British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

James Allcock (Email: james-allcock@bhpa.co.uk)

Like most people, James joined the BHPA for the freedom of the skies, not for committees.

He learned to fly hang gliders in the early '90s, moved to paragliders during the F&M crisis, and has since flown with clubs across the UK while helping organise events from the X-Lakes Hike and Fly to last year's Niviuk Fly Wide Open.

These experiences have given him great appreciation for the volunteers and structures that quietly keep our sport ticking along. After 30 years in flying, he'd like to contribute a little more.

James respects the dedication and continuity of long-serving Executive members and hopes to support and complement that stability. Professionally, he has led teams, managed change and built organisations with strong governance and communication.

He is keen to understand where he can genuinely help improve communication, support clearer processes, or simply offer a fresh pair of eyes. Flying has shaped his life significantly, and he'd now like to give something back.

Marc Asquith - Admin Director & Company Secretary (marc-asquith@bhpa.co.uk)

Marc Asquith is one of the founding members of the BHPA. As a member of the BHGA Council, he was one of the six BHGA nominees to serve on the original BHPA Exec. Together with the BAPC Treasurer and Company Secretary, Dick Long, they wrote the BHPA Constitution. Marc is credited with inventing the title "British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association".

By profession he is now a barrister specialising in aviation law, having had a mid-life crisis and a career change from retail management on the high street in the mid-1990s. He has served variously as BHPA PR Officer, Safety Officer, Insurance Officer, External Representation Officer, Treasurer and for many years, Chairman. He is currently BHPA Company Secretary and Admin Director.

As BHPA External Representation Officer Marc sat on the Royal Aero Club Council as the BHPA delegate and served as RAeC Chairman for 3 years in the mid 1990s. He is currently a Vice-President of the RAeC. He has also served as a Trustee of the RAeC Trust and Flyability. In his spare time he also served as a County Councillor in Cheshire and as a Councillor on Cheshire East Council.

As an Air Cadet, having completed a solo gliding course in 1975 and his PPL through a flying scholarship 1976, he first started flying hang gliders in November 1977 at Swansea University.

He qualified as a microlight instructor in the early 1980s working for Gerry Breen at Enstone Airfield teaching people to fly the American Aerolights Eagle.

He competed in the Hang Gliding League throughout the 1980s and managed on one occasion to be selected as a member of the British Hang Gliding Team.

In 1986 he started flying paragliders. In 1991, having been elected Chairman of the BHPA, he also started flying in parascending competitions, achieving a Team Bronze in the 1994 Nationals at Middle Wallop. He started flying powered hang gliders when they became legal and now most regularly flies his Doodlebug in Snowdonia. He also flies his hang glider or paraglider whenever weather and time allow.

In more recent years Marc has held significant posts on the European Hang Gliding Union, Dissatisfied with the EHPU's representation at Europe Air Sports (EAS) and its general lack of a direction of travel, he re-drafted the EHPU Statutes, creating a Management Committee which meets online every 2 months. The statutes also created the post of EAS Delegate, which had previously been a post for the President and General Secretary. At the first elections to the Management Committee, Marc was elected to the post of EAS Delegate.

In 2021 Marc was elected as the EHPU President and served until February 2023. He continues as the EHPU EAS Delegate.

Martin Baxter - Sites Officer (martin-baxter@bhpa.co.uk)

In a previous life Martin was an Army helicopter pilot, with a background in Flight Safety.

He learned to paraglide in 1994 and describes himself as a recreational pilot and club coach. He served as chairman of the Dales club for 16 years and was their sites officer for 3 years before that.

Martin assumed the role of BHPA Sites Officer in 2014. He manages the Sites Database, deals with CANP and supports local clubs when sites are threatened by windfarms, powerlines or wildlife restrictions.

Martin has also been lobbying for better access to the countryside without much success.

As a Trustee of the BHPA Sites Trust Fund, he co-ordinates all applications for grants towards site purchase.

Martin believes that the BHPA should strive to provide value for money.

