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 8 out of 42

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 21.04.2018	Pilot Male Age: 43 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 8 years 10 hours (5 hours) 108 flights (34 flights)	Location Rushup, Derbyshire, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Fly Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot crashed while ridge soaring, possibly due to turbulence from trees on the site.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 21.03.2018	Pilot Male Age: 49 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 28 years 1000 hours (20 hours) 1000 flights (10 flights)	Location Sutton Meadows, Cambridgeshire, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Moyes Litespeed Launch Type: Aero Tow	Summary On release at 2000' at the top of the aerotow the pilot's barrel release string wrapped around itself and knotted, causing itself, and hence the pilot, to remain connected from one side of the harness to the standard metal ring on the end of the tow line. Pilot was able to force a weak link break and landed safely.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 11.03.2018	Pilot Male Age: 55 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 8 years	Location Parlick Pike (East), Preston/Lancashire, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Rio Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot landed short in field adjacent to landing field but was also slightly crosswind. Left hand side of control frame struck the ground first causing the pilot to swing through.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 11.03.2018	Pilot Male Age: 54 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 41 years 150 hours (12 hours) 100 flights (15 flights)	Location Parlick East, Lancashire, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Rio 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot misjudged approach and was short of official landing field. In attempting to reach an adjacent field the pilot accidentally stalled the glider due to the wind gradient.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 03.12.2017	Pilot Male Age: 20 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 8 years 3 hours (3 hours) 7 flights (7 flights)	Location Devil's Dyke, South Downs, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence, Flight In Clouds, Fog	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Airwave Caypso Launch Type: Foot	Summary Hang glider pilot had mid-air collision with paraglider pilot while ridge soaring in busy conditions.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 08.10.2017	Pilot Male Age: 55 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 42 years 915 hours (5 hours) 1254 flights (7 flights)	Location Croft farm, Pershore, UK Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Moyes LS3 Launch Type: Aero Tow	Summary Pilot got out of shape on the tow and released from the tow line at about 100 ft agl. Attempted to return to the airstrip but had insufficient height to complete the turn and impacted the ground.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries
Date 03.10.2017	Pilot Male Age: 59 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 44 years 3000 hours (75 hours) (70 flights)	Location St Agnes, UK Wind Strength: 35-40 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Airbourne Fun Launch Type: Foot	Summary On landing glider entered dead air and despite having excess airspeed in preparation for expected wind shear resulted in wheeled landing. passenger now behind pilot in normal standup landing position knocked pilot on back of helmet with his own helmet on landing resulting in pilot knocking nose on basebar.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Head Injuries Passenger: Unhurt
Date 18.09.2017	Pilot Male Age: 54	Location Devil's Dyke, Sussex, UK, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Falcon Launch Type: Foot	Summary Student turned 270 degrees on final approach instead of 180 and landed in trees.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 13.08.2017	Pilot Male Age: 44 Rating: P Flying Experience: 26 years 92 hours (2 hours) 280 flights (5 flights)	Location Mendlesham, Mendlesham, Suffolk, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing U2 Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Pilot was distracted and allowed nose of glider to drift upwards during winch launch. The glider went up at a high angle and the winch operator guillotined the line. The pilot pulled the bar in but caught an upright on the ground before fully in control, landing heavily.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries
Date 09.07.2017	Pilot Male Rating: EP day 3 15 flights (15 flights)	Location Devils Dyke back field, Brighton, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Airbourne Fun	Summary Student encountered buoyant air while on short tethered flight. Student climbed uprights instead of pulling in and landed heavily.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder

Last updated: 5 January 2025

Displaying page 8 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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