Learn to Fly a Hang-glider
Welcome to the future of Hang Gliding training.
Historically, learning to fly hang gliders has been a tedious affair. This consisted of performing very short hops on 70’s designed and built gliders at the nursery slopes of training hills. You would share a glider with up to 6 other students, taking it in turns, with the distant prospect of soaring flight sometime far in the future.
Flylight on the other hand use a method of training using modern dual placed hang gliders towed behind a microlight to 3000ft; whereupon reaching this release height, the towline is jettisoned and free flight begins.
Flylight’s co-directors were instrumental in the introduction of the concept of aerotowing hang gliders behind microlights here in the UK together with the testing and certification of the latest high power microlight tug capable of taking you on your first dual flights. We have also worked closely with the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association for the last 22 years and are one of only two schools in the UK who provide this latest form of training, revolutionising the way people learn to fly these amazing machines. This decreases the time taken to gain your hang gliding qualification in comparison to using outdated hill or static tow based methods…..
Here, each flight is a 20 -30 minute “one on one” lesson giving you more airtime in just one individual flight than you could expect to achieve during your whole course using traditional training methods!!
It is less physically demanding and less prone to interruption by adverse weather or changing wind directions making it suitable for a huge range of student pilots of all physical abilities and disabilities. You no longer have to be physically fit as each of our school gliders has its own undercarriage, negating the need to take off and land on your feet (the hardest part of learning to fly hang gliders). This can be introduced much later once you have had time to learn the core elements and relax.
If time is of the essence tandem aerotow training is one of the most efficient ways to learn to fly a hang glider as you simply book your time slot in the day and do not need to await your turn in the group. We also keep student numbers to an absolute minimum giving your instructor more time to devote to you and tailor the next lesson to your individual needs.
From your very first lesson you learn to hang glide with an experienced instructor, towed behind the microlight up to an altitude (3000ft or 5500ft) giving you time to get comfortable with the controls and progress through the BHPA syllabus in a relaxed and unhurried atmosphere.
Take the tandem hang gliding aerotow training course and after as little as 13 tandem flights you could be flying solo. Once qualified in the hang gliding aerotow environment, it is a very straightforward step to convert to fly Hill or Power.