BHPA Training and I can't yet fly

[Terry Owens]

On the weekend I traveled to collect a paramotor and in passing it was said, at the airfield, they look forward to seeing me again but when I learned to fly I cannot land or take off from the field unless I had BHPA training. This closed shop mentality really gets up my nose and is the reason I left the Microlight Association some 25 years ago, and at leased they had some legitimacy in law - and did they ever milk it. The agrument went 'why aren't the officials and board members pursuing, on behalf of their membership, the same rights to fly as people enjoy in the States'. After all the assembled officials learned to fly without oppressive regulation in the 70's yet by the late 80's those same people had formed a closed shop and were feathering their nests by charging £50/hour to teach PPL 'D' pilots to fly. Needless to say I didn't get an answer and was asked to leave, so I never did learn to fly.

By the 90's I discovered paramotoring and enthusiastically went next door to discuss the possibilty with my neighbour, who piloted a hang glider most weekends. He immediately poo poo'ed the idea as far too dangerous even for a 'Suicide Sam' like me, I used to ride motorbikes quickly, because the wing was apt to collapse often and without warning. I have to announce that last statement may have been true at the start of the sport but was in no way true now, if it was ever true, the fatalities would be so high that the CCA would have taken control a long time ago. It is now 2021 and I am probably well passed my use by date at 66 but it is something I have wanted to do since I was 5 years old or earlier.

So now I am looking for someone to teach me to fly in the Liverpool area (I know I can't fly over Liverpool as it is controlled airspace and a built up area) and to explain a few things like the starting sentence in this post for one.

Terry

Edited July 19, 2021 by Terry Owens