british hang gliding and paragliding association
Meridian Business Park
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 Mike Scholes) 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. When you
first leave your school and join a club, you may choose to spend your first few
hours' flying with no specific aim other than to safely accumulate airtime.
However, it is well known that pilots make safer more efficient progress when
they are given particular tasks to undertake. With that in mind, a panel of
experienced BHPA coaches have devised a new pathway to learning, the BHPA Pilot
Development Structure. This offers an alternative to the more formal Pilot
Rating System, and for newly qualified pilots aims to: encourage interaction
between new pilots, their club and its coaches provide a structured way to
progress, acquire knowledge and build skills through attainable goals reduce
flying related incidents and promote safe flying Paraglider (Courtesy Derek
Frith) 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.
Powered hang glider (Courtesy Ian Ferguson) 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.
