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:

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).

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 417 entries for flexwing hang glider wings

Displaying page 10 out of 42

[ Top ] - [ Prev ] - [ Next ] - [ Bottom ]

Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports

Date 29.05.2016	Pilot Male Age: 52 Rating: P Flying Experience: 30 years	Location Monk's Down, Shaftsbury, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing U-2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot was too slow and too high on approach to landing. Glider turned on landing and flipped over damaging uprights and tip wand.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 17.05.2016	Pilot Male Rating: P	Location St Hilaire de Touvet, Grenoble, France Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Strong, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Sport 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot made a ramp launch in thermic conditions with a cross wind. During the launch sequence the cross wind lifted the right wing tip causing the glider to turn left back towards the mountainside, where it impacted young trees, causing light damage to the glider.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 06.05.2016	Pilot Male Age: 64 Rating: Hang gliding pilot. Tow,aerotow,power. Flying Experience: 33 years 330 hours (4 hours) 270 flights (6 flights)	Location Airways airsports, Darley Moor, Ashbourne., UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills U2 Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary While test flying a hang glider, pilot forgot to release the tow line. After a short circuit flight the pilot landed and noticed the line still attached.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 17.04.2016	Pilot Male Age: 58 Rating: P Flying Experience: 50 years 1320 hours (65 hours) 1800 flights (43 flights)	Location Sutton Meadows, Sutton, Cambridgeshire, UK Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions:, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Bautek Fizz Launch Type: Aero Tow	Summary One side of glider became caught on the launch trolley during aerotow launch. Glider nosed in. Suspected VB cleat caught on trolley frame.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 09.04.2016	Pilot Age: 42 Flying Experience: 10 years 18 flights (18 flights)	Location Woldingham Valley, Surrey, UK	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Hiway Stubby Launch Type: Foot	Summary Student flared too early. As the glider descended the student's arm hit the upright.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder Passenger: Unhurt

Date 05.04.2016	Pilot Male Age: 43 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 14 years 30 hours	Location Dunstable Downs, Dunstable, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Aeros Discus Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot lost control of glider while attempting to bottom land in strong thermic conditions.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Thoracic Spine

Date 20.03.2016	Pilot Male Age: 55 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 36 years 500 hours (5 hours) 800 flights (8 flights)	Location Model Ridge, Middlesbrough, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Rio 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot landed to fix issue with harness. On relaunching the pilot forgot to do hang check and failed to notice he had not fastened his chest buckles. Pilot was able to fasten then in flight.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 13.03.2016	Pilot Male Age: 52 Rating: P Flying Experience: 15 years 180 hours (24 hours) 231 flights (15 flights)	Location Pandy, Abergavenny SE Wales, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Puma Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot was on his 2nd flight on high a performance glider. Light winds in landing field. The pilot misjudged his flare and the glider nosed in. Pilot swung through frame and dislocated shoulder. Minor glider damage	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder

Date 17.10.2015	Pilot Male Age: 46 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 40 years 2000 hours (35 hours) 2000 flights (20 flights)	Location Marske, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Aeros Combat L Launch Type: Foot	Summary Hang glider nose wire person was inexperienced and released glider with a lot of tension on the nose wires. The glider turned immediately downwind despite pilot correcting and hit the ground just behind take off.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries

Date 11.10.2015	Pilot Male Age: 57 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 26 years 2000 hours (20 hours) 1000 flights (14 flights)	Location Mam tor, Castleton, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing T2C Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot misjudged approach having decided to execute right, then left turn to lose height, and stalled glider.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries

Last updated: 15 May 2025

Displaying page 10 out of 42

[ Top ] - [ Prev ] - [ Next ] - [ Bottom ]

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.

Go to: Safety
Go to: Pilot Development (Foundation Syllabus)
Go to: Pilot Rating Scheme
Go to: BHPA Courses
Go to: Incident Reports (Informal)
Go to: Incident Reports (Formal)
Go to: Safety Notices
Go to: CANP (Civil Aircraft Notification Procedure)
Go to: NOTAMs (Notices to Aviation)
Go to: Instructor & Coach Newsletters
Go to: BHPA Documents
Go to: BHPA Forms
Go to: BHPA Fees

The BHPA is a members of the Royal Aero Club

The General Aviation Safety Council Flight Safety Magazine

British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Incident Reports (Informal)