Skip to main content

Gliding

Our grassy fields and hilltops serve as excellent take-off and landing sites for paragliders, hang gliders. Some pilots make cross-country flights exceeding 300 miles and fly up to 4 miles high! This is also a favourite region for soaring over the rolling, green landscape in a glider.

 

You can train at our recognised schools, which are also great spots for those who prefer to watch from the safety of the ground.

If you’re already licensed, get in touch with a local club to find out where you can fly. Only recognised flying sites can be used.

 

Paragliding and hang gliding

The Brecon Beacons National Park and its surrounding area offers some of the best sites in the UK for both paragliding and hang gliding. The north-facing escarpments of the Park's mountains overlooking the undulating landscapes of Mid Wales provide near perfect take-off sites. Other hills are good, too. Pilots can soar along hill ridges or share a thermal with a buzzard circling high overhead.

The South East Wales Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club is one of the five regional clubs which make up the Welsh Free Flight Federation, the organisation which controls the majority of flying sites. It has around 400 members and controls flying at several sites in the Park.

Visitors are always welcome on these sites, provided they repay their hospitality by observing site rules. Many flying sites are subject to agreements with graziers, landowners, and farmers, and rules are often imposed to comply with their requirements. Please help the club to hang on to their sites by behaving responsibly.

All UK pilots must be members of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association. Visitors from outside the UK must be able to show that they have adequate third party insurance, and an appropriate pilot rating from the FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the International Air Sports Federation, www.fai.org).

Gliding

The Black Mountains Gliding Club operates from a farm not far from Talgarth. Nestling beneath the northern escarpments of the Black Mountains, amongst normal sheep-speckled fields, is a grassy runway with a windsock. Maybe it's the size of the field, the slope, the trees or the proximity of the mountains themselves, but this airfield is said to be quite challenging, even for experienced pilots!

The club is both friendly and expert and will welcome you whether you are a novice looking for a trial tandem flight or a seasoned pilot who's keen to enjoy the excellent conditions that the area often offers.

For more information about gliding, contact the British Gliding Association.

 



Newsletter

Subscribe for latest news, updates & special offers