Learning to Fly

Your career as a hang glider or paraglider pilot starts in a school. The instructors there will guide you from your first hill skimming flights all the way to elementary ridge soaring and your Club Pilot grade.

The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (BHPA) web site has a complete list of authorised schools in the UK.

There are no longer any Hang-gliding or Paragliding schools operating in the Malvern area. The nearest Paragliding school is Beyond Extreme, run by Mark Dann, who trains pilots on the hills of Shropshire. For Hang-gliding, you have to go rather further afield, either to the Peak District of Derbyshire and Staffordshire (several schools - see the BHPA listings), or to Flylight Airsports Ltd in Northampton. If the thought of carrying hang gliders up hills is too much for you, then you can learn a lot of gliding skills from a flat field with the aid of a winch.  There are winch schools operating in the South of the Peak District and in far-flung Norfolk.

Improving your skills

Once you have left a school as a BHPA qualified Club Pilot, you can join our Club and fly on the Malvern Hills. Within the club membership are BHPA Coaches and Pilot Support members who, while not qualified Instructors, are there to offer help, guidance and information concerning the development of your flying, including technique and safety issues, and where and when to start flying the Malverns. Click here to contact a coach.

Page last updated 26-Oct-2008