[G]

I'm looking to try out Hang Gliding.
Usual first stop is to check out some forums, but can't find any good UK specific ones - any recommendations of any hiding away?

If not, and Brits around that can point me to the nearest school for Reading?
Plenty of paragliding around, some not TOO far for me, but seems I have to tracel some distance for Hang Gliding.

[red]

G,

to the HG forum! Relax, and be among friends here !

At the risk of being obvious, can this UK club help?

http://www.bhpa.co.uk/

[ahurst]

Red's hit the nail on the head from all the way across the pond.
The bhpa site has school locator and a club locator. Just stick in your post code and it'll show you the closest.
For trying it out and learning you will want to contact a school, however clubs will really help you out by recommending the best local instructors and giving advice, and almost certainly offering you the chance to come along to a club site on a good day to have a look and talk to some pilots.

There is no UK-wide HG forum: the bigger clubs often have their own though.
I think your nearest is Thames Valley HG club, or Dunstable club, or Wessex club.
Try http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/ first.
Green Dragons school is nearby, probably not the cheapest but very well known.

[Rcpilot]

Welcome brother. Go out and fly. And know this , Its a whole lot better than it looks. Get some air , your feet will thank you.

[Windlord]

"G"
Patience! It will all come together when it's suppose to.
"ahurst" has the connections for you to contact.
Keep us posted and good luck.

[G]

Cheers, this is something that’s been in the back of my mind for some time, I have looked at the BHCPA site before, however didn’t check it again before posting – which I should have done .
Unfortunately it’s not that accurate as far as distances go – as I believe it lists their ‘home’ base, rather than the sites they may use. And of course it depends on the roads to get there etc.

Some time ago I did a day’s paragliding with GreenDragon’s (Birthday present to myself) which I believe was at their ‘home base’ and even that’s still a reasonable trek to get there.

That Thames Valley site is useful, cheers.
I might give the BHCPA a call to see if they know of anyone nearer, but have had dealings with such organisations in the past and not expecting them to really know what’s going on!

[bisleybob]

hi G i am a uk pilot and i learned in 08h-09

the fact is there are not that many schools so you will have to travel a bit.

there are 3 ways to learn hill, tow, and aerotow. aerotow is the quickest but dearest, hill is hard work and often very weather dependant after all this is the UK. tow is a good midle ground

schools
i learned on aerotow and can highly recomend it i passed i completed all my training in 2 weekends and two full weeks (lucky with weather) the school was called AIRWAYS AIRSPORTS and is in derbyshire. near ashbourne. i camped on the field for free.
i traveled up from the norfolk coast.
http://www.airways-airsports.com/airpark


for hill i can recomend John barrett
http://www.southdownshanggliding.co.uk/


and tow a firm called lejair http://www.lejair.com/


some of the schools offer oversees holiday courses which are also an option.

the main thing is initial training requires alot of effort and progression is slow but stick it out as it gets better at an exponential rate. until its Fing amazing.
and dont go PG coz theyr'e shite in my opinion

im with the suffolk coastal floaters a tow/hill club in suffolk look us up we are running an open day soon but i guess reading may be a bit far for you

[nirmal]

You have a PM.

[Rumour2]

Hi M8

You cant do much better than Cloud 9 down in Cornwall, Graham Phipps and his wife Kaz have a great set-up teaching both hill and tow and the weather is better than any other part of the UK as far as learning to fly is concerned. .

It wont let me post the link to the site as I have less than 5 posts. Google Cloud9 Hang Gliding in Cornwall or follow the link from the BHPA website.

Good Luck Dave

[Rumour2]

One more thing, as someone has already said DONT be tempted to Paraglide if Hang Gliding is what you really want. Some schools will try and get you to Paraglide, we have a guy in our club that went through that after booking a week course, he turned up on day 1 to be told "its Paragliding week this week take it or leave it"

Dave

[ahurst]

Agreed, Phippsy seems excellent. I wasn't taught by him, but met him and Caz at the Brit Open Series.
http://www.flycloud9.co.uk

[Bobfly]

I just want to wish G, Nirmal and Rumour2 a hearty welcome to the Org. Please come back and share your experiences with us and be sure to bring your pics and vids.

[MorphFX]

My vote, John Barratt. He taught me and I've not complaints at all, he's a top guy!
http://www.southdownshanggliding.co.uk/

He operates on the South Downs in and around Brighton - so that's quite doable from Reading (M4, M25, M23). A couple of people here have mentioned local clubs, but really, you need to get qualified at a school before you can fly with a local flying club.

Please let us all know how you get on. This is the first step of a life changing experience! Well, my wife says I've always got my head in the clouds these days!

