Beginners: BHPA - EPC and CPC training and refresher tuition
Paragliding is a fun sport that evolved from
parachuting in the mid 80's. These days clever designers, manufacturers and safety
authorities have used modern day technology and materials to create a
lightweight, effective and relatively inexpensive way for us to fly.
The whole package is very transportable. A paraglider
with harness and all associated equipment weighs around 15kgs and fits into
a moderate sized back pack that stores easily into the boot of a car. Recent
sports class paragliders have speeds of around 50kph and glide angles of
more than 10:1 and before marketing have been designed and certified to
conform to a number of very strict safety tests.
Climbing in thermals and flying long distances is a real possibility, and
currently the straight line distance record for a paraglider is over 600kms.
Learning to paraglide is fun and a real adventure and it's a sport where we never stop learning: there's always a new challenge!
Under the British training and licensing structures The British Hang Gliding and
Paragliding Association (BHPA) there are four levels of internationally recognised license.
The Elementary Pilot Course (EPC) is an important introduction into paragliding training. The course is
progressive and there are a number of tasks and a minimum of 8 big solo flights to be made before the CPC can be taken.
The EPC course is a great introduction into the sport: learning is easy and fun.
At the end of this course you’ll be given the EP (Elementary Pilot) Award. At this stage you’ll have a good grasp of the basics,
but you still need to fly under the supervision of an instructor. To fly unsupervised you’ll need to complete the Club Pilot Course.
Having completed the Club Pilot Course (CPC), the new pilot will have their first paragliding qualification and
license allowing them to free fly without supervision. Please see the details below!
Personal one-to-one tuition!
With personal tuition we teach on a one-to-one basis, or in fact for a good part of the
training you have two instructors to yourself. We can work with a maximum of two students if they know each other: please ask!
The training is intensive but rewarding and learning to fly in this manner is popular, and although the costs initially
seem a little higher compared with group courses, you will find the overall outlay is very good value! Plus, with only one or two students we
can include a lot more training over and above the normal BHPA training syllabus! Please see the training details here...'Our Training Syllabus'
Group lessons, 4 to 8 students in a class, progress as quickly as the slowest
student and your training time is drastically reduced, leaving
you waiting your turn on the hill or in the queue at launch! Also group
training lessons can become quite disjointed especially when taken over
a period of time. It's not unusual to hear of students taking months or
longer to complete their training, due to either over sized classes, poor weather or
time available.
The EPC and CPC courses can be taken individually. However, taking both
courses back to back has a number of advantages. We combine the training and the EPC and CPC can run into each
other and much more can learnt, especially when it comes to mountain flying and thermalling. Plus the consolidated training
time can be shorter!
EPC COURSE
Elementary Pilot Course (EPC) course realistically takes 5
days to complete. There is a minimum of 8 big flights to make to cover three important tasks: 'Maintaining course and airspeed,
introducing turns and completing simple flight plans'.
Each of these early training flights from our training site are approximately ten minutes long, giving additional time to introduce and practice quite a few
of the CPC tasks ready for the next level of training.
Flying theory, examination training and exam are included in the course.
Our days start a little after 08.00 and we stop for a couple of hours for lunch, then resume
mid afternoon and often continues until late afternoon.
Day 1. After a brief classroom session covering essentials,
we visit the training hill, where you will be learning glider layout,
inflation, steering and launching. As you progress you will start making
short training hill flights by late morning.
Afternoons are spent with classroom work and/or at one of our landing areas down in the valley learning and perfecting important reverse launch
technique and glider control.
Day 2. Starts with a little hill training revision and preflight briefings, you will then start making your own solo flights.
Two or three big solo flights are generally made this day. The big flight constitutes to a 750m (2400') top to bottom flight of at
least ten minutes. All in-flight instruction is made by radio contact.
Today's Objective: getting to know and flying your paraglider, maintaining course and airspeed, making 90, 180 and 360 turns..
Day 3. Today launch techniques are reinforced: the syllabus includes your own
flight plans and landing approaches with emphasis of you making your own solo landings.
Dennis or Gillian are always on hand with the radio when help is required.
Today's Objective: reinforcing glider and line layout, launch techniques and introducing different landing approaches !
Days 4 and 5. Working on and perfecting your own flight plans, launches and landings. Towards the end of this course
there is a simple multiple choice exam to sit.
The price is 260 Euros a day per student, 230 Euros a day each for 2 students.
PLEASE NOTE:
You will require your own Glider, Harness, Reserve Parachute: they are not included in the training cost and we do not have these available.
If you don't already have your own equipment and planning to buy: please see more here on purchasing your own glider/harness. Equipment Purchasing
ALSO; you will need to bring ankle high/supporting walking
boots or good trainers with a good grip, long sleeved top and long trousers, a lightweight windproof top,
gloves, sun tan cream, plenty of bottled water and lunch, though there are
restaurants at the training areas.
NOT INCLUDED!
Glider, Harness and reserve parachute.
