Hang gliding courses in the UK are split into two 5 day courses. The first 5 days of your hang gliding tuition are called 'Elementary Pilot' and the second 5 days are called 'Club Pilot'.

When you join a hang gliding school and arrive for your first day's tuition you will be introduced to the instructor who will sign you onto the course and help you fill in the insurance forms etc. You might be given a short introduction to hang gliding via some visual aids such as video, flip charts etc. and given some theory so that you understand the principals of flight etc.

 

You will then be taken to the training hill where he will familiarise you with the equipment that you will be using. This will consist of the glider, the harness and the helmet. you will be shown how to rig the glider and put on the harness and helmet. You will then do a walk round check of the glider to ensure that it is airworthy. You will also be shown how to clip into the glider and to perform what is known as a 'hang check'. This is a mandatory procedure that ensures that you are clipped into the glider properly. A student performs a hang check (photo)

The instructor will usually do a short demonstration flight to show you how the glider flies and what is involved in the take off and landing. This will usually be a short flight, just skimming the tops of the grass.

On the first day of your hang gliding tuition you will probably only be flying a foot or two above the ground. The instructor is not trying to ruin your day by keeping you down low, he is trying to keep you safe. There is no point in getting high when you have no idea how to fly the glider. The height will come as a natural progression of your flying skills and in a few days you will be making some higher and longer flights. The objective in the first day or two is to concentrate on learning pitch and roll inputs, keeping the wings level, looking ahead and landing squarely on your feet.

The first thing to learn is how to pick up the glider and balance it on your shoulders. This always feels very awkward at first and it feels like the wing has a mind of it's own. The more you do this the more natural it becomes until it becomes second nature.

The instructor will then tie a tether rope to the nose of the glider and often will have other students also running along side with additional ropes on the wings.

He will give instructions as you take the first steps into the world of free flight. You will learn to fly the glider at the correct speed and how to make small corrections to the gliders direction.

Instructors are usually fairly fit as a result of running along side the student. At the end of a long day both the students and the instructor are usually worn out.

It pays to bring plenty of water and food on your training days as you can end up being dehydrated.

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Landing the glider can be tricky and the instructor has a nose rope to prevent the student from getting too high. You can see in the photo on the left that as the student pushes the A-frame away from him, this puts his centre of gravity further back and has the result of raising the nose of the glider. This slows it down but if the pilot is not careful it can also lead to a stall and an undignified meeting with the ground.

The instructor demonstrates the landing technique to the students. Notice the body position and the position of the hands on the A-frame as the instructor rotates the gliders nose upwards in a classic landing 'flare'.

By the end of the day the student is usually proficient at this technique although it remains one of the trickiest things that a pilot has to do. Every landing is different depending on the landing field, the wind strength, the glider, the temperature etc. The pilot will develop an instinct for landing and eventually it will become second nature.

By day two and three the students are off the ropes and free flying on gentle slopes perhaps making 200 yard long flights where they polish their new skills of pitch and roll control. Their takeoff and landing technique has improved considerably and they are beginning to enjoy the feeling of true flight.

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the photos

All the hard work of the previous day is now paying off as they make clean launches with straight flights and stand up landings.

From this point they will progress to ever higher flights which will include turns and eventually to hill soaring and to club pilot level.

N.B.
I should say that in reality it will be difficult to get five
consecutive days where the weather is good enough to learn to fly. The fact is that you will probably get a day or two then a few weeks in between till you wait for favourable conditions. The weather in the UK doesn't allow for many days of consistant flyable conditions. The average time taken to learn to hang glide in the UK is around 6 months. This is due to weather mainly and the fact that the student has to organise his days off work to go flying and the chances of having good weather on that day are practically zero. If you want to learn quickly with no walking up hills carrying a glider on your back, in good weather and have a great time doing it, don't do it in the UK. Go to Wallaby Ranch in Florida and learn by doing tandem flights to 2,000 ft with an instructor.

There is also another great place close to Wallaby Quest Air. Both places do tandem training and both are about 20 mins from Disneyland.

For more info on the reality of learning to hang glide, go here.