The BHPA Pilot Handbook: The Complete Guide to Paraglider and Hang Glider Training and Advancement

Product Information

If you do, you'll also find that the level of support and camaraderie amongst pilots is one of the many great strengths of the sport. Apart from all the walking that your feet are going to get, they do need to be kept dry. Good flexible hill walking or jump boots without lacing hooks (they can snag and damage suspension lines and get caught in rigging wires and harnesses) are best, though in summer trainers, preferably with ankle support, are often worn.

The BHPA will use the information you have provided for the purposes of providing you with membership products and services. The data you provide will be stored on our servers within the UK and kept by us whilst you are a member of the BHPA and for a period of 6 years afterwards. BHPA will not share your data with third parties other than to provide you with membership products and services, e.g. BHPA Registered Clubs, insurers, FAI etc, or in the pursuit of flight safety e.g. AAIB, UK Airprox Board etc without your prior permission. You have the right to object to our use of your data, withdraw your consent for us to use your data, request a copy of the data we hold, require us to correct any errors in that data and to require us to delete your personal data. If you choose to withdraw your consent BHPA will no longer be able to provide you with some member products and services. Paragliding competitions are held at club, national and international level, and the 'Brits' usually do well in international competitions. If you wish, you can also "strap on" an engine and turn a hang glider into a powered hang glider, and a paraglider into a paramotor. You can then take off from a flat field, rather than a hill. You'll make friends, go places and achieve things that you may have only dreamed about in the past.

Free Flight

Training is usually conducted far away from creature comforts like warm cafes with loos. On your first day at the school, even if your instructor knows a good tea-shop in the village, don't neglect something to eat and drink to sustain you through your day.

Flyability doesn't simply take people with disabilities flying, it strives to motivate people with disabilities to become involved in the sport of hang gliding and paragliding and to train as pilots. Once you have mastered controlling the glider on the ground, which isn't as easy as it looks, you will be taught to take off and land correctly. Your first flights will be in a straight line only a few feet above the ground. If you are learning to fly a hang glider, these initial flights will be tethered with the instructor able to control the glider through his tether rope.

BHPA pilots holding a Club Pilot (Novice) rating can fly unsupervised in the club environment. The BHPA strongly recommends that all Club Pilots undertake training to obtain the full "Pilot" rating. "Pilot" rated pilots are seen as being fully qualified, and therefore able to plan and execute cross country flight with the necessary skills and knowledge.

When you've become adept at ground handling, controlling airspeed and making gentle turns, you'll graduate to higher and longer flights, and be introduced to a limited amount of flying theory. This will usually be fitted in around your practical flying instruction, when the weather's not so good. Once you've completed the appropriate tasks and passed a very simple theory exam, you'll receive your Elementary Pilot award. This is the first step on the ladder of the BHPA Pilot Rating Scheme.

Skywings Magazine

From its head office in Leicester the BHPA supports a country-wide network of recreational clubs and registered schools, and provides the infrastructure within which hang gliding and paragliding in the United Kingdom (UK) thrive.

Tasks for "Pilot" Rating - for information only. Members wishing to take their "Pilot" exam are advised to consult the Pilot Task book (available from the BHPA Office)Modern hang gliders and paragliders are sophisticated high-tech wings that have turned the dream of Icarus into reality. The majority of young people in the UK are probably not even aware that it is possible to take off from level ground and fly with human power at all. Skywings is a full colour monthly magazine published by the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Ltd to inform, educate and entertain those in the sports of Paragliding and Hang Gliding.