British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

BHPA Instructor course in action.

August Skywings will arrive with members any day now. For those who are not members or simply cannot wait, it is already available, along with many back issues, online for free @

https://www.skywingsmag.co.uk/

Congratulations to Grant Crossingham on achieving #1 in the class1 hang gliding world ranking.
UK is also ranked #2 with #11 Gordon Rigg #15 Darren Brown #19 Dave Matthews

civlcomps.org

A message from our colleagues in Denmark:

Dear BHPA Team,

It’s summer, and the flying season is booming at the Danish coastal soaring sites. We are always glad to see pilots from our neighbouring countries on our hills. The Danish Hanggliding & Paragliding Union (DHPU) would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the rules and regulations, as well as some tips for staying safe, when your pilots visit the popular soaring spots in Denmark.

As parakites become increasingly popular, we welcome more visitors every year. Many of our sites are small, and some of them exist only because we have good relations with local residents and landowners. When visiting pilots are not aware of the local rules, those relations come under pressure — and in the worst case, a site closes for everyone. It is rarely a matter of bad intentions; it is almost always simply missing information. And that is exactly where you can help us.

We have a section for visiting pilots on our website, and we also print information flyers that are available at campsites and tourist information offices along the coast:

English: https://dhpu.dk/for-visiting-pilots-en/
German: https://dhpu.dk/for-visiting-pilots-de/

If you could link to it from your website, or mention it in your member magazine, it would be a great help. Please feel free to translate or shorten anything you like.

These are the four points that most often catch visitors by surprise:

Licence: IPPI 4 is the minimum requirement.
Insurance: third-party liability insurance is compulsory.
Airspace: check the NOTAMs before every flight — several military firing ranges overlap with our most popular west coast sites, and the restricted areas change from day to day.
Schools: teaching students at any level requires an instructor licence issued by the DHPU.
And as always, good airmanship gets you a long way 🙂

Show respect to earn respect.
Take your rubbish with you when you leave.
Say hello to the locals.
Follow the local rules.
We would of course be happy to do the same for your sites — just send us the material.

Happy flying, and have a great season.

Best regards,

On behalf of Chairman Jesper Eybye and the DHPU Board,

Für gastpiloten – dhpu.dk Dänemark bietet einige der besten Küsten- und Hangsoaring-Spots Nordeuropas sowie Schleppstart-Möglichkeiten für Gleitschirme und Drachen. Bevor du hier fliegst, mach dich bitte mit unseren nationalen Regeln vertraut — das ist ein wichtiger Teil unserer Bemühungen, das Fliegen bei uns sicher ...

Phishy business!

In the interests of openness, BHPA Staff and Exec. names, job titles and email addresses are listed on our website.

As a result their identities can be recreated by bad actors to generate plausible phishing emails coming, apparently, from BHPA people and bearing messages such as, 'Can you handle this - I'm in a meeting right now - can you buy some Amazon Gift cards, I will refund you when I get free …'

Such requests should be ignored and deleted. Access to your address is not through any BHPA data breach. Likewise, emails offering to sell the BHPA mailing lists are equally spurious and have not arisen from any data breach.

The contents of such emails are harvested from public facing pages like the Club Contacts list and Clubs' own websites.

French Hang Gliding Open and Nationals just finished in Laragne Monteglin.
Tim Swait 1st place in Sports Class on his own design British Made Avian Puma.
Darren Brown 2nd place in Open Class on his Moyes Rx 3.5 pro, continuing his rise to international hang gliding stardom!, with former world champion Attilla Bertok in 1st and former world champion Christian Chiech in 3rd.

One of our friends from British Gliding and a heroic back room boy has passed away.

David will not have been known to very many hang glider and paraglider pilots, but the work he did with the CAA and pre-Brexit with EASA was to the significant benefit of all of us. For those of us who knew him, he was, at all times, a true gentleman.

I last saw him at the RAeC Medals and Awards Ceremony on 12 May 2026. He was physically frail but still mentally sharp as a nail !

Taken from the BGA website:

David Roberts
23rd July 2026

We are very sad to report that David Roberts OBE has passed away following a short illness.

For many years, David, a long term member of the Cotswold GC, served the interests of gliding and wider air sport very effectively in several leadership roles, including Chairman of the BGA, and latterly BGA Vice-President, Chairman of the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, President of the European Gliding Union and President of Europe Air Sports.

Our thoughts are with his family and his many friends worldwide.

The CAA has recently launched a “Consultation on a Proposed Electronic Conspicuity Mandate in the UK”

https://consultations.caa.co.uk/safety-and-airspace-regulation-group/ec-mandate/

In the most general of terms it proposes the compulsory carriage of an ADSB electronic conspicuity device by all aircraft including hang gliders and paragliders.

It is very likely that other EC systems such as Flarm, Safe Sky and Pilot Aware will no longer be sufficient to comply with the legal requirement to carry an EC device.

The consultation closes at midnight on 22 September 2026.

Together with other GA organisations the BHPA will produce a reasoned set of responses that it is going to submit. We aim to have this available for all BHPA members to consider by around 25th August 2026.

Members are encouraged to hold off making submissions to the Consultation until our draft response is prepared so that it can be used as a template for your own responses.

The draft response will be published here in due course.

Consultation on a Proposed Electronic Conspicuity Mandate in the UK - Civil Aviation Authority - Citizen Space Find and participate in consultations run by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Here comes the July issue of Skywings. Hard copies will arrive with members in the next few days. If you cannot wait - then it is available online for free right now:

https://www.skywingsmag.co.uk/

Skywings magazine is now available for free, online. Hard copies will arrive with members next week.

https://www.skywingsmag.co.uk/