No. 419 MARCH 2024 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association2 SKYWINGS MARCH 2024 attitude I’ve been nagging the military ever since I joined BHPA Exec. Finally, after just over a decade, they have decided that they do intend to continue marking some of our ‘busiest’ sites on their charts. They have even grappled with the thorny issue of what constitutes ‘busy’. At their request I provided them with a list of the sites contained in the BHPA database where usage is recorded (by the relevant club) as likely to be more than five pilots on a good day (nothing to do with how frequently the site is flown). The revised list of sites should be displayed on military charts from now on. If clubs want to be reminded which sites meet the criteria and are to be marked, please drop me an email. By way of an example, the attached extract from a military chart was included in a recent Airprox report. (Military charts are not usually available to the general public.) Note that four sites are depicted, of which one is closed and two are only used infrequently. In future only the busiest site (Far White Stones) will be depicted. This is the first time in over a decade that the list has been reviewed. On hearing of their decision, my immediate concern was that this would jeopardise our preferred deconfliction tool: the Civil Aircraft Notification Procedure. The military have assured me that this is not the case, and that CANP remains as valid as ever. You are encouraged to use it whenever you go out flying, and particularly during the working week. For sites depicted on military charts this is ‘belt and braces’; at other sites it’s your main means of deconflicting with fast jets and GA. I did provide the military with an ancient list of their own site codes (remember those?) just in case they found them useful, but I think we have agreed that, with the advent of email and the CANP for free fliers utility, a gross error check is no longer necessary. Site codes are dead! CANP should be regarded as a special concession. Normally at least seven working days’ notice is required to submit a NOTAM, but in recognition of the fact that most of us don’t know exactly where we are going until we set off (and sometimes even later), we can use the procedure up until 8pm the night before (3pm on Fridays). We must take care not to abuse the system or to discredit our short-notice requirement. I monitor the notifications and, whilst making several notifications is perfectly acceptable, I have observed that some pilots make bookings several days in advance, or notify activity at a hill that is not suitable for the forecast weather conditions. On a similar note, the CAA once asked me to analyse a list of late notifications. A late notification (after 8pm on most days) is better than nothing, but it can be worth investigating in case there is a fault in the system. Over the coming year I will be monitoring notifications. We all make mistakes, but if I spot anything that looks wrong I may drop you a friendly email seeking clarification. Don’t let any of that put you off using CANP. It’s still the best defence against a Mid Air Conflict, and you should get into the habit of using it every time you go out flying. I’m well aware that some of you are advocates of the ‘big sky’ theory but, even if the risk of death isn’t the top of your concerns, spare a thought for the implications of how a MAC might limit the freedoms that the rest of us currently enjoy. The utility is very easy to use, but the email option is still there if a group of you intend to go to a site that isn’t listed. Nag, nag, nag … Flying sites and air charts MARTIN BAXTER, BHPA SITES OFFICER Rumour has it that spring is just around the corner. It’s that time of year when the BHPA will do its best to persuade you to check/service your kit, repack your reserve, do some ground handling, be wary of your lack of currency, and watch out for those infamous spring thermals. Nag, nag, nag … Photo: Nathan Edw ards/MOD archiv e4 SKYWINGS MARCH 2024 regulars reviews features THE BHPA LTD 8 Merus Court, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1RJ. Tel: 0116 289 4316. SKYWINGS MAGAZINE is published monthly by the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Ltd to inform, educate and entertain those in the sports of Paragliding and Hang Gliding. