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Resources useful to Pilots
Below are a bunch of websites that might prove useful. If you know of another one that should be here, please contact us and we'll add it. Thanks.
Whatsapp for Pilots
Increasingly Telegram is replacing more traditional locations (such as Facebook!) to discuss and plan flying activities.
Download the app onto your phone and then join these four groups. Please remember to read the pinned rules - essentially you must use your own full name on the groups.
Make sure to familiarise yourself with the location functions on Telegram. Being able to drop a pin at launch or landing is very useful for co-ordinating groups of pilots and retrieves.
Scottish Telegram Groups - the links for these groups change regularly. Ask a fellow pilot to add you.
XC Flying Scotland
XC Retrieve Scotland
Local Flying Scotland
Flying Chit Chat Scotland
Very useful for determining wind speed, strength and consistency throughout the day at any given location.
XC Weather can be book marked onto your iPhone home screen for quick mobile access.
Windy
Detailed wind forecast
Windy has very quickly become one of the most detailed and accurate forecasting sites available to pilots. It allows comparison on three forecasting models. It is recommended to become very familiar with this site.
Fly Bubble have superimposed some of the most useful RASP elements onto a map of flying sites. It's a handy weather app for pilots.
"The League" is there to encourage pilots to fly cross-country and to provide them with the means of recording and measuring their achievements compared to others. It is a great place to record your flights, and to compare them with others.
The SHPF runs a league for Scottish pilots, or rather flights that take place entirely within Scotland. This links directly to the SHPF League.
XC Find is an incredibly useful tool which plots your tracklog from your Spot or inReach onto a map. This allows friends to track your progress in real time as you fly across Scotland, and would allow them to know your location in the event of an incident.
It also publishes your status message from your device. "I have landed safely."
Its also just a fun place to see how everybody did on an epic xc day.
The SHPF make a financial contribution to XC Find every year on behalf of members of regional Scottish clubs.
XC Find
Where did everybody get to?
XC Find is an incredibly useful tool which plots your tracklog from your Spot or inReach onto a map. This allows friends to track your progress in real time as you fly across Scotland, and would allow them to know your location in the event of an incident.
It also publishes your status message from your device. "I have landed safely."
Its also just a fun place to see how everybody did on an epic xc day.
The SHPF make a financial contribution to XC Find every year on behalf of members of regional Scottish clubs.
MWIS is an excellent website aimed at those wishing to access the Scottish mountains. It is tailored and designed specifically for walkers and climbers and is generally very accurate.
Developed by BHPA members Pete Logan and Chris Williams this website app makes incredibly easier to submit NOTAMs and to check existing ones. Remember to submit one before heading out, it can take up to 4 hours to be processed. Here is the BHPA help site on how to do it.
Gavin McClurg's Free Flight Podcast
An awesome resource and source of entertainment. 'The Skipper' interviews the great the good of the free flight world who impart their wisdom and regail the listener with tales of epic flights and epic fails. Well worth a listen.
YouTube Channel
Highland Pilot, Warwick Lister-Kaye, who created this website, has a YouTube Channel dedicated to his paragliding - most of which takes place in the Highlands. Have a look and remember to subscribe if you like what you see!
Throw away your paper maps!
ViewRanger is a superb mapping & GPS app for your phone, allowing you to purchase and download detailed maps of the whole of the UK if you wish. It will show you your location, record GPS tracks, tell your friends where you are and much more.
Widely used by paragliders to analyse the terrain and find the best route to launch.
Everything you need to know about enjoying the Right To Roam in Scotland, in a responsible and sustainable manner.
Render a panorama from any point in the Scottish Highlands. The resulting image is annotated with peak and top names. Not much to do with paragliding but a fantastic tool for anyone that loves the hills.
The only Highland paragliding and paramotoring school
Beyond Extreme - based on the shores of Loch Ness - is a BHPA registered paragliding school, which also offers tandem flight experiences. Please note that Beyond Extreme is in no way affiliated with the Highland Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club.
A free online paragliding magazine
A free online mag with an Apple and Android version avaialable in the app store too.
"If you aren't using an inReach when you're flying xc, forgive my language, but you're an a-hole." Gavin McClurg, Cloudbase Mayhem. The Garmin inReach is a satellite tracker with two way messaging capabilities. It weighs less than a packet of cigarettes and has an annual cost of less than six Starbucks coffees a month. An absolutely invaluable piece of kit if you want to go over the back - offering you, your flying buddies and your family peace of mind and it could one day save your life. An absolute no brainer.