Flying in England

Hi all, I'm a paraglider pilot that has the chance to move to the UK (South-east); I was wondering how is flying in England. How many flyable week-ends do you get in an year? Where are the best sites? Who should I contact around London to get in touch with the locals? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks and nice flying,

try the BHPA for a start www.bhpa.co.uk, they have all the contacts, they'll tell you also about transferring qualifications, and insurance, many clubs won't let you on their sites without bhpa membership minimum

flying in the south east the best site down there is devils dyke, horrendously overcrowded and best avoided though it is a good site.

i hope you're tow launching or used to crowded sites, they are few and far between there, jump on the motorway and head west or north is my advice, i fly in s.wales, more sites, the occasional crowd when competitions are on.

weekends flyable, dunno off hand , maybe 1 in 3 pure guess, but if you can get to fly mid week you can enjoy emptier sites and much more air time, i occasionally fly mid week here in wales, i have the site to myself usually

up north from london is derbyshire, the local club magazine i'm reliably informed is called 'spoilt for choice', says it all.

regards jeff farr

Nah - Derbyshire Club is about 2-1/2 hours N of London area - and has sites for every wind direction all within 5 miles or so of each other - but we get VERY busy on weekends and bank holidays, too - I've seen 50-60 gliders in the air at once sometimes. Midweek - no problem. The Magazine 'Spoilt for Choice' applies to the Cumbria club - who fly around the Lake district, another 2-1/2 hours North from here - that's 5 hours from London.

Club membership contact for Derbyshire is Alan Cousins - 01332-735648.

- Rod Buck

Ay-up, saying no crowding and large number of sites in Sheffield area? Bucking Rod will be along shortly.

Beat ya to it!

Heh heh. By the way, is you Amour a 159? Wot's it fly like? I'm tempted to get one - off the crutches now, but the M4 177 is still bloody heavy!

- Rod Buck

Bill Seward hos got an Amour 159 which I've flown many times, including yesterday evening. It is very well mannered, co-ordinates well in turns and goes up well. It suffers from slow roll response and no VB, that's all. Overall a very nice machine.

Paul J.

Yes. as pictured on the cover of Skywings in about Nov 94.

Bloody brilliant. Had it since 1995 and its great to go back to after a layoff. Its got a good sink rate, well with my weight on it! Very light weight. In very strong thermals it can be punch turned and the ground handling is unbelievably easy.

Flown it from Abertysswg back across the Severn into England.

What weight are you flying it at? No VB=tight sidewires=effortless ground handling.

I weigh in at a bit less than the venerable Doctor Bill at 13st 7ish (around 88kg). I don't deny that it ground handles well. It's lite weight, good static balance and lack of side-wire slack guarantee as much. IMHO it 'suffers' from lack of VB due to the fact that I find it useful to have one so that there are more options available in flight.

Bill could never keep up on a glide against my Java 155 (now gone), with or without VB. His glider always felt more cumbersome in turns until you learnt to give it a hefty dose of pitch to get it going around. Once established it turns very sweetly and goes up well. All in all a very nice package!

Paul J.

The Java is well ahead on speed and glide. Not sure about sink rate, plus IMO the Java needs VB use ti get best sink rate.

Mine's possibly trimmed faster than some pilots would trim. Also responds well to attempted yawing.