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, their Council, Officers or Editor. The Editor and publisher accept no responsibility for any supposed defects in the goods, services and practices represented or advertised in this magazine. The Editor reserves the right to edit contributions. ISSN 0951-5712 SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DELIVERY ENQUIRIES Tel: 0116 289 4316, THE EDITOR Joe Schofield, 39 London Road, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 9BH. Tel: 01379 855021. MARCH 2024 SKYWINGS 5 COVER PHOTO Easter Bank Holiday at the SkySurfers’ Wether Down site, with Grant Crossingham and RJ Macaulay Photo: James Roy THIS PAGE Steve Young and Laminar Zero 9, somewhere in the Dolomites Photo: Steve Young DESIGN & PRODUCTION Fargher Design Ltd. Killane House, Ballaugh, Isle of Man, IM7 5BD. PRINT & DISTRIBUTION Newman Thomson Ltd, One Jubilee Rd, Victoria Ind. Est, Burgess Hill, RH15 9TL. ADVERTISING Tel: 07624 413737 Email: SKYWINGS ONLINE All issues of Skywings magazine are now freely available DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the May issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Monday April 1st. Letters for the April Airmail pages should arrive no later than Monday March 18th. Advertisement bookings for the April edition must arrive by Monday March 11th. Copy and classified bookings no later than the following Monday March 18th.6 SKYWINGS MARCH 2024 news How to succeed at SRS-type comps Responding to the recent popularity of lower level, lower risk paragliding comps, former British team pilot and Mastering Paragliding author Kelly Farina has come up with a series of new articles about flying fast XC on relatively slow gliders. Kelly has brought three decades of experience to cover several of key topics, including headings such as Head Game – everyone has performance anxiety, not just you; Forget ‘Never Leave Lift’ – it’s time to push on!; and Speed to Fly – arrive higher or fly faster, they are not the same. Distilled in part from an impending Mastering Paragliding follow-up, and forming the subject matter for his Bassano courses, Kelly will contribute a series of articles in these pages covering the above, and more. We hope to run the first of these next month. And if ‘The Gaggle is Our Friend – until finals, use them … but pull your weight (and don’t get dummied)’ floats your boat, discover more Parafest update Parafest, ‘the festival you can fly at’ will run from June 13th-16th in beautiful countryside at Caerwys, North Wales. Billed as ‘a great big party for pilots’, it will host the UK’s only trade show covering all foot-launched aviation. Power pilots can fly from the huge airfield itself, while many great soaring sites are close to hand. Out of the sky there will be sideshows and other attractions, and a fully-stocked bar and festival food caterers to keep pilots and their families fed and watered. All major manufacturers will be represented at the trade show, with possibly some surprises and product launches from the smaller ones. Professional live acts will perform on the Parafest stage on the Friday and Saturday, supported by local acts. On the Friday Funke and the Two Tone Baby will unleash ‘fat dance beats, filthy synth basslines, infectious blues guitar riffs, glitchy harmonica and sing-along anthems,’ supported by event compère and solo performer Mr Badaxe. On Saturday Scotland’s Well Happy Band will deliver their ‘old-school style with festival magic and circus thrown in,’ supported by lockdown sensation Thomas B Wilde. Details and ticket sales RAeC Trust bursary scheme Last call for the Royal Aero Club Trust’s 2024 Bursary Awards scheme for young people. Several BHPA recipients have gone on to great things in their respective fields – a financial leg-up early in your career can have immeasurable positive effects. Pursuing flying can be expensive; the bursary scheme represents, pretty much, free money at a time when you don’t have much. In the last few years the Trust has awarded over 150 bursaries to young pilots (aged 14-21 or, in the case of a follow-on bursary, up to 24) in a wide range of air sports. Several young paraglider and hang glider pilots have benefited from the Trust’s largesse to further their flying aims, one of whom went on to become European Paragliding Champion. If you want to develop proficiency in your discipline, take advantage of the opportunities offered by the scheme. The closing date for 2024 applications is March 31st. Full details and application forms are available at In brief BHPA subs to rise. With finances now on a more stable footing, the Association expects to be back in surplus in 2024-5 without having to increase membership subscriptions this year by more than, in most cases, just over 3%. With effect from April 1st 2024 the headline BHPA individual Annual Adult Membership will increase by £5 to £169, just over 3%. Other annual memberships will be: Family, £153; Concessionary (under 21/over 67 and disabled), £149; and Non Flying, £62. Full details next month. Apco’s F5 paramotor wing Aimed at beginner to intermediate pilots, Apco’s F5 comple- ments their Formula paramotor series in a position above the Lift EZ-R but below the sports-class F3. It’s designed for anything from basic training (using the optional school risers) up to long- distance XC work. Apco have pursued the winglet idea but with some thought; their new Mohawk device is a single fin on the centre line, its unique advantage being that it remains aligned with the airflow at all angles of attack. It’s said to improve roll stability, and to