No. 434 JUNE 2025 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association2 SKYWINGS JUNE 2025 attitude Delving into history, 1974 and 1975 were formative years for clubs. Flying had started in 1972 with Les Hocking and Geoff McBroom kicking off the sport at Cam Long Down, and later at Frocester near Stroud – Avon sites still flown today. Progress was steady through 1973, and by 1974 we had two organisations: the National Hang Gliding Association and the British Kite Soaring Association. Through 1974 regional clubs began to appear, most of which still exist today. In winter 1974 the NHGA listed the clubs, including an ‘Avon Rogallo Club’. That December the NHGA and BKSA became the British Hang Gliding Association with Wings! as its magazine. Individual pilots all had their own stories though. Derek Targett constructed a Len Gabriels Skyhook IIIA with a group of friends, after being inspired by one of the many national newspaper articles about the new sport. ‘We were all totally self-taught,’ he wrote. My first flight was at Priddy Nine Barrows, which was ridiculously small. I realised I needed a bigger hill and found Coxley. It was there that I met Geoff McBroom, who advised me to fit a kingpost.’ Derek needed a flying partner. He met up with his friend Pete Sutton at Priddy on New Year’s Day, 1974. ‘Derek said “We’ll go to Coxley”,’ Pete writes. ‘I’d never seen a hang glider before. I only got two feet into the air but was hooked, really because of my friendship with Derek. We didn’t see another glider for six months, but became aware of the Rogallo club although we didn’t even know what ‘Rogallo’ meant. They met at the Nova Scotia in Bristol, and by meeting other flyers we learned about Mere.’ Spencer’s Bowl at Mere was the go-to site in the mid-70s, with queues forming at take-off on a busy day. ‘No-one was soaring as such,’ Derek reminisces. ‘If you had half a dozen carry-ups you’d had a good day, and a 360 was quite an achievement. But it was a great crowd; everything was new and exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed those years, progressing onto a Firebird and a Midas E. We also flew Westbury, but only the northerly slope in those days. No one had even considered the White Horse.’ Fellow Bristolian John Hunt was also hooked, after watching Derek and Pete flying the Skyhook at Mere. ‘My Dad spotted an advertisement at his workplace for a 12th share in a hang glider, but only two of us actually flew it. It was a Breen Kustom Kite homebuilt and we flew at Hinton near the M4. After that I designed and built my own gliders. I would copy airframe designs and sew up the sail on my mum’s sewing machine.’ In the Gloucester area Frank Trunks had bought a McBroom Argus after spotting the BHGA’s number in a magazine article. ‘I used to watch the forecast at 6.30 in the evening. If it looked on I was straight on the road with my glider and would sleep overnight in the car – I spent half my early flying career living in it. My first soaring flight was on a McBroom Cobra at Hay Bluff. I was absolutely elated.’ In summer 1975 the Rogallo Club became the Avon Hang Gliding Club and listed Mere amongst its sites. The rest, as they say, is history. The British Hang Gliding Championships were held at Mere in August 1975 and the gathering became a regular annual fixture. Pete Sutton again: ‘Mere was the highlight of the calendar, with dozens and dozens of pilots. It was 100% social back then – every time you went to the hill you saw a new glider. Club meetings were in the Bristol Flyer pub and always had a big turnout; everyone was keen to meet other pilots and the place was packed.’ And Frank Trunks: ‘Mere was a fantastic event, a trade show, a social, a competition; people used to drive from Scotland for it. We went from zero to three thousand pilots just like that. There was a whole group of people who were desperate to fly, and hang gliding came along and gave them the opportunity.’ The Avon 50 Years Anniversary Bash will be held at Pop-up Outwest, near Westbury, on August 30th-31st – details at generous sponsors and supporters: Crickhowell Paragliding, Flybubble, The Sick and The Wrong and XC Magazine. The Avon Club at 50 - how did we get to here? DAVE WARREN, CLUB LIBRARIAN The Avon Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and it is no accident that many clubs are passing similar milestones.4 SKYWINGS JUNE 2025 regulars features JUNE 2025 SKYWINGS 5 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, e-mail: THE EDITOR Joe Schofield, 39 London Road, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 9BH. Tel: 01379 855021. COVER PHOTO The Malvern Aerotow Club in action. Tug pilot Donald MacKenzie launches Carl Wallbank Photo: Richard Sheppard THIS PAGE BGD test pilot Valentin Gilet and Cure3 M in the Alpes Maritimes north of Cannes Photo: Tyr Goldsmith 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 at DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the July issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Friday May 30th. Letters for the July Airmail pages should arrive no later than Tuesday June 17th. Advertisement bookings for the July edition must arrive by Tuesday June 10th. Copy and classified bookings no later than the following Tuesday June 17th.6 SKYWINGS JUNE 2025 news Spring fever in the Swiss Alps From BHPA CFI Emi Carvalho in Switzerland comes news of 7,000ft+ top-to-bottom flights from a 10,000ft mountain with cable-car access. ‘Launching at 10,000ft is possible at the Titlis ski resort in the Engelberg region,’ he writes. ‘For £60 (much less with discounts) they will take you and your glider to the top of the glacier. There you can walk inside the glacier cave and see ice that was formed at the beginning of the last ice age 100,000 years ago. Do it soon – the glacier is expected to be gone in the next 20-30 years! ‘It’s a five-minute walk to the first take-off. There are several hang glider-friendly launches for different wind directions, but only the north-facing ones are suitable for non-X-Alps-level paragliders. You can fly from here year-round, but the best time for hang glider pilots is April and May when it’s off-season and we are allowed to take off from the ski piste. ‘If this piques your interest, consider joining next year’s Spring Fever event. It follows the format of Portugal’s Spring Fever rally, when local hang glider pilots converge to fly in a non-competition environment, close to the surfing Mecca of Nazaré north of Lisbon. Last year we met in the Alps with the same goals in mind: time together with like-minded people in a free, non- competitive environment. Supported by a local flyer, pilots make their own flying decisions 2026 we will meet from May 16th-24th; pilots from France, the USA and Norway have already confirmed they will attend. Titlis, with a launch-to-landing height difference of 7,700ft, is the region’s pre-eminent site. There are other take-offs with a 3,000- 5,000ft height difference, many with ramps and all with large grass landing fields. If you would like to join us, reach out to me at Paramotors create havoc in Oxford Low flying by a group of paramotor pilots in Oxford has been blamed for the death of a young horse. The foal was said to have been panicked by a low-flying pilot at Port Meadow, close to the city centre, on April 10th and was later put down by vets. A second incident occurred on April 20th, when three paragliders were seen swooping low over the Meadow and distressing animals. Witnesses described several horses as being ‘visibly panicked’ and ‘running erratically around the area in fear.’ Oxford City Council condemned the pilots and has threatened legal action. Thames Valley Police put out an appeal for information, citing both incidents, and distributed photos of three separate paramotor pilots at very low (sub 100ft) heights over the meadow. It seems likely that these pilots will soon be being interviewed by Oxford’s finest. They are unlikely to have been BHPA members; it goes without saying that such behaviour in the air is unacceptable. It’s possible that a high- profile prosecution may be the only deterrent to the senseless. Microlight Fair report The annual Popham microlight fair takes place over a weekend at the beginning of May. It’s close to Basingstoke and pretty central to the South of England. It has relevance to our flying world as new Sub-70 and SSDR microlights are shown there, and new technology that has some overlap with our needs. This year a group is campaigning to save Popham as an airfield. It may soon be sold for