Kinga Masztalerz is a Polish pilot who spends half her year in New Zealand and the other in Europe, chasing an eternal summer. She is one of the very, very few women to undertake big solo vol biv trips and has crossed the Southern Alps in New Zealand and the Dolomites in Italy on her own. A hard-core climber, she is physically and mentally very str…

Our latest podcast with Matt Senior and Jesse Williams is on dust devils. The Scientific American describes dust devils as small, rotating columns of air that we can see because of the dust and debris they pick up from the ground, resulting from a mini-weather system that occurs when one piece of ground heats up faster than the ground surrounding i…

Greg Hamerton is well known as the Paragliding Evangelist at Flybubble UK. His videos and articles on techniques, safety and adventures are a fountain of knowledge and entertainment. Greg was a competitor in the 2016 X-pyr and here he shares some insights into the 2018 route and some tactics that the competitors might employ. There is a condensed v…

Simon Blake is a pilot from the north-west of England. Having learnt to fly paragliders, he was very diligent about noting down his flights and what he learnt from them. A few years ago he put his collected experience into a book called Prepare to Fly, with the very apt subtitle Paragliding tips I wish Id learned sooner. If you havent read it yet, …

The X-Pyr started in 2012 with just a dozen competitors. The first edition was 438km from Hondaribia on the Altantic coast to Port de la Selva on the Mediterranean. The biannual race flourished from there, with top hike and fly competitors from all over the world now coming to compete in the race. Having been an X-Alps supporter twice, Jesse Willia…

British acro pilots Lee Tryhorn, Alex Colbeck and Jack Pimblett set up the British Acro Paragliding Academy to promote the discipline and help pilots to progress in an organised, safe way. The BAPA aims to get British acro to the highest level.

Every pilot has had a site briefing and most have provided one, but there is a dearth of guidance on how to effectively do one. In this podcast Judith Mole mulls over some of the critical information that should be given, how to give it and what not to do! Listening is key for the briefer, as is asking the right questions of the new pilot. Each bri…

Originally from the Isle of Wight, Lawrie lives and flies in the Peak District. A member of a flying family (his dad, uncle and cousin all fly), he was connected to flying from a young age. He was an instructor at Airways Airports for many years, but having a proper job now means he can only get out to fly for pleasure these days. Having won the Br…

Juan Sebastian Ospina, commonly known as Sebas, was born in Colombia, has lived for many years in England and now lives and works as a tandem pilot in Switzerland. A member of the UK national team, he is a multiple record-holder in a variety of countries. He holds the Colombian distance record, the UK declared triangle record and is the British pil…

Tim Pentreath is an Advance UK XC Team pilot from Bath. He has been flying for many, many years and last year finally made his first 200+ km flight in the UK - joining a small, select group of people to have achieved this. He is Mr. Advance in the SW and also keeps and informative and entertaining flying blog at https://flyaszent.wordpress.com/ In …

Dara is an Irish pilot from Dublin who describes himself as a weekend pilot rather than a Sky-God. As he approaches 70, his ambition is to fly 50km sometime soon. He is the former chairman of the Irish Hang-Gliding and Paragliding Association and a keen aerial photographer, so much so that his photos were used twice as inside covers in SkyWings in …

Kussy is originally from Venezuela but has lived and flown in New Zealand for many years. A skydiver and competition pilot, she nevertheless likes to do her own thing. In this podcast she answers questions on her all time PG hero, the biggest risk she has taken in flying and the most bizzare sight that she has seen on landing.…

Malin is a pilot originally from the SW of England. He flies speed wings, paragliders and paramotors. A keen competition pilot, he has been instrumental in organising the British Paragliding Racing Academy , which aims to train up-and-coming British comp pilots. His ambition is to become an SIV instructor and to move abroad to somewhere warmer. For…

Rhona Carrigan is a Pennine Club pilot and member of the Pennine Posse. In this podcast she answers questions on what she would change her vario tune to, whats the most frustrating thing about paragliding and how long she had been flying before she considered herself to be a proper pilot?

Bob Moore lives and flies in the south-west of the UK. He has flown in various areas of Europe and Australia. He is retired but keeps busy with his video camera reviews which you can see on youtube here. He mentions a guiding outfit in Greoliers at the end of the podcast. More info on them here. In this podcast he answers questions on the strongest…

Gavin Jillings runs Rose Valley Lodge in Sopot, Bulgaria. He was so taken with the place that he and his wife Lucy packed up and shipped out from Belfast to live the dream of being paragliding/motorcycling guides and restauranteurs. Gavin is a qualified BHPA instructor and runs BHPA accredited EP/CP courses in Sopot. You can see more about him and …

Many of us travel to far-flung places to appreciate the amazing scenery, cheap drinks, food and accommodation and better flying weather than we can find at home. We are treated hospitably and are often helped by locals when we land out or are involved in an incident. So can we give something back to the communities we fly in, whether that is at hom…