Bill Bell - Competitions Officer (bill-bell@bhpa.co.uk)

Bill has been flying for 25 years and is currently flying Hang gliders on the good days and light aircraft on non-XC days with his flying partner Sue. Currently a lapsed paraglider pilot because of lack of any obvious ability and because there are not enough good days to do both. He is a club coach and one-time Airwave dealer which gives him great respect for those earning a living in free flying.

Bills background is in broadcast TV operations and he has worked for a number of years as a self-employed Technical Director.

Jenny Buck - Chair (jennifer-buck@bhpa.co.uk)

Jenny Buck joined the BHGA aged 15 in 1989 and has been a member of BHGA and BHPA ever since. Having first flown tandem with her late father in 1981, she achieved her EP in HG on her 16th birthday. She is Advanced Pilot Rated in Hang Gliding and Pilot rated (Hill and Tow) in Paragliding. She has also previously flown light aircraft and sailplanes. Having previously been an active competition pilot for the last 6 years she has served as Meet Director for the British Open HG Series, UK Nationals and GB HG Team Manager.

Professionally she has served in the Military Medical Services for the last 16 years, has an MSc in Trauma Management and is now working in London as a Commander in the Royal Navy. During this time, she served as Treasurer in the Army HPA and latterly 2 years as Chair of the RNHPA.

A strong believer in coherence, team work, effective leadership and risk management, Jenny's experience on military duty and operational deployments lends itself well to the world of free flight.

Flying opportunities limited by work and single parenting, Jenny is simply content to get off the ground by HG or PG whenever the planets align. Happiest flying at Perranporth, Bradwell Edge or the Alps and always with a smile.

Mike Chilvers (Email: mike-chilvers@bhpa.co.uk)

Mike is 60 years old and joined the BHPA in 2005 when he began flying paramotors. From the outset he was highly motivated, and after discovering the world of paramotor competitions, he decided to take part. In 2006, Mike was awarded his BHPA Pilot Power Rating through the alternative entry route, which enabled him to compete. In his first British Open Competition in 2006, he received the "Best Newcomer" trophy after placing 10th overall.

He subsequently joined the British Team for the 2006 European Paramotor Championship, where they won the Bronze medal. Over the following years, Mike enjoyed consistent competitive success, earning further Silver and Bronze team medals, achieving 9th place individually in Europe, and finishing as the top British pilot. During this period, he was also elected to the BHPA Competitions Committee, where he served for several years, contributing to policy, event development, and the overall direction of competitive flying within the Association.

In 2010, Mike moved into the organisational side of the sport, directing events including the British League and the British Open. In 2016, he served as Competition Director for the FAI World Paramotor Championships, hosting 150 competitors from 15 countries. He was later invited to manage the paramotor discipline of the FAI World Air Games; although he declined, the event was ultimately cancelled due to Covid restrictions. His contribution to the sport has been recognised through several honours, including Royal Aero Club Certificates of Merit, the Johan Bossuyt Trophy, and the Royal Aero Club Ann Welch Memorial Award for services to instruction.

Mike began paramotor instruction part-time in 2009 and was awarded his Senior Instructor Licence in 2017, allowing him to establish a BHPA-registered school. Ufly4fun became the first "paramotor-only" BHPA school in the UK. He has operated the school full-time since 2017, providing ab-initio training, conversions, and alternative entry routes. He has successfully supported one TI progressing to Instructor and currently has two further TIs in training.

Outside aviation, Mike brings additional management experience, having served as a Company Director of a busy construction firm employing up to ten staff, as well as holding retail management roles within a major electrical goods chain. He believes the BHPA Executive Council benefits from members who possess both passion and experience, and Mike brings both. Every discipline deserves representation by individuals who understand it deeply and are committed to protecting and developing it - particularly the powered side of our sport. After more than 20 years as a BHPA member, he wants to give something back to the organisation and the community that has given him so much.