housing development and there is a push to mobilise support and raise money to fight this. Flylight showed the Nine (see Skywings, March 2024) with the new Polini Thor 260 engine (pictured). Power is close to the Thor 303 already used, but with a smaller installed footprint, lower weight, better fuel consumption and a lower price – a win/win on all fronts for future use. PilotAware is now offering a plug ‘n’ play Micro ATOM ground station which translates our FLARM transmissions into the PilotAware protocol, allowing close to 5,000 light and microlight aircraft to see us via EC. The £192 bundle includes the three necessary antennas, already mounted in an array, and a Raspberry Pi controller. Otherwise the festival concentrated on two- seater flex- and fixed-wing aircraft with five-figure price tags. The turnout was good, but with the possibility it might be the last one. [Report: Steve Uzochukwu]JUNE 2025 SKYWINGS 7 CALL THE SPECIALISTS 0800 5999 101 FOR BHPA MEMBERS life insurance EST 1989 Run by Pilots for Pilots We Fly What You Fly! Protect Your Family, Mortgage or Business 205 SkywingParamotors skyscraper ad 0125-297x104.indd 1 Wingman The paragliding documentary film Wingman, released in April, follows US pilot Peter Thompson as he attempts to become the first person to paraglide across the state of Colorado. This is extreme hike&fly in a majestic visual environment, with a supporting cast of well-known pilots such as Adam Zachary Smith and Will Gadd. Filmmaker Dylan Brown says, ‘When Pete first came to me to document this incredible feat it was a no- brainer … it seemed like the ultimate adventure in the ultimate wilderness.’ Wingman will be available on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play and Vimeo. Check the trailer at Keith Sherwin Prolific writer and human-powered flight pioneer Dr. Keith Sherwin died on April 7th, aged 87. In 1969 he inaugurated a project for students at Liverpool University to design and build a human-powered aircraft (HPA); it flew with Sherwin as pilot in 1972. His book Man-Powered Flight, published in 1971, encouraged the construction of practical HPAs. Part history, part aerodynamics textbook, part human-mechanics primer, it became the indispensable bible of researchers everywhere. Sherwin continued to write and to experiment; in the 1980s an HPA designed with students at Malaysia’s Nanyang Technological Institute also flew, and in 2007 Pedal Powered Planes brought the HPA story up to date. Man-Powered Flight was reprinted in 2015 by the BHPFC; it remains an invaluable resource. Present-day experimenter David Barford wrote, ‘I was lucky enough to meet Keith and get my copy of Man-Powered Flight signed. I don’t think Betterfly would have been created without his books as reference and inspiration.’8 SKYWINGS JUNE 2025 news Icarus Cup regulars Aerocycle 301 and 302 will both be flying. #301, repaired since its crash at Manston last year, is now in the hands of the Southampton University team. It flew again at Lasham on November 9th, anniversary of the original SUMPAC flight in 1961. There were few handling issues and two new pilots were able to fly it; it was flown again at Lasham in early March. Dave Barford’s 2013 Cup winner Betterfly, not seen since 2022, is also being resurrected and rebuilt by the British Human Powered Flying Club (BHPFC) itself. There will be plenty of (unpaid) work available for keen builders, supporters and marshals. A new team from London South Bank University have taken on Airglow (pictured above). ‘We have to learn to walk before we can run,’ says team leader Barney Townsend. ‘This year we’ll fly Airglow with no aerodynamic or structural modifications beyond standard maintenance and repair, but our long-term goal is to build an HPA to our own design.’ In 2018 LSBU’s HPV team reached 66 mph at Battle Mountain, Nevada with their Aim93 fully-faired bicycle design. Scotland’s StrathHPF team were present at Manston last year, helping out, ground handling (pictured at right) and fact- finding, and some members were able to briefly fly Aerocycle 301. They had hoped to bring their new HPF, inspired by the pioneering spirit of Scottish cycling legend Graeme Obree, but it couldn’t be completed in time. ‘Our current timeline now puts our first flight at some point after summer,’ says Team Leader Max McClellan. ‘Instead the team will be offering their services at the Icarus Cup as ground crew, marshals and maintenance help.’ It has long been the ambition of Aerocycle designer John Edgley to put his aircraft into production as a kit-build project for university teams. Last summer that dream became a little closer to realisation when Southampton students set about building a set of glass-fibre components to construct up to seven aircraft. Meanwhile Super Lazarus, Southampton‘s own aircraft, is grounded for a major overhaul and a new set of wings. Last year’s ambitious transmission system proved unsuccessful and a more conventional drivetrain is to be installed. Icarus Cup preview The forthcoming Icarus Cup at Lasham in Hampshire (June 14th-22nd) promises another interesting shoot-out between some of the world’s leading exponents of human-powered flight. With new entrants in the offing, the contest is likely to be more competitive than in recent years. BHPA 500 Club WIN CASH PRIZES AND HELP THE ASSOCIATION! April winners Philippa Mason £134.00 Jim Whitney £67.00 Charl Erasmus £33.50 Karen Gardner £20.10 Ann Matterson £16.75 John Malone £16.75 Richard Preston £13.40 Nick Malone £13.40 John Casson £10.05 Adam Moores £10.05 BHPA £335.00 Winners will note that payments of the above sums have been made to the account from which they contribute to the 500 Club by standing order. In case of error, please contact Marc Asquith on 07802 525099. Photo: Ian Johnson Quick facts abo out the NG series: weight(m²) Surface g)(k Max load NG g)weight (kg)t (k G NG light The world´s leading rescue systems Use of high-qu• even at low spe g, g • Available in 3 s certified accord • New, innovative • Excellent sink r to a jump from • Very reliable op • Intelligent, light ality lightweight materials eeds gp sizes as NG and in the light versio ding to EN12491 e X-Flare concept for high efficien rates, each just over 5 m/s, equiva a height of about 1.3 m pening and extremely good pend tweight construction for fast open g, NG 140 Ser NG 120 Ser -geneous load distri --flares for homoX NG 100 Ser on NG light, ncy alent dulum stability nings, 33 1401,85rie 291201,6rie 25100rie1,45 1,49 5 1,3 18 6 concept. -Flare innovative X s to the , thankface -Nearly flat top sur 5 1, for fa ow L ast opening canopy height projected surface area bution across the large geneous load distri stability pendulum outlets for air defined Precisely The fuselage fairing has been rethought with a more recumbent cycling position and a suspended fairing, influenced by the Tohoku University HPA which flew nearly 22km over water in 64 minutes at the 2024 Japan Birdman Rally. The BHPFC Committee has approved funding to two groups for 50% of their material costs for the construction of HPAs. Although the crossing of the English Channel is no longer part of The Great Race (see December Skywings), the SUHPA group are still interested in making a cross-Channel attempt with their new design. There are exciting developments afoot in the HPA world! The Icarus Cup atmosphere is infectious: all present are caught up in the shared endeavour of breaking new ground. Are you interested in aeronautical development? Have you finished your exams? Do you enjoy the thought of midsummer camping? Can you ride a bike? The BHPFC is offering free attendance to anyone who volunteers as a marshal for the event (£5 per day otherwise). All relevant information is In brief 4 x 100km triangle records. In one flight on April 11th, from Col de Tamié in Les Bauges, Justin Puthod attacked four FAI records at once. Completing a 100km triangle on his Niviuk X-One at 39.1km/h, he has been able to claim World and European records in both General and Junior categories. If ratified, Justin’s claims eclipse Stéphane Drouin’s 2014 world record of 36,57km/h, and Daphnée Ieropoli’s world and European Junior records, set last year, of 19,4km/h. BWPA scholarships. The British Women Pilots’ Association supports UK women of all ages and backgrounds to achieve their flying dreams. 35 scholarships and 15 voucher awards are available, for all levels and all types of flying, to gain or build on qualifications or work towards a first paid flying job. Applications open this month; Photo: Str athHPFNext >