Greg Hamerton is a South African pilot who lives and flies in the UK. He is the chief paragliding evangelist for Flybubble, a job he describes as perfect. And you can see why, he lives, dreams and breathes flying and all he has to do is enthuse others with the same passion. His videos are excellent and contribute much to the learning and safety of …

Ollie Chitty is a hang gliding instructor, competition pilot and British hang gliding record holder. A young pilot, he comes from a flying family and acted as ballast for his dad Nick Chitty for years. A rising star of the UK hang gliding scene, he answered questions about whether he ever tried any DIY flying when he was a kid; how he has changed a…

Andrew Craig is a pilot from the south of England (originally from London), but now lives in Wiltshire for the better flying opportunities. A former journalist, he is one of the moderators of PG forum and a Mastermind contender. We asked him ten random questions on topics like whats the most radical manoeuvre he has done, how he celebrated his grea…

Ten Random Questions for Mark Meadows, organiser of Parafest. He is a keen paramotor and paraglider pilot who puts flying way before work. In this podcast he talks about his inspiration for the Parafest event and answers random flying-related questions on his proudest flying moment or achievement, what his parents think about his flying and whether…

In our continuing series of fortnightly podcasts called Ten Random Questions for... we have come up with 250 flying-related questions and put them into a random question generator. This weeks guest is Viv Fouracre, well known in the south west of England and a long time committee member of the British Paragliding Cup. She answered questions on dive…

In the second podcast on flying and motherhood I speak to Ruth Churchill-Dower and Judy Leden from the UK, Heidi Insam from Italy and Elli Torro from Finland about being a flying mother, childcare arrangements and flying with your kids. If you have not already done so, you can download the Flying when Pregnant podcast from the podcast page on this …

The latest in our series of fortnightly podcasts called Ten Random Questions for... is with Tim-Patrick Meyer from Germany. He learnt to fly in Chile and has since competed in various events, including a pre-PWC where he succeeded in getting onto the podium in the sports class. At the Paraglider have come up with 250 flying-related questions and pu…

In this podcast I talk to Ruth Churchill-Dower and Judy Leden from the UK, Heidi Insam from Italy and Elli Torro from Finland. This podcast is one of two about paragliding and motherhood. Many women give up the sport when they become mothers. This may be due to a greater perceived risk, a greater feeling of responsibility or because of lack of slee…

At The Paraglider we have started a new series of fortnightly podcasts called Ten Random Questions for... We have come up with 250 flying-related questions and put them into a random question generator. We then interviewed a number of pilots and this weeks guest is Matthew Tandy, organiser of the Advance British Clubs Challenge. He has been flying …

Our latest series of podcasts is called Ten Random Questions for... We have come up with 250 flying-related questions and have fed these into a random question generator. Each fortnight we interview a pilot using ten randomly selected questions. The results are interesting, educational, insightful and sometimes hilarious. No two sets of questions a…

In this podcast Judith Mole examines how we make decisions, what influences our decision making process and looks at ways we can make better decisions. Drawing on research from economics, psychology and neuroscience, she explains how the brain works and applies good general practice to a flying context and gives you some tools to try to help you ma…

John Hovey is an experienced first aid trainer and expedition leader with the with the National Outdoor Leadership School (www.nols.edu). This podcast looks at what to do in the event of an accident. It covers liability, taking charge, moving a casualty, emergency procedures, kit to carry etc. This podcast could help you feel prepared if you have t…

Gavin McClurg is a professional adventurer. As well as circumnavigating the world by boat, he used to be in the US ski team, is an accomplished white-water kayaker and he currently holds the North American foot launch distance record (387 km), set from his home town of Sun Valley to near Helena, Montana. In summer 2014, Gavin and Will Gadd, himself…

Kathleen Rigg is an extremely accomplished hang glider pilot based in Derbyshire, England. She has flown at the top level of the Womens World Hang Gliding Championships for years, has been the British Womens Champion numerous times and has been awarded the Royal Aero Club Individual Gold Award. With the number of hang gliders declining in recent ye…

Ziad Bassil (Dust of the Universe) is passionate about testing gliders. He has flown a staggering number of them over the past 20 years. With his friends, he flies the mountains of his native Lebanon and makes glide angle comparison tests in moving air and writes up his reviews on his blog at www.dustoftheuniverse.com. He is completely independent …

Phil Colbert and Barney Woodhead (Niviuk UK) are part of the Pennine Posse - a lose gaggle of pilots who fly and party together. Their strategy of sharing info, planning flights, travelling and flying together and then helping each other with retrieves has made them one of the most successful flying buddy groups in the country. And it works - the P…

