Training call after new Pendle Hill crash (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Training call after new Pendle Hill crash
9:11am Wednesday 1st June 2011 in News
EXPERTS have urged hang gliders and paragliders to undergo specialist training following the second crash on Pendle Hill in a month.
On Monday evening, police said a man was airlifted by helicopter to the Royal Blackburn Hospital suffering from arm and back injuries.
Officers said he over-shot his landing area and came down on a road near the Wellsprings Restaurant, in Sabden.
Police said he was flying a non-motorised hang glider in the incident, which happened around 6.30pm.
Last month, air ambulance crews were scrambled to a 44-year-old with back injuries who crashed his ‘speedwing’ paraglider into the Ribble Valley side of the hill, falling 30 feet.
A spokesman for the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (BHPA) said neither accident had been reported to the group, meaning the pilots may not be members.
He said: “It is dangerous to try these sports without proper training and knowledge.
"The BHPA is currently developing a full training syllabus and there are several well-established BHPA schools offering a very safe training route.
“There is an enormous amount of knowledge, experience and help available within the BHPA and its associated clubs.
"There is simply no good excuse not to tap into this huge wealth of experience.”
Comments(3)
shytalk
says...
10:41am Wed 1 Jun 11
MurrayHay
says...
1:43pm Wed 1 Jun 11
It is useful to know that when it comes to most of the paragliding CP (Club Pilot) 'training' a UK paraglider 'pilot' can gain a rating with as little as (this is a direct quote from several BHPA schools websites) "at least thirty minutes airtime"!
In 2009 seven trained PG pilots died, including one still under instruction.
My view is that the safety situation in the UK could be greatly improved by a more 'hands on' approach by the CAA, however one clear issue is that they have little paraglider specific flight training knowledge.
The standard of knowledge of most UK PG instructors is best judged by looking at the resultant accident rates of their students.
I speak as a PG pilot with almost 8,000hrs safe flying since self training back in the late 90's and as an instructor who gets RE-training students from all over the UK and abroad, good training in aviation reduces accident, bad training maintains accident rates despite vast improvments in the equipment & MET forecasting over the last 20+ years.
As you would expect speaking out against dangerous training does not make me popular!
timeforcommonsense says...
9:49am Wed 1 Jun 11