I want to try hand gliding!!!

Hi everyone, I am interested in learning to hand glide

Could any of you nice people recommend anywhere suitable in the Manchester (UK) area or North West. Also what sort of cost i am looking at???

Thanks in advance

Actually, you don't want to Hand Glide - it's much preferable to use a separate wing - it works in much lighter winds!

These are known as Hang Gliders, ('cos you Hang from underneath them). I presume this is what you mean.

You need to attend a Hang Gliding School. There are several within easy reach of Manchester. Call the BHPA (British Hang Gliding and Paracgiling Assn) on 0116-261-1322, and they'll send you an info pack and full list of schools.

Typical cost for a basic 4-5 days course is around 250-300 pounds. This is good value, because when you're learning, you bend THEIR equipment, not your own!

A further 3-4 day course is then usual to teach you how to soar and stop up properly before you can buy your own kit, and come out into the local club environment.

Beginner's kit: A good used glider can be had for somewhere around 500-1500 pounds, and you need a harness, helmet, parachute and variometer. This little lot can be had 2nd hand for around 500 pounds again.

So, aim to spend around 1000-2000 pounds on beginner's kit once you are qualified. More reason to attend school, and find out if you like it before you lash out on your own personal kit!

It's them ost fun you can have in public with your clothes on!

You take the piss out of the poor lad calling us Hand Gliders (and what I do in the privacy of my own home is nobodys business) and then you invent

No, it weren't me, guv - it were Turnpike, honest. Anyway, I did give the lad sensible help, didn't I?

Actually, it might have been a Freudian slip - once I got past the 'British Hang Gliding' part - the brain shut off at the awful thought of Paragliding, and mangled it!

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Surprised to hear you flogging this old bit of misinformation, Rod. They were called hang gliders because dear old Otto Lilienthal who made the first ones a hundren years ago, was a German, to whom a 'ein hang' is a slope. He very reasonably called them slope gliders because he was gliding off slopes, and the fact that he was suspended by the armpits was coincidental.

Never mind. The name is better than 'paraglider', in which I take the 'para' part to mean against, as in the French for umbrella: 'par a pluie'. In other words, for protection against rain. That means a paraglider is a sort of anti-glider, a sentiment with which I am sure you will concur.

Cheers

Gee you guys crack me up.....