British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Incident Reports (Informal)

Incident reports received by the BHPA are available in summary form on this page. If you're looking for reports of formal investigations undertaken in the case of a serious incident, please visit our Incident Reports (formal investigations) page.

Incident reports are available in summary form for the following wing types:

• All Wing Types
• Paraglider
• Flexwing Hang Glider
• Rigid Hang Glider
• Speedrider
• Speedflyer/Miniwing
• Powered PG
• Powered HG
• Other

Incident reports for flexwing hang glider wings are displayed below in summary form.

The BHPA incident reports database is fully searchable. To refine your search you can specify a particular wing type and select "or" or "and". For example, if you want to search for paraglider incidents at Hay Bluff, for best search results select paraglider from the drop down list and the "and" option.

If you want to search by incident date, please enter the day, month and year numerically as dd-mm-yyyy (eg. 03-12-2019).

All Wing Types Paraglider Flexwing Hang Glider Rigid Hang Glider Speedrider Speedflyer/Miniwing Powered PG Powered HG Other

or and

If known, total hours and total flights flown are displayed below together with hours and flights flown in the past six months, the latter being displayed in brackets.

There are 415 entries for flexwing hang glider wings

Displaying page 4 out of 42

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 12.06.2022	Pilot Male Age: 59 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 6 years 5 hours (1 hour) 20 flights (15 flights)	Location Rhossili, Swansea, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Falcon 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot crash landed having got too far beyond the ridge. Witness suspects pilot got into leeside turbulence.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured
Date 12.05.2022	Pilot Male Age: 47 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 31 years	Location Lyveden Airfield, Corby, UK	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider	Summary During release check, pilot's bridle snagged on the test release rig. Bridle had undergone 'quick' repair resulting in an end not properly finished. This was then repaired more appropriately. Release would have failed if used as it was.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 26.03.2022	Pilot Male Age: 61 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 35 years 600 hours (6 hours)	Location Balado Aerotow, UK	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Launch Type: Aero Tow	Summary Three ring circus failed to release after aerotow. Partially released then held. Pilot managed full release by knocking with his hand. Pilot suspects loops had become stretched over time.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 06.03.2022	Pilot Male Age: 58 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 7 years 80 hours (7 hours) 110 flights (13 flights)	Location Parlick East Face, Chipping, UK Wind Strength: 30-35 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Rio 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Hang glider had near miss with paraglider pilot while soaring. Hang glider pilot was able to avoid the collision but was unable to discuss with the paraglider pilot, who had left the site. Paraglider pilot was not a club member.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 05.01.2022	Pilot Male Age: 27 Rating: P Flying Experience: 11 years 555 hours (100 hours) 500 flights (50 flights)	Location Cornborough, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions:, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Aeros Combat Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot did not find expected lift after take-off and continued down bowl. Pilot got in to 'pilot induced oscillations' over cliffs resulting in a pirouette onto clifftop footpath. Glider came to rest against barbwire fence.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 21.10.2021	Pilot Male Age: 52 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 8 years 52 hours (22 hours) 86 flights (28 flights)	Location Westbury white horse, Westbury Wiltshire, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Falcon Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot took off with insufficient airspeed resulting in 180 degree turn back onto hill top. Landed on one wheel bending an upright.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 05.09.2021	Pilot Male Age: 65 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 45 years 1000 hours (5 hours) 1500 flights (5 flights)	Location Pinacle Hill East, Great Malvern, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Cheetah EVO 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary On approach to landing the pilot did not recognise the light wind conditions, nor did they appreciate the extent to which the field sloped away in the direction of landing. This resulted in a long, ground effect glide across the field. Pilot flared hard but crashed into boundary hedge.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 28.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 61 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 35 years 600 hours (20 hours) (30 flights)	Location Dodd Fell, Yorkshire Dales, UK	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Moyes RX Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot failed to clip in to the glider. This was spotted by a pilot bystander and corrected before take off.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 11.04.2021	Pilot Male Age: 54 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 27 years 30 hours (1 hour) 318 flights (6 flights)	Location Harting Down, South Harting, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Sport 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot was assisted on launch by another pilot holding the nose wires. This assistant found that the nose wires became disconnected and came away in their hands. The launch was aborted. Upon inspection it was found that if the nose wires were held with one hand near the nose plate, the nose wire disconnection could be replicated.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 11.04.2021	Pilot Male Rating: CP	Location Harting Down, West Sussex, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: Strong, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Eagle Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot stalled their their hang glider on launch and lost control, causing the glider to rotate into the hill.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Last updated: 2 December 2024

Displaying page 4 out of 42

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A number of incident analysis reports are also available in the safety section of our website. These are compiled from the individual incident reports submitted during the course of each year.

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