Hang gliding is great fun!
Buying a hang glider on ebay - can be easy as clicking on a button, but you need to make sure the aircraft you are buying is (1) suitable for your level of competence, such as a beginner (2) is the correct size for your weight, and(3) is airworthy. I'll address the issues in order..
(1) Suitable for a beginner - You cannot just buy a hang glider and go to a hill or cliff then go running along andexpect to fly! This approach will undoubtedly end in tears / broken bones / damaged hang glider / damaged pride and at worse a death or disability - Oh, by the way,all of those have happened to experienced hang glider pilots!
Hang gliders are available for different levels of experience from beginner to intermediate to advanced, and all have their owncharacteristics, from "forgiving" for intermediates to "twitchy" for advanced. You need to make sure the glider you are buying is suitable for your level of experience.
Learning through a hang gliding school is the best approach to ensure that your learning curve is as safe as possible! So before you buy, or consider buying, find out about taking a taster course (or just take one), or a course that will give you your Elementary Pilot Certificate (EPC), which shouldtake about a five days to complete - subject to weather. At the end of the EPC course you will be competent to rig and pre-flight inspect a hang glider, assess the weather conditions and their suitability for you to fly, make a simpleflight plan and you will also have an understanding of simple flight theory, such as why a wing flys, and things such as wind rotor, roll, yaw, pitch, ground effect, airspeed and groundspeed, minimum sink and maximum glide angles . Upon completion of the EPC you will also be able to initiate left and right turns, and have flown a number of flights with a ground clearance of 300 feet (I believe it is a minimum of three fights for the EPC). Once you have achieved the EPC you can then go onto the next levelof competence, which istheClub Pilot Certificate (CPC) thisinvolves "ridge soaring" and "top landing". Check out the British Hang and Paragliding Association (BHPA - . co . uk or do a Google search for "bhpa uk") for more information on schools / clubs etc,.
(2) Make sure the hang glider you are buying is the correct size for your weight - This is very important as if you attempt to fly a "wing" that is too big or too small, you may not have the correct level of control of the hang glider and the glider may be inclined to "stall". A stall is basically when the wing stops flying and dives towards the ground, if there is enough room between the ground and a "stalled" glider, the stall can be recovered and normal flight continued, if there is not enough height between the glider and the ground, the the glider will hit the ground.
Modern gliders are designed to carry pilots within a specified weight range, so make sure the glider size is suitable for your weight and the weight of the harness combined. The harness is anothervital bit of kit for hang gliding (this is the bit you strap yourself into, then clip into the hang glider) and it is designed to take a pilot of a specific height range, so you need to make sure that the harness you get is the right size for you. The correct size of the glider and the correctsize of the harness are vitally important toget right.
(3) Make sure the hang glider is "airworthy" - The BHPA carry out tests on hang gliders and issue a "Certificate of Airworthiness" (CoA) to confirm that a glider is suitable for pilots of specific weight range(s). These are silvery sticky labels with a blue and red logo, which is usually on the "keel" of the glider, they have indented typeface on them. The BHPA also tests hang gliders to destruction to make sure any model is safe to fly before aCoA is issued. New gliders leaving manufacturers have to be flighttest flown to ensure there are not any quirks in them - such as a tendency to dive or turn one direction or another. If you intend to buy and fly a second hang glider, make sure that it has a CoA, if the seller does not know, or cannot find a label on the keel, the chances are it probably does not have a CoA.
Without a CoA you will not be able to get insurance. Insurance is vital, not for you but for those around you that you might fly over. You will need third party liability in case you crash into say, the EuroStar train or injure a spectator or crash into their car - you can find insurance details on the BHPA site.
If possible inspect the glider before you bid and TRY and get someone with hang gliding experience (hang gliding clubs usually have a "club coach" who would be ideal to bring along to inspect the glider). Check out the British Hang Gliding Museum ( . co . uk or do a Google search to find them) who have a database of all UK hang gliders from the 70's onwards.
Questions to ask once you've established the glider has a CoA...
(a) Has the has glider been stored indoors / outdoors - outdoors is not good as like all metal outdoor kept suff, gliders are liable to corrosion, which is not good. Garaged is good.
(b) Has the glider been serviced, by whom and when - was it the manufacturer or just someone who may or may not know about hang gliders.
(c) Has the glider been involved in any crashes, if so what parts were or needed replacing and who carried out the work - gliders often crash and break "uprights" which may not be severe, depending upon the speed of the crash and if any other bits were damaged. The same applies to the leading edge (the front of the wing), which usually comprises 3 parts on eachwing, some or all of which may have been replaced.
(d) When were the rigging wires last changed - the wires are part of the structural integrity of the glider and should be changed every after every X hours of flying, this is specified in the manual for the glider, along with other important information such as the maximum "do not exceed" speed and flight angles.
(e) How many hours has the glider flown - this may help to give those of hang gliding experience an idea of the age of the glider
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