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Welcome to the Malvern Hang Gliding Club

The Malvern hang-gliding club exists to promote hang-gliding and paragliding for pilots in the Malvern area.


Events calendar: Jim Clewitt has devised this magnificent device to keep you all up to date with what's going on. Click here to open the calendar in a new window. Once you have it open, click on the dates to find the details - for example, the next Club night on 11th Feb clicks through to details of the talk to be given by Donald MacKenzie and Darren Arkwright on Competition and Mountain flying.


Latest news

Club members seek sponsorship for their little bike ride

Paul Massey writes...

Pancho (Gareth Jameson)  and I, along with a friend of mine are planning to cycle from John O Groats to Lands End in the summer.

I have always had a hankering to do the End to End since cycling a similar distance in France a few years ago. Luckily my friends up until now have always been sensible enough to say NO when asked if they want to give it a try.

*Enter stage left Pancho*

Unfortunately I seem to have gained some stupid friends and made the mistake of mentioning the idea to Mark and Pancho , they both seemed keen. Then we only went and arranged a charity and got some sponsorship, so we can’t even back out gracefully now.

My Mother had a tumour removed from behind her eye just before Christmas ( you know in that great tradition of parents trying to ruin your holidays) Thankfully she is getting better now but it made my mind up about our charity and so Cancer Research will be getting every penny we can raise.

John O Groats to Lands End is very nearly 1000 miles which we plan to do over a fortnight carrying all our gear,  tents and the like. Training is going very well, we have already increased our calorie intake as I read somewhere that carb loading is a vital element of any distance event. I imagine at some stage we will have to do some sort of cycling but lets not get carried away yet , we don’t want to peak too soon do we.

We have a pretty website with blogs and photos with which we plan to record our trip

www.jogle2k9.co.uk


click for other pictureNick Collins organised a successful weekend expedition to Bude, on the Devon/Cornwall border on the weekend of 14th & 15th Nov. The number of members participating was relatively small, John Bevan and Nick being the main flyers on their rigid wings, and they enjoyed moderate westerly winds, as forecast, and Nick, at least did a 28 mile out and return cliff run. Click here for the U-Tube video he made.




Three club members are recently back from an autumnal trip to Slovenia. Click this link to read their postcard.


Need any help with flying the Malverns, or flying in general? Who doesn't? Check out the new Coaching page.

Many thanks for the good turnout on Sunday 26th Oct to de-sapling the lower slopes on the east side of Pinnacle Hill. Here's Tony Jones digging out the birch roots, with many members and their wives/partners/dogs assisting too.

If you didn't come on this occasion, you will have missed the r and r at the Chase Pub a little later (click the picture to see the other one). But there will be another chance all too soon.



Weather stations: The Club's own weather station, situated at the Wyche Cutting is now back on line! To link to it in a new browser page click "Wyche"
The link to Bromsberrow remains, of course and for that link click here. Bromsberrow weather station is 6 miles SSW of Pinnacle Hill, and is at an elevation of 200ft. See also the "Weather" section in the panel on the left.



Flying Notices

Your urgent attention required
The previous paraglider landing field below Kettle-Sings East is not currently available, the land-owner having withdrawn permission. A new landing field has been secured, a little further from takeoff. Click here to view the site guide, with details of new field and emergency field.
Please pass the word around that there is now a new authorised landing field and that nobody should land in the old one.

Important site update notice: Leckhampton There is no longer a bottom landing field available. Pilots should assume there is no bottom landing and only fly if they are sure they can stay up/get away or are competent at slope landing in the bowl (tricky). Also the only suitable parking place is the Quarry car park: Parking at Hartley's farm is no longer permitted. Updated details are on the Leckhampton page.

Important notice: Horses can be ridden on many of the footpaths over the Worcestsershire Beacon (a members-only site) and Kettle Sings as some of them are also bridle-ways. This potential hazard is brought to the attention of all pilots as they are easily spooked, as happened recently. All pilots must be extra vigilant when flying there as the paths are not all visible when on the ground.

Notice about the "Bath Gap": Due to increasing air traffic in the Bristol area, there has been a change to restricted airspace in the area to the east of Bristol, near Bath. Rather than trying to explain it here, please refer to the excellent presentation on the Avon HG & PG site. If you want to fly the gap, the procedure is to phone Bristol ATIS on 01275-473666 and find out if the gap is open. (Opening the gap gives 1000ft of extra flying height in the corridor) If it is not open, ring club reps who are on this .pdf file on the Avon website. The extra airspace can be opened by a nominated Avon member ringing up.


How to fly our sites

Want to join the club? You don't have to be a club member in order to fly most of the sites managed by the Malvern Club. However there are restrictions on the main Malvern hill sites: You may need a 'sticker for life' or to become a full member. Details and the application forms are on our Sites page. Alternatively come along to the Club night at The Pheasant, Welland, details below.


Club Meetings

Social meetings are held at 8 pm on the second Wednesday of each month at The Pheasant pub in Welland (Note: no longer at the Plume of Feathers), 3 miles to the South-East of Malvern. For a map click here. Previous activities have included parachute repacking, video nights, slide shows, quizzes and talks by luminaries such as "WeatherJack" Harrison, Jes Flynn, Darren Arkwright and Larry Tudor.

The Pheasant
Drakes St,
Welland,
Worcs WR13 6LP




Flying Diary

The club's flying blog is at http://malvern-hg.blogspot.com.
To post, sign in using the e-mail address "info@malvern-hang.org.uk" as your username. You will also need the password to put up a new posting. For those of you with a musical inclination, you can think of a set of variations that were written near our main flying site, or you can e-mail me (webmaster) and ask me what it is.


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Please send any comments or suggestions to the Webmaster.

Last updated May 2009