The Pennine Soaring Club caters for Hang Gliding (HG), Paragliding (PG) and Powered HG / PG pilots who wish to fly in the South West Pennine Hills covering from North Manchester to North of Preston. We don't teach beginners, that is the role of the schools, but we will welcome you whilst you're training....

Hang Gliding and Paragliding are both active sports in the UK, but how do you get to experience them?

Flying schools exist in the UK to provide people with the opportunity to experience free flight by Hang Glider or Paraglider and to train those interested to take the experience further to learn to fly solo. The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (BHPA) defines the standards for its affiliated schools and clubs to ensure that tuition is consistent, safe and relevant across schools.

Once a person has qualified from a school, it is strongly recommended that that person joins his or her local club, which for people living in the North West would be The Pennine Soaring Club (that's why you're here, right?). The Clubs have coaches and other supportive and approachable members that can allow a just-qualified pilot to become acquainted with the special conditions of the Club's official sites. These sites normally have access agreed with the landowner and other revelant parties for the purposes of flying - this agreed access ensures that use of the land, footpaths, gates and the like is undertaken in a community friendly way. Membership of a club also exposes the just-qualified pilot to other people with the free flight passion to share experiences, knowledge and perhaps the odd drink or two.

The starting point for all this is to look up the BHPA website, where you will find a wealth of information on free flying, including a list of BHPA affiliated schools. Once you have found a school, you'll normally arrange an introductory flight, "taster" day or go straight into a course of lessons. You will usually need between 10 and 20 days of tuition, but as we are dependent on the weather, this may take a while to complete - rest assured, we think it's well worth while!

Once you have started your lessons, please come back to us to make the transition from school to "flying on your own" (well, without the moral support of your instructor, anyway!) as easy as possible. You are very welcome to come along to club meetings (details), where you can find out more from real hang glider and paraglider pilots whilst their feet are still on the ground. Or try to catch us at one of our sites (details) - if it's flyable, you'll have to be quick, but you will see us in action!

Good luck and in the meantime, explore our site to see where you can fly with us once you've qualified, what the view's like up there and many other things!