rapidly bring the wing out of a spiral with no pilot input, slowly dissipating the energy – a safety feature. Other features are semi-lightweight construction, enhanced stability, good inflation characteristics and a relatively low aspect ratio (around 5). Three sizes cover all-up weights of 75-175kg for paramotor work and 50-140kg for free flight. The 44-cell 27m size (free flight: 85-120kg; power 100-145kg; trike: 100-165kg) weighs 5kg. DGAC certification is pending. From Apco dealers everywhere. For more info go the Mohawk central fin go product newsTequila 6 Skywalk’s high performing, user-friendly Tequila EN-B intermediate is now in its sixth iteration. Aimed at ambitious post-training pilots, recreational flyers and XC beginners, the latest version claims a sportier character yet with comfortable damping, good feedback and perfect stability. Light brake pressures increase linearly and become noticeably firmer just before the stall. Skywalk also stress the ease of performing rapid- descent manoeuvres such as steep spirals and big ears, and the enhanced durability of its a mix of materials. It’s available at £3,449 from UK Airsports a 779800; there’s more info Prepare to Fly logbook Indefatigable UK pilot Simon Blake, author of three editions of the Prepare to Fly primer, has turned his attention to a pilot logbook. Simon has always recommended that pilots keep a written logbook, not least to record who/what else was flying that day, plus a ‘today’s lesson’, as well as where, when, what, etc. Subtitled Paragliding Tips You’ll Wish You’d Learned Sooner, the new logbook has all the necessary fields laid out. There’s very little ‘content’; instead it’s deliberately formatted to encourage the new pilot to create their own body of knowledge. It’s available from ted edition of Prepare to Fly is also in the works, now embracing the FlyXC app and Neil Charles’ excellent Flight Browser. It will be available in the spring – watch this space.Early spring hazards March and April are the months of particularly boisterous conditions, yet many BHPA members will have logged little airtime over the winter. This applies as much to experienced pilots as to inexperienced ones. Before venturing out to enjoy the emerging season, pause to make an inventory of your own situation. Some of us may not have been able to maintain peak fitness over the winter; a few will be hard put to remember when they last flew. In these circumstances even experienced pilots may struggle to remember exactly how to rig their gear or perform the most basic flying tasks. A further stress-raiser is the possibility of crowded skies; those who have been flying over the winter may have had the hills to themselves for a few months. Preparing to go flying again, especially to recommence XC flying, requires forethought. • Give your glider an extra-careful pre-flight inspection. • Make sure all your equipment is in tip-top condition, including a recently-repacked parachute. • Check your instruments and radio, and that you can remember how to operate them. • If you have any thought of leaving the immediate vicinity of even a familiar site, be sure your navigation instrument has the most recent chart loaded. Don’t forget to check for NOTAMs, and make a CANP notification if appropriate. • On the hill, or the tow site, be thorough in assessing the conditions, and give yourself wider safety margins than you may recall from last season. • Don’t plan anything ambitious, don’t rush, and think through your flight plan • Acknowledge that you are rusty and take things slowly. • Fly conservatively and with ample margin for error. • if you’re uncomfortable in the air, land. You can only regain currency by flying, but pick another day if conditions are not ideal. As well as all pilots being on top of rigging, preparing and pre- flighting their wing, paraglider pilots would do well to brush up on their ground handling if they are not supremely and justifiably confident. Be aware of everything about flying that isn’t familiar, and don’t hesitate to ‘bag it’ if conditions, including numbers in the air, don’t meet your self-imposed, extra-cautious limits. Emerging from hibernation or limited flying can be exciting, reminding us all of why we fly. Yet spring conditions can also bring punchy thermals, switching winds, gust fronts, violent precipitation and even snow showers. At this time of year, for most of us, our flying skills have never been so rusty, nor the air so ready ready to drop a surprise. Let us not mark our eagerness to fly our socks off with a spate of incidents and accidents. Please take extra care! CAA rebate scheme to end The CAA Rebate scheme for Electronic Conspicuity devices will finally close for sure on March 31st. The scheme is intended to accelerate the take-up of EC devices across the recreational flying spectrum. It’s open to all BHPA pilots of CP level or above. There is a finite list of qualifying devices; in our case these are mostly instruments using FLARM: Naviter, Skytraxx and XC Tracer. Search online for ‘CAA electronic conspicuity rebate’ to find the relevant CAA page outlining the procedure. You will need to register for a CAA Portal account, then complete identity checks; when these have been verified you can complete the rebate form. You’ll get 50% of your expenditure back, up to a limit of £250. Given that you need to have ordered your device before you apply, if you want to take advantage, now is the time. If the CAA pages don’t explain the potential gains of EC clearly enough for you, it’s time to re-read Steve Uzochukwu’s Electronic Conspicuity – the next stage article from October 2020 Skywings. If you meet the eligibility criteria and your application is successful, you can expect a rebate within about a month. If you’ve thought an EC-able instrument might be a good idea but haven’t got around to it, you’ll need to move fast! Sun glare and aerial collision avoidance In the autumn and winter periods, the short daylight hours and low angle of the sun above the horizon can be a significant glare hazard to pilots. On a bright day, gliders flying with the low sun behind them may be invisible to pilots approaching them head- on at similar altitude, flying directly towards the sun. On hill sites, ridge-soaring gliders are often flying at a similar height to one another. Pilots flying a beat into the sun’s glare may be unable to see wings approaching them on the opposite beat with the sun directly behind them. If a pilot is unable to observe an approaching glider, the convention that a glider with the ridge on its left gives way to one with the ridge on its right can be very difficult to adhere to. All pilots are reminded to take into account the additional hazard posed by glare, and the significant contributory factor the low sun plays in issues of visibility – and thus the risk of a mid air collision. In these conditions the pilot of another craft may not be aware of your presence or proximity. Do not presume that an approaching pilot will give way to you – you may not have been seen. Ultimately, it remains every pilot’s responsibility to avoid a collision with another aircraft. This hazard presents itself on different sites at different times of the year; Mam Tor in particular can be very difficult in March due to the low afternoon sun. 8 SKYWINGS MARCH 2024 safety matters BHPA club parachute repacking sessions Mar 10 Sky Surfing Hamble Brian Parkins Please book all repack places in advance; some clubs may require money up front or a deposit GASCo safety evenings Mar 19 Wycombe Booker Airfield Joanna Savage 01494 443737 Mar 20 Blackburn Samlesbury Airfield Richard Hine Mar 25 Cambridge Cambridge Aero Club TBA 01223 373717 Apr 8 Welshpool Welshpool Airport Jamie Brownfield Apr 8 Andover Popham Airfield Alan Lovejoy May 9 West Sussex Goodwood Aero Club 01243 755066 BHPA club coach courses Mar 16-17 Peak Mark Bosher 07926 298560 May 18-19 Green Dragons Andy Shaw 01883 652666 Quick facts ab bout the NG series: (²))(k Max load )ih (k)ih (k NG NG light The world´s leading rescue systems Use of high-q• even at low sp g, g • Available in 3 certified acco • New, innovativ • Excellent sink to a jump from • Very reliable o • Intelligent, ligh uality lightweight materials peeds gp sizes as NG and in the light ver rding to EN12491 ve X-Flare concept for high effic k rates, each just over 5 m/s, equ m a height of about 1.3 m opening and extremely good pe htweight construction for fast op pg , NG 14 NG 12 flfhX NG 10 rsion NG light, ciency uivalent endulum stability penings, 33 14040 Serie 2912020 Serie 2510000 Serie (m²)g)(k 1,49 1,85 1,3 18 1,6 ,1 g) 1,45 g)weight (k concept -FlareX- s to the , thankface -Nearly flat top sur innovative X weight (k 1, for oL r fast opening w canopy height projected surface area bution across the large -geneous load distri --flares for homoX stability pendulum outlets for air defined Precisely concept. Manufacturer’s Safety Notice Skywalk Tapa X-Alps parachute container During a simulated throw of a Tapa X-Alps parachute, a small piece of fabric from the inner container was caught by the retrieval lines and pulled into the elastic line loop. Despite releasing the retrieval line package, the inner container remained blocked by the fabric piece and remained closed. The cause may have been a packing error; nevertheless Skywalk have chosen to release a Safety Notice to eliminate any risk. The inner container can be quickly and easily revised: excess fabric on all four edges of the inner container can be removed by 5 mm after the eyelet. You have the following options for implementing this: • Your Skywalk dealer can handle it. Ideally, this can be done directly on-site and your parachute returned to you. • The importer can perform the reworking. • If these contacts are not in your vicinity, contact Skywalk directly. We will then discuss with you where you can have the revision done most quickly. More Skywalk GmbH & Co, 83250 Marquartstein, Next >