We are now coming to the end of the 2023 summer in Europe. I was warned that the process for getting my Class 2 medical, necessary to fly solo here, would be lengthy as a paraplegic, however I am still quite down about the lack of progress. I thought I would write this to vent. I’ll talk about my experience and what I know, and unfortunately I can’t really recommend this sport (which is struggling to maintain momentum especially with the younger generation), although I love it and I think it is perfectly suited to my situation in many ways.
My flying history
I did a short flight in Australia before learning to paraglide in 2007, but back then I didn’t really understand it. After five years of flying in New Zealand’s Southern Alps I arranged to do some cross country flights from Omarama with Chris Streat, a Queenstown local. We flew in thermal and wave and it was an influential way of thinking about flying for me – Chris has a lifetime of aviation experience, much of it in hang gliders, and he flies efficiently.
I progressed to a high level in paragliding as I travelled the world in the coming years, and it suited me more as a sport because I could independently explore mountain ranges throughout the world. I came back to gliding during the pandemic, as it made sense to finally do my learner course before I got too old when anyway world travel was impractical. I started learning at Kingaroy Soaring Club a few hours drive from Brisbane, and went solo late in 2020. It is an excellent club with many competition minded pilots (including some doing very well around the world) and a lot of experience from the aviation industry. It seems to be more of a sport “for adults” somewhere between casual hike up a hill and pull a rag from your backpack, and the tightly regulated commercial airlines.
I was close to ticking off everything in my logbook with the final step of getting my GPC (Australian gliding pilot certificate) when I left for Europe for spring in 2021. It was a tough year for weather in the Alps but I was still flying lines here, there and everywhere, but I got myself down to the southern French Alps to check the gliding scene in early August. I flew from Sisteron and Serres, got a lay of the land and a feeling that I could do it myself, and arranged to return to La Motte du Caire to learn the following month.
In La Motte du Caire I did my first winching (much more exciting than aerotow) and first flying close to the ridge. It is quite a technical landing and even though, not having my GPC, I effectively had to “start again” I didn’t feel like they were holding me back at all. It wasn’t long before I was solo there and flying the Pegase trainer local to the several airfields in the region. Conditions were a little tricky at times but you could fly most days (thunderstorms on a few), and it was great experience finding lift on the ridges. I stayed until the end of the season, early October 2021.
Back in Australia I did a few weeks at Lake Keepit while waiting for the pandemic restrictions to be lifted (how convenient!). I flew the LS7. Here I did my first real outlanding, which I was really happy about because it was a 5 star spot, an easy retrieve, and a flight where I was close to outlanding several other times but each was safe and well thought out with a thermal just before I’d have to enter the circuit I’d planned out. Even the outlanding I did was probably erring on the side of safety as I could have continued gliding towards home but I chose to stay with a paddock I’d had a good look at as I’d flown past.
I completed the formalities to obtain my GPC in Kingaroy and in March 2022 I went to the national competition at Narromine, a last minute decision prompted by a suggestion from Matthew Scutter. Since I had not done two gliding competitions before I was refused entry but I set myself tasks and really enjoyed the flying, with flights averaging 100km/h cross country speeds in the Discus b, as the reduction of the flyable day length was noted by competitors. I didn’t have an organised retrieve and thankfully didn’t need to spend any brownie points by asking for favours from friends, making it back every day.
I returned to the Alps and my last flying at La Motte du Caire was in a small competition organised at my home airfield. This was a great experience, and I was really happy that I managed to finish the first task even if it was a seven hour flight! I made goal except for one day I outlanded but I think taking extra sporting risk here was acceptable because I knew the airfield was nearby. I did not need to get trailered home, and another pilot outlanded at the same spot – we organised an aerotow to the nearest ridge and rather than flying straight home I made a scenic detour through the mountains just because why not.
Just a few weeks later (14 June 2022) I had my paragliding accident, with the enduring injury being ASIA A T12 level – complete paraplegia leaving me in a wheelchair. I spent weeks in hospitals in France, Australia, then months in New Zealand. Near the end of the year I did my first post accident flights again with Chris Streat and again in the Duo Discus. I suspected all would be well but it was good to confirm that everything felt right, for example with awareness and fatigue seeming to be the same as before.
