directions. In this way it is possible to steer or brake the glider.