British Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association

Green Dragons' Learn to Fly Zoom meetings

Andy Shaw, CFI at the Green Dragons training school, will be dedicating an evening each week to a public-facing Zoom meeting for would-be free fliers.

He plans to cover all disciplines - learn to paraglide, hang glide, paramotor, hang glide with power and fly accuracy - and may invite other schools and clubs to join in.

A trial meeting on January 13th saw 26 would-be fliers from across the UK supported by 14 BHPA coaches and instructors. The feedback from those present was very positive.

Search for:Green Dragons' Facebook page and go from there.

Posted: 14 January 2021
By: J. Schofield

BHPA statement – Coronavirus (COVID-19)

As we know, from 5 January 2021 the UK government has imposed a further lockdown in England.

The other home nations have their own lockdowns in place.

Unfortunately, the Parliamentary draftsman has chosen an extremely complex way of producing legislation for this lockdown in England. It has been done by amending the Regulations that came into effect in November 2020.

In Tier 4 locations, the basic law is that you must stay at home. There are then exceptions to this, such as going shopping for essentials etc. There were two exceptions that were important to our sports.

Firstly, to take exercise outside, and secondly, to visit a public outdoor place for the purposes of open-air recreation.

The new Regulations have deleted that second exception. When considered alongside the Government's Guidelines, this means that:

You can only leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure (e.g. a picnic or a social meeting).

You may exercise in a public outdoor place on your own, with one other person, or with your household or support bubble.

Public outdoor places relevant to flying include local beaches, countryside accessible to the public and forests.

Outdoor exercise should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area, defined as "the village, town, or part of the city where you live".

Stay 2 metres apart from anyone not in your household.

The CAA have also revised their Guidelines to say that no leisure flying is permitted.

The police can take action against you if you leave home without a 'reasonable excuse' or break other rules. Fixed Penalty Notices can be issued starting at £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400.

We had hoped that we might be able to advise that flying locally was permitted, and legally it is. But taken in conjunction with the pressures we are seeing on A&E and ITU Departments, it does seem that BHPA advice to all our pilots, powered and unpowered must be that for the duration of this lockdown, members must refrain from flying.

Marc Asquith
BHPA Chairman

Posted: 7 January 2021
By: Paul Dancey