In Australia I returned to the Kingaroy club, it is not set up specifically for disabled pilots but I found getting around there was easy enough. It was great to catch up with the crew and that was the main point of the visit. We had a quick nip around in the Duo Discus but I think this is more for the others than myself – I love to go for a fly but I am ready for flying fast cross country, staying local to the airfield is something I’ve done many hours of at Kingaroy. Since I had returned to work (weather forecasting as a contractor this time) my schedule only lined up to give me one visit, but I’d love to go back and do some longer flights with some of the exceptional pilots we have at the club (and not just the Duo Discus, although for sure this is adequate!).
Back to Europe and I still had not arranged a car but managed to hitchhike to the gliding club, with my wheelchair and a large bag with camping gear inside. We had some very nice flights around the mountains covered in spring snow (early April 2023). I had my first go on the hand controls, slowly getting the hang of it in the ASK21 (one of their two 2 seater hand rudder equipped aircraft, the other was waiting for a “paperwork fix”). I was very lucky that I was already flying with a club that is well resourced with hand flying, with an excellent instructor (Bart) having had a similar injury to mine less than a decade ago.
Class 2 medical
There was a lot of drama after this, involving AESA which is the Spanish aerospace authority where the medical results go to, and they at a later date “summon” you to demonstrate that you get into and out of a glider without assistance as the final part. First I had to send a form which I printed, filled out, signed, scanned, and emailed, but this wasn’t sufficient, I had to open up a secure account through some Spanish bureaucracy. In summary there was a week of trying with phone calls and various dead ends (my girlfriend was essential with fluent spanish), and finally getting an eIdentifier and Autofirma on my personal laptop with a digital signature after spending over two hours at the local Agencia Tributaria (tax office), half of that time with two staff scratching their heads trying to assist me. The signed document was uploaded to their secure portal on 15 June.
Bart had first hand experience of how complicated and length the Class 2 medical process was, saying it would take a year minimum. I’d be moving to Spain and we decided to go through the process there. I was introduced (online) to disabled pilots in the Sillas Voladoras club who are very helpful, but also warned me it was a long process. I joined the club and as soon as possible after arriving in Valencia I did the medical at Sermesa on 14 May. It was a complex assessment taking several hours and including blood, urine, hearing, eyesight, colour blindness, blood pressure, ECG, forms and meeting with a specialist, who I emailed with my discharge documentation from the spinal unit in New Zealand.
Just over a month later (18 July) I got a message from AESA, assuming the medical had been processed and I would be “summoned” for the glider entry / exit demonstration. I couldn’t actually get any message until I logged in with my laptop to the secure portal, and this was most disappointing because they simply said that as I’d failed the medical two months earlier I could go and do it again. I consulted with the Sillas Voladoras guys and they came back to me with the name of a doctor at Sermesa, but we rang her and she couldn’t do anything until September after the summer holidays. When I did then visit them at Sermesa on 5 September they couldn’t tell me anything except what AESA had said – we don’t believe there is any reason I have failed the medical except for it being a simple clerical error.
Sillas Voladoras have emailed AESA with a compliant detailing my situation but we don’t know how long it will be until we get a response. I’ve been told there is a “chaos” with commercial companies starting to cancel flights because of a pilot shortage and pending lawsuits relating to the failure of administration relating to medicals… so we are probably low priority. Meanwhile my theory exams which I passed nearly two years ago in France are just a few weeks from validity expiring. I will need to sit 9 exams again, in Madrid. I find this quite exasperating and I am wondering if a less bureaucratically challenged country in Europe (once you have the EASA SPL it is valid all over Europe) can offer a new type of medical tourism.
And flying
I got carried away with the medical, which is a requirement to fly solo, but I did have a good few weeks last month in France. This time I flew the Duo Discus with hand controls (front seat) exclusively. The first week included wave flying and cooler weather in the mistral, then summer returned and the weather got better and better. Getting out of the southern french Alps was still elusive though, sometimes having to share the aircraft and doing whatever the instructors were comfortable with.
I joined weglide when I found out about this Facebook for gliding and am now posting all my flights there, a form of bureaucracy that I find fun, educational, and inspiring.
Also my gliding playlist is on my personal YouTube.
Flying paragliders in the mountains 
Nick, I have to say, I envy you a bit. You can fly a glider since you have the use of your hands and can transfer. I was also a glider pilot, hang glider pilot, ultralight pilot, airplane pilot, and paraglider pilot, but after an accident with my paraglider I’m now living with C4 quadriplegia and cannot even hold a stick! Still, I have been up for dual flights in a duo discus several times since my injury a dozen years ago. It’s still wonderful to get up above the mountains and fly around at cloud base.