Martin Heywood - Vice Chairman & Insurance Officer (martin-heywood@bhpa.co.uk)

Martin is the Vice Chairman of the Executive Council. He also looks after the BHPA's aviation insurance contract, which provides indemnity cover to each and every member of the Association. This is a significant responsibility given that over half of the Association's expenditure goes on this important area.

Martin regards himself as a "newbie" to the sport having only seriously taken it up in 1999. He has served on Exec for the past 20 years, but has now retired from active flying due to a knee problem.

Outside BHPA business, Martin is a recently retired solicitor-doctor based in Ipswich having extensive experience in the healthcare sector with particular interest in claims, litigation and inquest handling.

Angus Langford - Treasurer (angus-langford@bhpa.co.uk)

Angus is a recently retired chartered accountant and has held a number of finance director roles in the past. He's been interested in flying all his life and took up paragliding 18 years ago. He took early retirement to spend more time flying both in the UK and abroad.

He has been treasurer of the BHPA for the past 11 years, during which time he's worked to keep costs and subscriptions as low as they can be consistent with maintaining the operational integrity and financial stability of the association.

Angus Pinkerton - FSC Chairman (angus-pinkerton@bhpa.co.uk)

Angus is an elected member of the BHPA Executive Council and is the Chairman of the Flying and Safety Committee. He has held these posts for what sometimes seems like forever, and before amalgamation with the BAPC he was Chairman of the BHPA Training Committee.

He has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and worked for a while with a small Scottish hang glider manufacturer, as well as being a part-time Instructor. In 1979 he made his first hang glider flight, and has been a member of the Lanarkshire and Lothian Soaring Club since then. He has flown throughout the UK and Europe and in many competitions at home and abroad, including the World Championships at Fiesch, Switzerland, in 1989.

Angus was founder Chairman of the International Hang Glider Standards Organisation, and for the last ten years has been the Co-ordinator of the CEN Paraglider Standards Working Group, steering the creation of the CEN paraglider Flight Test and Load Test standards.

Fitting all this around his paid employment as a computer information security consultant has finally got too much, and he will be retiring (early!) from work in 2007. He lives in Paisley with his exceptionally tolerant wife Norma and their two sons, who are both now studying at Glasgow University. Angus was awarded the FAI Tissandier Diploma in 1994.

Guy Richardson (Email: guy-richardson@bhpa.co.uk)

Guy is 58 years old, and a full time Paragliding Senior Instructor, Tandem Pilot and Emergency Parachute Repacker.

Having run many repacking events for paragliding clubs and paramotor clubs throughout the country, though primarily the north of England, he helps people understand their rescue systems, learn to repack to BHPA standards and assist people to qualify as packers.

Through the school he enables people to fly better and safer, working towards more advanced qualifications.

He has flown in many places around the globe and assisted other organisations to understand and collaborate with our sports.

Mark Schaefer (Email: mark-schaefer@bhpa.co.uk)

Mark is a paraglider pilot and Club Coach. He is a member of the Pennine Soaring Club and the Derbyshire Soaring Club, and a member of the tiny and informal group of Llyn Flyers.

He is 57, still working, and as he as only been flying since 2021, he still strongly relates to beginners and low airtime pilots.

He is very grateful for the advice, support and encouragement he has received from his clubs, the coaches and practically every pilot he meets.

He is an engineer with commercial and marketing experience, and hopes he can use his skills to repay some of that support by serving on the BHPA Exec.

Steve Young - Skywings (steve-young@bhpa.co.uk)

Steve is an active hang glider pilot, and enjoys flying in the UK and around the Alps. He is a senior coach (hill), an Aerotow coach and a first aider. He is also Chairman of the Malvern Aerotow Club, the Mercian HGC, and a trustee of the Long Mynd site.

Steve spent his career designing engines and powertrains for Land Rover, New Mini and Aston Martin. He has now retired and has the time and enthusiasm to try to put his experience and organisational skills to good use on Exec.

He is a keen cross country pilot and wants to help in any way to preserve our freedoms to fly cross oountry in the UK and protect all of our sites around the country.