The Paraglider

Originally from the Isle of Wight, Lawrie Noctor lives and flies in the Peak District, UK. A member of a flying family (his dad, uncle and cousin all fly), he was connected to flying from a young age. He was an instructor at Airways Airports for many years, but having a ‘proper’ job now means he can only get out to fly for pleasure these days. Having won the British Paragliding Cup in 2014, he’s really got into comps and recently broke the UK declared tandem record with fellow young hotshot Theo Warden.

In this podcast Lawrie answers questions on the secret of his flying success, which flying site/area is top of his flying bucket list and which flying-related book he would recommend most.

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Juan Sebastian Ospina, commonly known as Sebas, was born in Colombia, has lived for many years in England and now lives and works as a tandem pilot in Switzerland. A member of the UK national team, he is a multiple record-holder in a variety of countries. He holds the Colombian distance record, the UK declared triangle record and is the British pilot to have flown the greatest distance abroad with a flight of 400km in Quixada, Brazil.

This podcast was recorded in March 2016, shortly after he broke the Colombian distance record.

In this podcast he answers questions on whether he has ever tried any DIY flying when he was a kid, if he could go back in time to when he was in his first six months of flying and give himself some advice, what would it be and whether he keeps a log book.

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Tim Pentreath is an Advance UK XC Team pilot from Bath. He has been flying for many, many years and last year finally made his first 200+ km flight in the UK – joining a small, select group of people to have achieved this. He is Mr. Advance in the SW and also keeps and informative and entertaining flying blog at https://flyaszent.wordpress.com/

In this podcast he answers questions on whether he has ever flown at night, been guilty of talking parabollox and his favourite costume at St Hilare.

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Dara Hogan is an Irish pilot from Dublin who describes himself as a “weekend pilot rather than a sky-god”. As he approaches 70, his ambition is to fly 50km sometime soon. He is the former chairman of the Irish Hang-Gliding and Paragliding Association and a keen aerial photographer, so much so that his photos were used twice as inside covers in SkyWings in 2016.

Dara answered questions on whom he admires most in flying, his most valuable lessons learnt and what has changed over the years since he started in the mid-1990s.

Listen to the podcast below: