Advice to Visiting Pilots

Welcome to Ireland! We hope you will have a wonderful time exploring and experiencing our beautiful country!

If you plan to paraglide or hang glide while you are in Ireland then please read the following information for visiting pilots:

ALL our flying sites are either on private land or land that is known as 'commonage', that is land (usually hills and mountains) adjacent to surrounding farm land. Several farmers will have the right to graze livestock on these shared open hill sides, and permission must be granted before you can access areas of 'common' land.
The Irish Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association has negotiated conditional access to many areas of common land and privately owned land at our most popular flying sites, and we ask you to respect the conditions of access by joining the IHPA as a (free) Visiting Pilot member.
All pilots are required to sign the IHPA Waiver of Indemnity (which protects land owners in the event of an accident) and hold appropriate 3rd party insurance (to cover damage to property or livestock.)
Visiting Pilot Membership lasts you for 90 days in any calander year, and you can renew your Visiting Pilot membership each time you visit Ireland as long as you are not normally resident within the state.

Sites guide

Please download our flying sites guide and use it to plan your flying holiday in Ireland. You will find a link to the Sites Guide at the foot of every page on the IHPA website. You will also find a link to our free on-line Free Flight Magazine, which showcases many of our most popular flying sites.

Restricted Flying Sites

Some of our flyng sites are restricted, either because they are potentially dangerous to low air time pilots or because they are inside Class C airspace and require specific permission from the local Air Traffic Contol (ATC). Please review the list of restricted sites and their conditions here: Home - Flight Safety - Restricted Flying Sites

Airspace & NOTAMs

There are only two types of airspace that concern paraglider and hang glider pilots in Ireland:

Class G - this extends from the gound up to 7500 feet above mean sea level (AMSL.) You are free to fly in Class G airspace using Visual Flight Rules (see and avoid.)
Class C - this is controlled airspace above 7500 feet AMSL and also down to ground level surrounding our larger airports. You may not enter Class C airspace without specific permission from the local Air Traffic Control (ATC). Some of our flying sites are within Class C controlled airspace, and the IHPA has negotiated permission with the local ATCs so that we can fly these sites under Special VFR rules. Please pay close attention to, and obey the rules covering these flying sites. You can find a list of flying sites inside Class C airspace here: Home - Flight Safety - Airspace - Flying Sites Affected by Airspace

Irish Airspace Structure

Please also check the NOTAMs for any Temporary Restricted Areas (TRAs) before you fly here: Home - Flight Safety - Airspace - NOTAMs

WhatsApp / FaceBook / Mailing List

IHPA pilots keep in touch with each other via several WhatsApp groups (PG, HG & regional), through our Facebook pages and via our mailing list:

WhatsApp - Paragliding - contact the IHPA Paragliding Competitions Officer and ask to be added to the group
WhatsApp - Hang Gliding - contact the IHPA Hang Gliding Competitions Officer and ask to be added to the group
Facebook - IHPA - the main IHPA page
Facebook - Gone Flyin' SW - for Co. Cork & Co. Kerry
Google Groups Mailing List - the official means of communication between the IHPA and pilots

Tandem Flying

Please note that tandem flights 'for reward' (i.e. where any form of payment or 'consideration' is made) requires a specific license from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) as it is considered to be commercial transport.