More on the subject of purchasing your own glider/harness can be read here Equipment Purchasing
Transport from the airport, accommodation, meals,
personal health and repatriation insurance. For somewhere to stay at
please go to the Accommodation page for details.
JS Travel Insurance has very good Paragliding holiday cover.
JS Travel Insurance
CHOOSE YOUR OWN DATES!
We don't have set course dates, we work on a 'first come first served' basis and take bookings
to suit our clients own dates. Please check our 'Availability Calendar Page' for available
dates. We work every day throughout the season, weekends included.
Download the
BHPA Elementary Pilot Training Guideand learn more about the EPC training!
You can also find our own EPC and CPC Training Syllabus in the next section below.
CPC COURSE?
Once the EPC has been completed the CPC course takes approximately 5 days: this course is full-on and there's a lot to cover and an extra day may be needed.
At this stage we reiterate, we are teaching a student to be a pilot and not just rushing them through a qualification! Upon reaching the CPC qualification the new
pilot needs to be personally confident to free fly on their own ...
During the combined EPC and CPC training we would expect you to have at least 18 flights in total, often more, and an airtime of 3 to 4 hours made
up from flights no less than 10mins each.
The Training:
If there has been a delay between the EPC and CPC training then if necessary some revision ground/launch handling may be made.
During the training period some days will start with some
classroom work. But at the beginning of each day there will be briefings at the
flying site(s) for the tasks of the day ahead. Debriefing after every
flight and at the end of the day are mandatory.
In the CPC course we cover and practice;
* Reverse launch and windier glider handling techniques.
* Pitch and roll control.
* Hill/mountain soaring.
* Efficient 360 turning techniques.
* Active flying - Thermal flying techniques and thermalling.
* We introduce you to flying instruments to enhance your thermalling, assisting you to make longer flights.
* Rapid descent techniques with 'Big Ears' and 'Accelerator Bar'.
* Some instability exercises, dealing with collapses.
* Different types of landing approaches and landings.
* Weather analysis.
* Plus the necessary classroom work for your final CPC exams.
To reach the BHPA-CPC qualification there are 2 exam papers to cover. We use the
none training/flying periods, early mornings or early evenings to cover the necessary classroom training.
The price is 260 Euros a day per student, 230 Euros a day each for 2 students.
PLEASE NOTE:
You will require your own Glider, Harness, Reserve Parachute: they are not included in the training cost and we do not have these available.
If you don't already have your own equipment and planning to buy: please see more here on purchasing your own glider/harness. Equipment Purchasing
ALSO; you will need to bring ankle high/supporting walking
boots or good trainers with a good grip, long sleeved top and long trousers, a lightweight windproof top,
gloves, sun tan cream, plenty of bottled water and lunch, though there are
restaurants at the training areas.
NOT INCLUDED!
Glider, Harness and reserve parachute.
More on the subject of purchasing your own glider/harness can be read here Equipment Purchasing
Transport from the airport, accommodation, meals,
personal health and repatriation insurance. For somewhere to stay at
please go to the Accommodation page for details.
We don't have set course dates, we work on a 'first come first served' basis and take bookings
to suit our clients own dates. Please check our 'Availability Calendar Page' for available
dates. We work every day throughout the season, weekends included.
Course and/or task completions can be booked for those who may have started their EPC or CPC training with another school.
Refresher tuition for those who are already qualified but not flown for sometime.
Also, pilots from all countries who are part way through their training are welcomed as we specialise in helping partly trained pilots complete
their outstanding tasks. Please ask!
The price is 260 Euros a day per student, 230 Euros a day each for 2 students or 200 Euros a day each for 3 students
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During the initial EPC and CPC training and for your first 50 hours of airtime it is really important to be familier with your own equipment,
then the transition from school training to your own freeflight will be smooth.
We are not asking you to buy equipment from us as you may find a better source from your own country, though we've had more than 3 decades of experience
in this forever changing sport, and happy to advise you on what to buy and to fly with for your first year or so. Learning to paraglide is a progression and can take many flying hours
to perfect and flying a glider that is not suitable may well hold you back.
Gliders differ in performance and safety. They are graded from an EN-A, B, C, D or CCC competition class. An EN-A rated glider is the most stable and the easiest to handle on the ground and in the air.
For our personal flying we really like the Swiss made paragliders from a company called ADVANCE. You can see the details of their gliders on our shop page, Flyers Shop
or you could go to their website.Advance Paragliders
For training we can highly recommend the Advance Alpha 7 paraglider: it's an EN-A certified glider.
Not only is it one of the best training gliders, it's probably one of the best
first glider purchases for new pilots. It has exceptional handling, it's easy to launch, it's a great thermaller and a very good confidence building
beginner to early intermediate/XC glider, and it's safe. Perfect for the first 50 hours + of flying. Many long distance flights have been made with this glider.
