Just started paraglider training in the uk, has anyone got any info / links that will help me to learn. Also when do you recommend buying my first wing.
Tom

Tom,
I was an avid Hang Glider pilot from around 1988 to 1995. My skills and I peaked in the summer of 1995 as far as I recall, where I did some flying in Owens Valley, here in Southern California and Nevada. Owens Valley has to be one of the most turbulent places in the world to fly, hitting thermals where your variometer screams at 2000 fpm up, only after topping out getting into 1500 fpm down he he. In Owens Valley you have to fly with O2 as well, I topped out at 17,300 ft on my best and longest (125 miles/6.5 hrs) flight.
I developed problems with my elbows and shoulders, not from bad landings, but a combination of working out and flying a really stiff glider (WW Ram Air). I had traded three obsolete gliders for a Paraglider earlier, I had an Edel Apollo 27, an OK beginner glider, but a little small for me (225 lbs hook in). I traded my Ram Air for another larger and higher performance paraglider. I still have it but don't remeber the name, maybe a Lazer or something, it is not an all As glider, so one has to be a little carefull when flying it.
Anyway, about when to buy your first glider. Use the glider provided by your club or instructor for as long as you can. You will be doing a lot of groundhandling, wall building, inflating, groundhandling, launch and landing practice off small hills etc. All this putts quite a bit of wear and tear on the glider, and if you can avoid doing that to your own glider, avoid it.
As you probably know, paragliders has evolved and come a long way the last 5 years or so. It used to be that if you wanted a safe glider, you got very poor performance, and if you wanted a performance glider, you better be good at coping with large colapses. Today, just about any beginner/intermediate glider is very very safe and gives you great performance, so don't buy your first glider thinking you will only keep it for one season, because it should keep you happy for at least 150-200 hours. Here in Southern California the suns UV rays is usually what wears your glider, probably no the same situation in the UK.
Good luck with your new sport, makes me want to get back and do a little flying. I never did get certified in my paraglider, although I did do some late afternoon soaring and thermaling, I could just never get used to having to look between your legs to see where you were going when hitting sink
DKjens

I've been flying hanggliders off and on since 1973 (have never tried paragliding)

Just stay with your instructor and build time using his/her equipment. There is no substitute for actual airtime.

If you find after a while that it looks like a sport you will stay with and you are comfortable enough to fly without the tutelage of your instructor, that would be the time to purchase your own wing.

After you have purchased the wing, put a lot of time on it and get really comfortable with it. Every spare moment should be spent on the hill. [8D]

Since I've moved to Alaska I have become semi-retired from flying but hope to build time again when I get back to California.

Don Hatten, 1500+ logged hours hanggliding
USHGA #17442

Don, if you survived the '70s hang gliding you are either one tuff guy, or just very lucky. Boy were those early contraptions not very safe ha ha. I learned on a WW Duck180 - what a first glider ha ha, stiff and uncombersom he he, I had my share of whacks with that, doesn't have much of a flare window. My second glider was, and I still have it, a Seedwings Sensor B model Full Race. It does not have a keel pocket, has VG and four half battens per side. It is one of the best thermal gliders I've flown, but also tricky to land, and those flexible tips will not sustain the energy for loops ahem. Then came a WW AT158, I still have this glider, but it's in Denmark where a friend has tryed to sell it for 5-6 years now ha ha, I'll bring it back home next time I go there. Then I had the WW Ram Air, what a screamer. Pull in to where other gliders would do 35, this one did 50, pull in where others would do 50, this one did 70-75 and tracked like an arrow, but slow speed - vg off suffered.
Where in California did you fly? Do you know Rob and Di McKenzie in San Bernadino, I learned from Rob, Crestline is a great local flying place to me, exept I don't fly any more.
DKjens

I learned to fly on a True Flight 16' Standard Rogallo. My friend and I split the cost on the kit and built it in his back yard (those were the days). We flew mostly on a little hill near Redding, California and over on the sand dunes near Crescent City. After about 6 months of ground skimming, we purchased a Seagull III and that was when the high altitude flights started. Lots more practice time to figure out turning and stuff when you're a thousand feet up (seatbelted to a swing seat).

I eventually saved enough money to purchase a used Quicksilver C rigid wing and that's when i really started accumulating flight time. I flew that thing everywhere...my favorite places were Stukel Mountain near Klamath Falls and Elk Creek, CA outside of Willows. I finally overshot a landing and ripped the sail on a barbed wire fence so I decided to go back to Rogallos. My next glider was an Electraflyer Cirrus III. That was the most unsafe glider I ever owned...it was hard to tune and would spin at the drop of a hat. It scared me so much that I quit flying for 6 months in 1977 after a pretty bad crash. I still had the bug so I bought my friend's Will Wing Raven 209 and it was like night and day. I put 450 hours on that glider before I sold it and bought a Wills Duck 180.

Like you, I really didn't feel safe on the Duck, it was "quirky" but Wills Wing came to Hat Creek Rim, California and let me test fly an Attack Duck and I bought one on the spot. With that Glider (and the Raven) I put most of my hours in at Dry Canyon, Alamogordo, New Mexico. I was stationed at Holloman AFB and I had a 4x4 so I was putting in almost an hour a day after work and a few hours every weekend. I really got dialled in on that Attack Duck...it was awesome.

After the Attack Duck I bought a Sport 167 and flew it over in the UK (I put 20 years in the Air Force). I came back to the states and bought a Super Sport. I was stationed at March AFB, CA and stored the glider at Rob and Diane McKenzie's shop at Crestline for a few months. Very nice people.

I went through 3 more Super Sports before I got so busy with the Air Force that I slowed my flying way down. I went from 1995 to 1997 with maybe 12 hours. I didn't feel safe on the bladewings anymore so I traded my dealer a used Super Sport for a brand new Falcon. I flew it a couple of times before moving here to Alaska and i haven't flown maybe twice in 6 years. I'm semi retired. I will be moving back to Redding, in two years and who knows, I may start building some hours again and get back into the zoom zoom bladewings, but the Falcon Floater is enough for my blood pressure for now...LOL!!!

See you at the hill...I most likely will have Hat Creek Rim near Redding for my home mountain in the foreseeable future..it has great RC sailplane flying as well.

Don