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 420 entries for flexwing hang glider wings

Displaying page 5 out of 42

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 21.10.2021	Pilot Male Age: 52 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 9 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: 46 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: 36 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: 28 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
Date 04.04.2021	Pilot Male Age: 74 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 44 years 1500 hours (8 hours) 2000 flights (6 flights)	Location Long Mynd, Shropshire, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Sport 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot was making a top landing and took action to avoid collision with bystanders on the pilot's line of final approach, resulting in a dropped wingtip and subsequent heavy landing, which broke an upright.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 11.10.2020	Pilot Male Age: 60 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 36 years 500 hours (10 hours) 500 flights (15 flights)	Location Longridge Fell, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence, Leeside	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Moyes Litespeed RX Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot encountered turbulence when top landing behind the crest of the hill and lost control of the hang glider at low level. The corner of the base bar hit the ground and stopped dead whilst the pilot swung forward with momentum, injuring the pilot's wrist on the upright.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 22.06.2020	Pilot Male Age: 59 Rating: P Flying Experience: 35 years 351 hours (5 hours) 462 flights (5 flights)	Location Freathy, Near Plymouth, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Moyes Lightsport Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot set up his top landing approach too far back and was caught in rotor. This caused the aircraft to crash in the field behind take off.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Head Injuries
Date 31.05.2020	Pilot Male Age: 62 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 49 years 1050 hours (2 hours) 1200 flights (3 flights)	Location Not stated, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing T2c Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot misjudged distance on approach to landing and failed to maintain sufficient airspeed to flare, leading to a heavy landing.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 30.05.2020	Pilot Male Rating: CP	Location Mam Tor, Peak District, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Moderate	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Rio2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot was too low to turn to the landing field, being in close proximity to a line of trees between the slope he was flying and the landing field. He was seen to collide with the slope.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Hands, Arms, Shoulder

Last updated: 11 July 2025

Displaying page 5 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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