Pilots In the middle to late 1970's giving hang gliding a go at a training school was quite popular. Some became hooked and continued in the sport, others did not. For some it may simply have been a case of ticking that particular box, and moving on. Whilst others found hang gliding wasn't for them. In some extreme cases, their first taste of hang gliding may even have scared them off. Some hang glider pilots also moved on to powered hang gliding, dropping out of the BHGA, and joined the BMAA instead. But during the 1970's Nick Regan once estimated that there were over 3,000 hang glider pilots in the UK. The number of hang gliding pilots in the UK peaked at 4,072 in June 1980, but there after went into slow decline. By September 2019, whilst there were over 7,000 BHPA flying members, less than 1,000 of those were hang glider pilots. The following list of hang glider pilots was originally compiled by Terry Aspinall from information on this website, issues of 'Wings' magazine, club newsletters, and competition programs, and only covers the period up to the end of 1980. This is not a full list of UK hang glider pilots in that era Pilots are listed in alphabetical surname order, and details of club membership or location are included when known. But of course some pilots will have joined more than one club, or may have moved to a different location, so this should just be regarded as a snapshot. Links are also provided where more detailed information about a particular pilot is available on this website. If you're looking for a particular pilot, you can click on the first letter of their surname to take you to the appropriate section of this list.
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