Heike Hamann learned to fly in 1992 and recently completed a Masters in Process Oriented Psychology. After a few paragliding incidents she developed a fear of being high and as part of her thesis she started to examine her fears and thought about how she could tackle them. The result is an article called The Seven Steps of Fear Management in Paragl…

Tim ONeill started flying 44 years ago in sailplanes and has been hooked on aviation ever since. He began flying paragliders in 2002 and has been an avid XC pilot for the last 9 years. He makes his living flying 747s for a US airline, but spends much his home time assessing whether the day is flyable or not... His interest in the safety aspect of o…

Jug Aggarwal, Matt Beechinor, Alan Ford and Iain Frew. When you land out, you often find yourself in somewhat bizarre places, as is proved in this collection of funny retrieve and landing stories. In this podcast you will hear about why going cross-country can be the best adventure youll ever have; one of the coolest ways of getting back home ever,…

Jugdeep Aggarwal (Flymaster USA) - there are many formats for competitions. Larger international competitions usually run over one to two weeks. Smaller, national or local competitions have the luxury of being more flexible, since competitors dont have to travel quite so far to attend. The North California League uses a completely flexible approach…

Timothy Bishop - in this podcast Tim and I discuss safety, including human factors, attitude and how we can improve paragliding safety culture. Tim comes from a military and civil aviation background and the discussion is informed by this knowledge of flight safety training. In the podcast he mentions his home-made paragliding flight simulator, pic…

Her-Hsin Tsai - as well as being a keen XC flyer, Hamish (as he is better known in the paragliding community) lives and flies at the coast. In this podcast he discusses a wide range of aspects of coastal flying, including weather, hazards, coastal XCs, sea breezes, convergence, sea thermals and more. It makes valuable listening for people both fami…

Chris Trow (Fast Retrieve) - following my interview with the PWC and British Open retrieve manager for the Marshalling podcast, here Chris talks about possible future technological developments in comps, including live tracking, Spot and other satellite tracking devices, radios, etc. All these developments are aimed at making competitions safer and…

Josh Cohn, Nick Greece, Adam Hill, Craig Morgan, Russ Ogden, Yassen Savov and Adrian Thomas - during the 2011 Paragliding World Championships, CIVL banned the use of uncertified open class gliders in its sanctioned competitions. In the last year, much debate has focused on the pros and cons of this decision. This podcast is a round up of pilots per…

James Bradley, Mike Miller, Idris Birch and Pat Dower - serial class has not only had a profound effect on former open class pilots, but traditional serial class and sports class competitors have also been affected - both in positive and negative ways. This podcast is a round up of pilots perceptions of the first year of pure serial class from the …

Steve Charlesworth, Sarah Frysol, Alex Hatfield, Alan Horsfield, Barbara St Aubyn and Chris Trow - many pilots are not aware of the immense amount of background work that goes into a competition, before, after and during the comp week. In the UK Championships we are fortunate to have a dedicated group of volunteers who work tirelessly as a team to …

Dean Crosby (Active Edge) and Steve Nash (Nova) - in August/September 2012 Steve and Dean set out to cross the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean by foot and flying. They did the trip completely unsupported so they had to carry everything they needed - gliders, shelter, food, clothes, etc. This podcast is a description of their epic 18…

Steve Nash (Nova) and Dean Crosby (Active Edge) - in August/September 2012 Steve and Dean set out to cross the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean by foot and flying. They did the trip completely unsupported so they had to carry everything they needed - gliders, shelter, food, clothes, etc. This podcast is a discussion between them on p…

Kirsty Cameron - on the 13th of May 2012 Kirsty flew a massive straight line flight of 233km from Milk Hill in Wiltshire to the flats of Norfolk. This is the second longest flight in the UK ever and only the third over 200km long. In this podcast she describes the flight and how to negotiate the extensive airspace she had to cross, as well as provi…

Jorg Ewald - this podcast is about scoring formulas and how they work. It is not aimed at scorers, but competition pilots so they can know more about how tasks and competitions work and why some days are high scoring and others are worth little. It also tells you about what questions to ask, and how knowing a little about this topic can help you pr…

Steve Ham (flyPiedrahita) should need little introduction. He is a multiple record holder, former British champion and long term national team member. Since he discovered Piedrahita he has been a pioneer in the area and is now a legendary guide. This podcast is about flying in flatlands, but also includes invaluable information for anyone wishing t…

Richard Carter - the big UK XC ambition of 2011 was to break the 200km mark on a paraglider. Richard bypassed this distance on the 9th of August with a flight of 253.4km from Derbyshire to Essex. Here he describes this flight and other record breaking flights hes done in the past.

Steve Hudson (Derbyshire Flying Centre) - wave is a fairly common weather condition in the UK and can provide excellent and exhilarating flying, but it can also be scary if you dont know how it works. While hang gliders have a lot of knowledge and experience of it, many paraglider pilots are unsure of flying in wave. In this podcast, Steve aims to …