Anyone here Paraglide
 

Been thinking of trying it for the last couple of years and have been lokimg into it again this year.

A couple of questions in have.
Is it difficult to learn ? And hard to pass any exams needed?
How long would I realistily need to learn and to be safe on my own.

Is insurance expensive ?

Im located near Canterbury Kent anyone know of a flying school nearby ?


Thanks

I'm pretty much a full time Paraglider.

No it's not difficult to learn - apart from walking up hills until you learn to land on them. The exams are pretty simple up to a point as well, more advanced exams need a detailed knowledge of airspace, I passed all of them first time and am rubbish at exams.

Insurance is included in your yearly membership to the BHPA which is £80 I think including a monthly magazine.

There are quite a few UK schools listed on www.BHPA.co.uk but I'd recommend learning abroad, you can spend the rest of your life sitting on UK hills para-waiting for the wind to be right. A good friend has a School in Spain www.flyspain.co.uk spend two weeks with him preferably consecutive and you're free to join and fly at any UK club.

Here's me last week in Spain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJdG84RHK1E another bloke joined me at the top of that thermal and went on to fly 100k, I landed after 30k as I had a flight to catch.

If you want to do silly stuff later then I can help with that too http://vimeo.com/22846695

brother in law has taken it up this year ( his bro has been doing it a while ) so now my sis gets to transport him :)

He wasnt going to take lessons at all , the guys doing the hiring apparently said it wasnt necessary ( they live near Limoux) :eek:

Sis convinced him otherwise

We get a lot of people breaking bones and some dying from buying kit of ebay and just cracking on. It's a very safe sport if you're sensible.

No training !!!!!

That's not the way I want to go.

Thanks for the info Jack

Feel free to PM me with any questions.