[bisleybob]

yes yes i forgot Greame phipps this is a very good school he is highly spoken of,

and i too was badgered and harrassed to try paragliding by a pushy sales man 3 times when i booked my course.

he picked at every angle of my argument until i had nothing. then i just said i dont care its my choice.

i think this is mainly to do with the fact that they can cram more students per instructor, its easier / quicker to learn so bigger turn around and there is prob a biger profit in selling the kit or more manufacturer kickbacks.

most uk schools are fighting to survive so will aim for what makes more money.

[andyh]

another vote for South Down Hang Gliding (http://www.southdownshanggliding.co.uk/) & Lejair (http://www.lejair.com/). I did Hill EP/CP & Tow EP/CP with them respectively last year

I did Hill first, but I think that if I was to start now, knowing what I know now, I would do Tow first & then a Hill conversion. waiting for suitable weather for the first high flights on a Hill course can be frustrating. Tow is a quicker way of getting some decent initial airtime, although all the time sat on the hillside was useful for learning about conditions. I went through the Tow EP/CP in three days, although I had completed Hill EP & half of CP by that point. completing Hill CP & doing a Tow conversion would have been cheaper, but I'd been waiting 2.5 months for weather to complete the Hill CP at that point & I was just desperate to fly!!

[JohnC]

Blimey, a whole bunch of UK pilots suddenly appear from the woodwork!

It's been pretty much covered... In the south of England it's either John Barratt in Sussex or Phippsy in Cornwall. Both are hugely experienced and highly respected. Both will be very happy to talk things through on the phone and both will do a day 1 'taster' before you have to commit to a course.

Lots of good reasons to train 'ab initio' on the hill, lots to train on tow - great pub debate, but really you're just going to have to go with what feels right for you once you've talked to as many hangies as you can.

Whichever way you go, now is a good time to start. With a lot of commitment you've a good chance of getting CP this season. If all goes really well, you could be mountain flying on a guided trip in Europe this year.

Drop me a PM if you'd like to chat on the phone.

John Cheale
Avon Club HG Low Airtime Contact

[ahurst]

Is that the John Cheale I met at the BOS with the all white wills wing ultrasport (i think)?

[JohnC]

[ahurst]

Nice one John.
I wouldn't call my rough old bird slippery though. Too many hours out in the sun sipping margaritas.

Not sure about sports class this year. If it's not very well subscribed I'd make up the numbers and try and help out. I was out flying Craig by the end of last year though, and I think I'd get on OK in the open class.

There are several people here on HG.org we wanna see at the BOS this year.
Sorry for the blatant threadjacking.. G see you there next year

[G]

Thanks for the warm welcome and loads of suggestions/advice. (And don’t worry about going off-topic .)

I should explain my situation more, sorry about the long post:
My general thoughts were to do the training throughout the year, then look at buying kit and maybe doing some more serious stuff next year – eventually I’d like to get to doing powered-hang gliders. This is for time/money constraints (see at the bottom for an idea of why).
Anyway, basically unfortunately I don’t have the time or money to dedicate a lot to it right now – however some weekends away dotted around the place I could manage financially and time wise easily enough - would prefer not to use up too much holiday from work for the moment.

Can anyone recommend any threads/articles that give a good differentiation between hill/tow/aero tow for the beginner.
Aerotow looks to be expensive – and I’m not to worried about running up hills, while I’m not as fit as I could be, I am at the gym 3-5 times a week so ‘ok’ at least these days.

I think I’ll give southdowns a shout, I have had a look at their site before, but hoped for somewhere closer (they are a lot cheaper than green dragons which are the only one closer it seems.) Cornwall’s still a fair way to go – last time I was there I left at 9pm (about the time I wanted to arrive) and got to Lands end after a rather grueling five hours stint with only fuel stops. It SEEMS it should be closer, but to get near the end we're talking similar to getting to the bottom of scotland.

I’ve heard about people being pushed into paragliding before – don’t worry, I wouldn’t stand for such .


This year - I’m in the middle of selling/buying house at the moment which isn’t a great start (though there will be a month or two where I have a VERY healthy bank account, which unfortunately I must resist using ). However, also for this year I’m hoping to do most of the following, as well as learning some hang-gliding – some xc mountain bike races, hare and hound motorcycle enduros and possibly some rallies, a few trackdays (I’d like to do some more proper racing, but that’s very expensive so off for the moment), some car drift days, a top-speed event (motorbikes), learn to unicycle better, possibly a bit more scuba diving, first day of an AFF (got as a present already) with some indoor skydiving before that, Glastonbury and Reading festival, do up my motorhome/race van, start a loft conversion in the new house... Etc, etc you get the idea .