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North Wales Repack
The North Wales Hang-Gliding and Paragliding Club will be running its annual parachute repack at the Airbus Social Club at Broughton, near Chester, starting at 10.00 on Saturday 20th January 2018.
Bill Morris and his team of BHPA parachute packers will provide instruction and supervision. The event is open to any BHPA member at a cost of £15; advance booking by January 15th is essential. Book online on the club website, or contact Jerry Hazzard at 01948 780378, email: chairman@nwhgpc.org.uk.
Posted: 20 November 2017
By: Paul Dancey
January date for BFR
The Thames Valley Club's Big Fat Repack will take place earlier than usual this year, on Sunday January 14th at the Rivermead Leisure Centre in Reading.
Two custom-built zip wires (thank you Go Ape!) will be in operation for practice deployments. Air Ambulance personnel will give talks on incident management and first-aid essentials, and Bill Morris's team will demonstrate the crucial points of repacking your reserve. The event, expected to attract up to 140 pilots, is open to TVHGC members and non-members alike; registration is online on the Big Fat Repack website.
Please note: the BFR is not intended as a cheap repack service, but for pilots to learn how to repack their own parachutes, usually done in pairs, but with qualified packers immediately on hand to guide you through the process.
Posted: 20 November 2017
By: Paul Dancey
Suffolk Club renames itself
The Suffolk Coastal Floaters Hang Gliding Club has renamed itself Suffolk Hang Gliding. The original club was formed in 1979 and most flying was indeed done on a range of coastal sites all round the East Anglian coastline.
With the lifting of the BHGA ban on towing the club acquired runway access and storage at Mendlesham in Suffolk and commenced towing. Although club pilots still fly the Suffolk and Norfolk sea cliffs, towing has remained the club's centre of gravity; renaming the club simply acknowledges that fact. It's still probably the best and friendliest small club in the country. Contact them through the Suffolk Hang Gliding Club website.
Posted: 20 November 2017
By: Paul Dancey
Has paragliding gone mainstream?
Many will have missed four-times British paragliding champion Adrian Thomas on BBC Radio 4's Life Scientific programme on October 31st, explaining his professional life of research into insect flight and building dragonfly-drones.
Non-radio listeners will also have missed the previous Sunday's 'slow radio' spot on the flagship morning news, in which we were treated to a whole minute of BHPA member Glyn Pollington's vario beeping hard as he climbed out somewhere in Bulgaria. Are we, all of a sudden, normal?
Posted: 20 November 2017
By: Paul Dancey
Charlie King flies Kilimanjaro
On September 27th British pilot Charlie King flew from the summit of Africa's highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895m) in Tanzania, and is thought to be the first woman pilot to have achieved this feat. She flew a BGD Echo and was part of this year's Paraglide Kilimanjaro expedition.
Charlie has completed several hike-and-fly events including the Transdromoise, Airtour and Bornes to Fly, and mountain ultra-marathons like the 119km, 7200m ascent Traces des Ducs de Savoie. Charlie, who learnt to fly in a BHPA school, currently resides in southern France and works as XC magazine's news editor.
Posted: 20 November 2017
By: Paul Dancey
New PWC App
Ulric Jessop, the brains behind the first automatic paragliding XC League, has designed an app for the PWC which simplifies access to the live commentary, tracking, leaderboard, pilot lists and results. It's available now for use on all platforms on the Google website.
The new app will make it much easier to keep up with the top British pilots at the Super Final (January 9th - 21st). At the time of writing Idris Birch, Russ Ogden and Seb Ospina have achieved automatic selection by finishing in the top 15 in one of the four 2017 PWC rounds. Other British pilots - Guy Anderson, Richard Butterworth, Andrew Williams, Steve Bramfitt and Luke Nicol - may also qualify after the Ecuador PWC which finishes on November 4th.
A Google Earth feed makes live tracking a lot easier to use - it is now much easier to pick out individual pilots in the gaggle, and you can choose to view it with terrain, normal mapping or aerial photos as a background using a standard Google Maps interface. Live commentary includes news, comments and reactions from the pilots, the weather conditions, the ambience and what's really going on. It has already proved to be very popular, with 10 - 14,000 readers per competition. British Champion Guy Anderson says he's hooked on it! For further details please visit the Paragliding World Cup website.
Posted: 23 October 2017
By: Paul Dancey
Tom Hardie steps down
Longtime BHPA Airspace Liaison Officer Tom Hardie has resigned from almost all formal airspace connections. Tom has worked hard for the BHPA, and more recently for the GA Alliance too, to protect our freedom to fly.
The BHPA and GA Alliance roles had broadly similar aims and yet, in the face of mounting pressures on airspace on all sides, staying on top of the escalating requirements to identify and collate responses to the latest proposals, and to notify those affected by the latest encroachments, was turning into the Labours of Hercules.
Tom was also a member of innumerable committees where a BHPA presence was necessary, and in the early 1990s he was one of the architects of the smooth and equitable amalgamation of the BAPC and BHGA. "I've enjoyed working with all of you on many different things and have some really good memories," he says, "but now is the time to move on."
Posted: 23 October 2017
By: Paul Dancey
Green Dragons take over WW importership
The UK importership for Wills Wing hang gliders, previously run by Airways Airsports, has been taken over by Green Dragons. "To start with we aim to have one glider a month on order", says GD boss Andy Shaw, "which will assist with bringing in urgent spare parts. We already have a huge stock of Wills Wing uprights and second-hand Gliders. If you fly a Wills Wing glider, please let us know so we can add you to the UK Wills Wing team to receive invites to WW events and the WW UK newsletter. We are also actively looking to sponsor pilots."
Judy Leden and Chris Dawes at Airways say they will continue to be an active backup for the brand. For more details phone Green Dragons on 01883 652666, e-mail fly@greendragons.co.uk or visit the Wills Wing website.
Posted: 23 October 2017
By: Paul Dancey
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