ELEMENTARY PILOT COURSE.

On your first day we normally meet at Shoreham Airport at 9.30 am and after an introduction we move to the schools main paragliding site at Steyning, this takes about 10 min.
Your paragliding lessons starts at about 10am with a weather check to determine which part of the site we will use.
After a general briefing on how the day should progress we complete the paper work. This consists of the BHPA MEMBERSHIP which carriers a third party insurance, and the
BHPA STUDENT TRAINING RECORD BOOK. Required for all paragliding training carried out in the UK and kept by schools to record completed training exercises. You can then follow your progress each time you come in for a lesson.

Below is a summary of the lessons and exercises laid out in the record book.

ELEMENTARY PILOT

Phase 1 - Ground Training

1  Introductory talk - School instructors - risk warning health/medical conditions clothing/footwear - the BHPA - pilot rating scheme.
2  Site assessment -
3  Introduction to equipment.
4  Avoiding/minimising injury.

Phase 2 - Ground Handling

5  Briefing - Checks - wind direction flare/stall.
6  Preparation - Checks - paragliding canopy harness helmet.
7  Inflation - Take-off - landing sequence practised.
8  Directional control - initiating turns.

Phase 3 - First Short Flights

9  Getting airborne - take-off with good control of airspeed, canopy and landing.

Phase 4 - Flight exercises

10  Eventualities briefing - to deal with the unexpected.
11  Commands and communications briefing.
12  Responsibilities briefing - student becomes the pilot-in-command.
13  Straight flights maintaining course and airspeed with increased height.
14   Introducing turns with increased height.
15  Completing simple flight plans with increased height.

Phase 5 Theory lessons and examination.

16  Meteorology.
17  Principles of flight.
18  Rules of the air and air law.
19  Elementary examination.

Final assessment of Elementary stage

20  Student has reached a standard of airmanship and attitude to continue training in this discipline.

CLUB PILOT

Phase 6 - Pre-soaring

21  Theory.
22  180 degree turns to a consistent level.
23  Planned approaches - Minimum 4 successful planned flights making controlled landing within 10m of a target.

Phase 7 - Soaring

24  Soaring flight - Minimum 4 successful flights using ridge lift to maintain gain height.
25  Top landings - Minimum 4 successful flights.
26  Flying with others.

Phase 8 - Improving skills.

27  Exploring the sped range.
28  Accelerator system.
29  Forward launching.
30  Reverse launching.
31  Weight shift and pitch-roll in turns.
32  Cross wind and slope landings.

Phase 9 - Instability and emergencies

33  Theory.
34  Active flying.
35  Rapid descent techniques.
36  Dealing with an asymmetric tuck.

Phase 10 Theory lessons and examination

37  Meteorology.
38  Principles of flight.
39  Rules of the air and air law.
40  General airmanship knowledge.
41  Club pilot theory examination.

Final assessment for Club Pilot

42  Declaration by Senior instructor.

You are now free to take to the sky's and fly unsupervised. You may wish to stay within the school flying in a familiar and friendly environment on our unique private sites while receiving extra guidance from us. This can be arranged by joining our FREE, exclusive, Airsports Paragliding Club.