See the details here: Advance Alpha 7
More on the subject of purchasing your own glider/harness can be read here Equipment Purchasing
During the months from late April to November the Northern
French Alps have good training conditions. There is pretty much an average of
24 flying days a month with the majority suiting beginner training. The other
days are never wasted and offer either good hill/ground training conditions
or essential classroom work! More details on the weather can be found on our Flying Weather page.
Other advantages of learning to fly paragliders in the mountains is the
variation in training conditions introducing the pilot into both soaring
and thermic conditions with immediate long flights from relatively high
flying sites. We are blessed with a variety of excellent training hills,
slopes and flying sites suiting all standards and levels of pilot and
learning to fly can start from 14 years old.
The Alpine Flying Centre is a BHPA registered
foreign school offering Elementary Pilot Course (EPC), Club
Pilot Course (CPC) training and above. We use the latest equipment
and pride ourselves on teaching to the highest of standards. We prefer
to think that we produce pilots rather than just a student with a
qualification! Your instructors Dennis and Gillian Trott have taken many
new pilots from the beginner stage through thermalling and cross country
courses and into competition flying.
Dennis holds a BHPA Senior/chief Instructors license, the French BEES (Brevet
d'Etat d'educateur sportif) instructors license, 1st degree, and is a
professional tandem pilot. Dennis started flying paragliders in 1990
and hang gliders in 1997. He has been teaching and guiding since 1993
and has more than 25000 hours on hands-on teaching and amassed many 1000's of
hours of personal airtime with the majority of his flying in the
northern French Alps.
Gillian an accomplished BHPA Instructor, French BP-JEPS (FFVL) Instructor, Coach and professional tandem pilot, and has been
teaching full time since 2007. Gillian has been flying paragliders
since 2001 amassing many hundreds of hours of personal airtime with the
majority of her flying in the northern French Alps.
WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO LEARN?
All courses are available from late April to mid November and our
training program changes throughout the year, depending upon the
weather. During the spring and summer months most solo flights will take
place early in the morning and/or from 16.00 onwards. The flying periods
at lunchtime are often a little too strong for new pilots, until progression
is made. However, there is plenty of daylight during these periods and we
often work late into the day. The stronger lunchtime periods are not wasted
as there are valuable launch techniques and strong wind ground training to learn.
Later in the year, August onwards, the midday flying conditions are gentler:
it's then possible to fly throughout the day making up for the slightly
shorter periods of daylight.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN DATES!
We don't have set course dates, we work on a 'first come first served' basis and take bookings
to suit our clients own dates. Please check our 'Availability Calendar Page' for available
dates. We work every day throughout the season, weekends included.
Flying paragliders is more of a career in soaring and thermalling,
we never stop learning, that's why it's such a fantastic sport and becoming
competent within oneself sometimes takes a little longer!
To help understand what's involved in the training we
definitely advise the new student reads 'Paragliding, The Beginner Guide', 'Touching
Cloudbase' and/or looks at the excellent DVD 'Learn to Fly'
before they visit us for their training. The knowledge gained will be
invaluable! We have them in stock, though with postage problems and costs from the EU it may be cheaper
to purchase one of these locally!
Touching Cloudbase' by Ian Currer is an now on-line video/lecture format. For a £50.00 registration fee you buy 2 years of very well presented video lectures and films, all about learning to paraglide.
Check our the details here: Touchingcloudbase
If you decide to take this excellent program you need to register a school when adding your details. We are the 'Alpine Flying Centre'.
I can highly recommend this recent book by Bastienne Wentzel and Ed Ewing, it not only for the new beginner pilot
but also for anyone who flies a paraglider. It's a jolly good read, it's educational, it has been carefully written and covers pretty much all aspects of our sport.
This DVD has 3D animation bringing to life many of the hard to visualise concepts which are so important for us to
understand. Details on airflows around hills and mountains, turbulence and convergence, dynamics and thermal lift plus aerodynamics of lift and drag,
speeds to fly and so on!
I can highly recommend the recent update of this excellent weather book for sport pilots. Its an easy read and full of detailed information.
One day Tandem Flying - A taster day, fun flying with 3 flights: this is great introduction into paragliding.
Fly with your own instructor together on a tandem where you the new pilot will spend some of the time at the controls
flying the paraglider learning how it steers and flys. The Instructor will be in charge of the launch and landings.
If prefered the instructor will do all the flying while you relax and enjoy the flying and the views.
See here for more details: Tandems
Touching Cloudbase' by Ian Currer is an now on-line video/lecture format. For a £50.00 registration fee you buy 2 years of very well presented video lectures and films, all about learning to paraglide.
Check our the details here:
I can highly recommend this recent book by Bastienne Wentzel and Ed Ewing, it not only for the new beginner pilot
but also for anyone who flies a paraglider. It's a jolly good read, it's educational, it has been carefully written and covers pretty much all aspects of our sport.
This DVD has 3D animation bringing to life many of the hard to visualise concepts which are so important for us to
understand. Details on airflows around hills and mountains, turbulence and convergence, dynamics and thermal lift plus aerodynamics of lift and drag,
speeds to fly and so on!
