Paraglider

British Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association

British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Welcome to the British Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association (BHPA) website.

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.

Hang Glider (Courtesy Darren Blackman)

The BHPA oversees pilot and instructor training standards, and provides technical support such as airworthiness standards, and coaching courses for qualified hang gliding and paragliding pilots.

Initial hang gliding or paragliding training must be undertaken at a BHPA registered school.

Most schools offer training in a wide range of flying disciplines, so it's important to understand the differences between the disciplines before choosing a school.

The Learn to Fly section of this web site explains the relative merits of each discipline, the types of flying involved, and provides an insight into the training methods used.

As you near the end of your initial training with one of our registered schools, it's important to start looking for suitable recreational club to join. Obtaining your Club Pilot rating marks the end of your formal instruction and qualifies you to leave the school and fly within a BHPA recreational club.

The BHPA supports a network of UK hang gliding and paragliding recreational clubs who are able to offer the supportive flying and social environment vital to the safe development of your flying skills, as you join other recreational flyers on the hill, and continue your progression through the BHPA Pilot Rating Scheme (PRS).

As your accumulated airtime increases and your flying skills improve, you will probably start to think about your long term goals and aspirations, and working towards your Pilot Rating, the next rung on the PRS ladder. Club coaches can offer advice and support with the flying tasks that need to be completed, and the theory exam you will need to sit.

An online BHPA Mock Pilot Rating Exam is also available. This will allow you to test your current knowledge and help you to understand the subject areas you will need to revise before sitting the real exam.

Speed Wing (Courtesy Alan Clarke)

The BHPA also has a disability initiative called Flyability. This reports directly to the BHPA's Executive Council on disability related matters within the sport.

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.

Much of Flyability's work in the sport, focuses around changing peoples perception of disability and their attitudes toward people with disabilities. Disability awareness, education and advice play key roles in Flyability's aims and objectives, as does the development of specialist equipment, training and flying techniques.

The BHPA also publishes Skywings, the only magazine dedicated to free flying in the United Kingdom. This glossy full colour magazine is distributed by mail to around 6,500 BHPA members each month as part of their membership package.

Paramotor (Courtesy Paul Haxby)

Skywings magazine is also read by countless more hang gliding and paragliding pilots and organisations around the world who have purchased an International Skywings magazine subscription from our on-line shop.

Freely available electronic copies of Skywings magazine are also published each month on our Skywings page. These can be viewed online as a flipbook magazine, or downloaded as a pdf document. When viewing the magazine online on a device with a small screen, we recommend that you select the single page option in the menu at the top of each issue.

Back issues of Skywings magazine can also be purchased from our on-line shop.

The BHPA provides automatic £5 million 3rd-party insurance for its members. But if you require personal or travel insurance, this should be obtained from an independent insurance broker.

We hope that when you've found a school appropriate to your needs, made contact and begun training, you'll discover for yourself the excitement and challenge that makes free flying such a great pastime.

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.

You'll make friends, go places and achieve things that you may have only dreamed about in the past.

It's a fantastic sport, so why don't you join the BHPA, and never look back.

Events & Competitions Calendar

Visiting Overseas Hang Gliding & Paragliding Pilots please read this...

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Whilst Skywings magazine frequently includes lively and thought provoking articles and letters about our sport, there are also numerous alternative sources of advice, information and debate on the internet. The following are just a small selection of those available. These are independent forum and facebook pages and are not connected in any way to the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association. The views expressed in them are therefore not necessarily those of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.

 

For information about how and when hang gliding started in the UK, please visit the British Hang Gliding History website.

Originally created by Terry Aspinall, the British Hang Gliding History website provides a fascinating insight into the early days of our sport, and contains an extensive archive of hang gliding articles, photos and videos from the 1970s and 80s.

 

 

Purchase the BHPA Pilot Handbook Subscribe The BHPA Elementary Pilot Training Guide - 8.43mb

Enter the first part of your postcode to find your nearest BHPA registered school
eg. enter CF44 if your post code is CF44 1BS

Post Code

Or view
schools location map

Hang glider border hassle?

A BHPA member has reported difficulties at French customs.

Posted: 20 March 2024
By: J. Schofield


RAeC Trust Bursary Scheme

Last call for the Royal Aero Club Trust's 2024 Bursary Awards scheme for young people, Several BHPA recipients have gone on to great things in their respective fields...

Posted: 26 February 2024
By: Paul Dancey


BHPA 2024 AGM

Final reminder that the BHPA 2024 AGM will take place this Saturday, 24th February 2024, at Loughborough University's Holywell Park Conference Centre at 11.00am...

Posted: 21 February 2024
By: Paul Dancey


Safety Notice Skywalk Tapa X-Alps

During a simulated throw of a TAPA X-ALPS, a small piece of fabric from the inner container was caught by the retrieval lines. Skywalk has therefore released a safety...

Posted: 9 February 2024
By: Paul Dancey


Update - Membership forms back online

BHPA membership forms are back online after yesterday's maintenance window, everything seems to be working as it should, but please report any issues...

Posted: 7 February 2024
By: Paul Dancey


last updated: 20 March 2024

 

Skywings News Feed

Recent Safety Notices & Advisories

BHPA Safety Notices

Eurofly Snake & other sub-70kg self-propelled hang gliders
Published: 04.10.2021

Quick-Out Carabiner
Published: 08.03.2023

JojoWings Instinct Paraglider
Published: 23.05.2017

BHPA Safety Advisories

Retrofitting paramotors to a lightweight wheeled undercarriage or trike
Published: 05.01.2023

Paragliders constructed from Dominico 30 material on external surfaces
Published: 01.07.2022

Dual paragliding hard spreaders
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Manufacturer Notices & Advisories

Skywalk Tapa X-Alps
Published: 09.02.2024

AirDesign gliders produced in 2018
Published: 10.11.2023

Atos VQ Race glider
Published: 26.09.2023

last updated: 9 February 2024

Submit an incident report to the BHPA and EHPU

The BHPA is a member of the Royal Aero Club The BHPA is a member of the European Hang Gliding & Paragliding Union CAA Drone and Model Aircraft Code Subscribe to GASCO Flight Safety, a monthly safety update on all recreational flying safety matters