IT’S 40 YEARS since the Malvern Hang Gliding Club was founded and while maps have given way to satellite tracking devices and equipment has become streamlined, lighter and easier to use – one thing hasn’t changed.

What you need, and have always needed, in shed-loads for hang gliding is patience, say some of the senior members of the club.

Having the right conditions for a flight is the first priority and that can mean waiting for hours, they say. In fact some of them have driven to different hang gliding sites in the country and returned without even getting off the ground because the conditions weren’t suitable.

Club member Bryan Hindle explains: “There is a perception hang gliding is an extreme sport. There is a lot of standing around on the hill and waiting for the right conditions. There is a lot of patience required.”

But on a good day it can mean rising to 5,000 ft to touch a cloud, or circling in a thermal eye to eye with a bird of prey, or watching low-flying RAF fighter jets whizzing below or starting from the Malvern Hills and touching down on the coast of west Wales as the sun begins to set.

The British distance record flight of 254km to the Suffolk Coast was set by Nick Pain from Malvern in 1999 and stood for about 12 years. The current record is 338km.

The possibilities are endless as no day is ever the same and no flight is ever the same, but each hang glider feel the same sense of fulfilment in knowing they are in the skies due to their knowledge, skill, equipment and ability to use the elements – not because they are powered by an engine.

“The magnificent thing is staying up without power,” says founder member Tony Jones.

The club was first establish, says the club’s first ever chairman John Smith, with the help of the Worcester Evening News as it then was in 1975. A few individual hang gliding enthusiasts were using the hills for flights and they decided to try and get some publicity to encourage others to join them and set up a proper club.

It worked and the clubs first meeting was held in February 1976 with membership growing rapidly to about 100. In fact the membership has been very stable over the years at around that mark, with various people dropping out over the years but new members coming along to replace them.

Once formed, the club started working with the Malvern Hills Conservators to enable them to officially use the hills for take-off. The alliance proved fruitful and not only are individuals allowed to fly from the hills but organised competitions are staged there. The only spot hang gliders are never allowed to use is the Herefordshire Beacon – otherwise known as British Camp.

The members of Malvern Hang Gliding Club also provide working parties to help the conservators with maintenance on the hills.

Malvern is a popular site for hang gliders and paragliders – many people now fly paragliders which have no frame, are light and more like mini parachutes – because it is one of the only easterly facing sites in the country, says Bryan.

The club does have other sites near Builth Wells, New Radnor, Cheltenham and other places offering different wind directions.

Unlike the common perception about hang gliding and paragliding, this is not a sport for thrill seekers or where luck plays a part. Hang gliders and paragliders are fully fledged aircraft and carefully structured pilot training is essential to avoid serious accidents and ensure the flyers get the best from their sport.

While clubs can offer advice and encouragement, anyone wanting to take up the sport has to undertake training at a British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (BHPA) registered school. There is no upper age limit but, by law, a flyer must be 14 to do a solo flight.

The youngest member of the Malvern club is about 17, while most members are in their 30s and 40s and there are others into their 70s.

Club member and BHPA director of competition Bill Bell says: “Different people get different things out of it. Some do competitions and some just enjoy the view. It is not so much a physical thing, it is more about skill and mental ability to keep you in the air.”

“You get immersed in it and stop worrying about anything. The trick is to have enough brain power to analyse the conditions.

“You can choose how much physical effort to do and you can just choose the easy bits. You do not have to be physically fit.” Probably the most physically demanding part of hang gliding in Malvern is walking up the hills with the equipment.

Bryan says: “It is mental fitness that is the most important thing. It is exhilarating and it is a thrill but I do not like danger.

Bill adds: “People who fly are not thrill seekers. We are not like bungy jumpers. People think we trust to luck and we fly in conditions where we have no control but people are just not that crazy. People think we throw ourselves into oblivion but we do not jump off the hills.”

Ken Shail, founder member and current club president, says: “We consider ourselves as airmen and there is a great deal of airmanship involved in it.”

To launch the pilot runs forward with the wing until it reaches flying speed and the wind lifts the weight of pilot and glider. To stay airborne it is necessary to find rising air and avoid sinking air. Rising air can come from air being forced upwards over the hills, thermals, converging winds and other mechanisms. The skill is finding and using them.

Some members fly hang gliders, paragliders and light aircraft, while many of the RAF jet pilots are also hang gliders, they say.

Bill points out that flying in the UK is often more challenging than in hotter climates due to the nature of the British weather and the restricted airspace on such a crowded island. It may be due to this that the UK has produced a series of male and female world champions and teams over the years.

But despite all the gold medals and international success, it receives no support from official bodies like Sport England or the Government – it is completely self-funded.

“It is not an Olympic sport and we do not get funding at all. All the people who are representing the UK in competitions are doing it out of their own pockets,” he says.

Anyone thinking of taking up the sport can buy a reasonable second-hand glider for a few hundred pounds, they say. While a new high-performance competition glider and kit will cost between £10,000 and £20,000.

People interested in finding out more about hang gliding should visit https://www.bhpa.co.uk/ or http://www.joomla.malvern-hang.org.uk/ for more information about the Malvern club.