London paragliding meetings upgraded & half price food and drink for TVHGC attendees
Updated: Sep 13, 2021
The monthly social meetings (last Tuesday each month) in London have had an upgrade in the last year. We have now got a fixed venue, the Cork & Bottle, Spring Street, Paddington. We have a private room that can be organised to fit up to 50 people, 2 big screens, excellent food, beer and wine (half price until the minimum spend of £300 is reached - this is also for shgc members).
All events will be recorded and or live streamed, so that those of you who aren't close enough to join in person can still benefit.
The new venue has meant that we can attract great speakers who will give a presentation for between 40 minutes and an hour. The rest of the evening is a chance to meet fellow pilots, find out who's been flying where, work out potential lift shares to hills and if you want, become more involved with the community.
This year we have a great line up of speakers, talking about a wide range of topics that will hopefully inspire, educate and help keep you safe.
March 31: Kirsty Cameron Kirsty is one of the worlds top pilots, she has flown multiple 200km flights in the UK, won the woman's British Open, the top female in the top TVHGC pilot for most of the last 10 years. Kirst will be talking about her experiences, how she chooses where to go, how to fly further and the value of comps and how she got to being a real competitor in the PWC.
April 28: Steve U Steve is an old hand at both paragliding and hang gliding, a reviewer for skywings, e-conspicuity expert and the man who has kept the London wing going for the last 20+ years!
Steve is going to give his insights from his time testing wings, how gliders have changed and what you should look for when you are testing a wing and thinking about upgrading - including the ever present "when should I upgrade".
May 26: Gavin McClurg
Gavin should need little introduction - National Geographic Adventurer of the year, X-Alps pilot and creator of 'Cloudbase Mayhem' the world's best paragliding podcast featuring inspirational stories, adventures and dealing with safety and the dark side of the sport. He hasn't decided what he's going to talk to us about yet, but it will be good!
June 30: Indy Flyer Indy is returning after his excellent talk on his app https://vimeo.com/394305237 in February. This time Indy will be talking about alpine weather, Foehn and valley breezes. If you fly in the alps or want to (you really should) this will be a great talk.
July 28: Nick Smith
Nick is the TVHGC safety officer - but don't worry he won't be boring?! He has had a stella career in aviation and having just left airbus is now teaching pilots how to be test pilots. He is an accomplished sailplane pilot and for the last 7 years or so a paraglider pilot too. He will be sharing what he's learned, some fun anecdotes and what you can do to be a safer, better pilot and still have fun!
August 25: James Hope-Lang James is competing in the X-Pyr at the end of June, the X-Alps baby brother going coast to coast across the Pyrenees. In many ways it's a tougher race than the X-alps, it is more remote, there are less known routes and the weather can be tougher too. James will be sharing his experiences (good or bad) of it as well as how you can start going on vol biv adventures.
September 29: Jim Mallinson
Jim is one of the most inspirational individuals in paragliding, he is a Yogi, esteemed academic (translating ancient Sanskrit for Oxford University) and now a professor at SOAS. I almost forgot, Jim is also a great pilot who used to run 'Himalayan Sky Safaris' and unsurprisingly a man who knows India and flying here as well as anyone.
October | November | December TBC
We don't know who will be speaking yet as dates that far out are tricky for people to commit to. We hope to get Jocky along, who is a the most absurdly enthusiastic pilots around, 'Mr SIV' and leader of the Ozone Chabre open. He has said he would love to come and we are thrilled about that, we now have to keep fingers crossed that we can get timings to work!