Airspace and the law

While your instructor picks every site and every flight, air law can feel like someone else’s problem. It becomes yours the first time a thermal carries you upwards and you wonder how high you may go, or when you plan a trip abroad.

Paragliders share the sky with other aircraft, and the law covers them too. The training systems take it seriously: SafePro expects an air-law test before Stage 3 is complete, and the BHPA Club Pilot exam includes rules-of-the-air questions you must get right¹².

Whose rules?

National air law always comes first; training bodies add their own rules on top³. In the US, paragliders fly under Part 103, the FAA rule for ultralight vehicles. The UK has the Air Navigation Order and its own version of SERA. In the EU, SERA sets common rules of the air, and each country adds its own⁴⁵⁶.

Airspace classes

Airspace is divided into classes lettered A to G, and each airspace class sets who may fly there and on what terms. Under SERA, Class A is for instrument flights only; B, C and D need a clearance from air traffic control and constant two-way radio contact; Class E allows visual flights without a clearance; F and G need no clearance¹¹. Without a clearance or an airband radio, a paraglider therefore stays in Class G or E (F where it exists), out of control zones and out of radio and transponder mandatory zones (RMZ, TMZ)¹¹. Some uncontrolled airspace has its own rules: a UK aerodrome traffic zone usually lies in Class G, yet you need permission to enter it. Check the chart for its size¹².

In the US, Part 103 bans flight in Class A, B, C or D airspace, or in the Class E surface area round an airport, without prior authorisation from air traffic control¹³. UK paragliders fly in Class G, between the ground and cloud base, by day¹⁴.

Figure: A generic slice through the airspace near an airport. The training hill sits in uncontrolled Class G, under controlled airspace whose base steps down towards the airport. Real classes, bases and boundaries vary by country: read them on a current chart.

Airspace has a floor as well as walls: the base of a control area above a site can cap how high you may climb. An aeronautical chart gives these heights above sea level, above the ground or as flight levels.

Before you fly a new site

While you train, your school checks the airspace for you. Once you fly without an instructor, the checks are yours¹⁵.

Visibility and cloud

Paragliders fly by visual flight rules only: you stay out of cloud and keep set minimums of visibility and distance from cloud¹⁴. In cloud you can see neither the ground nor other aircraft. Lift can also strengthen sharply under a big cumulus, enough to suck a paraglider into the cloud, so leave every climb well below cloud base¹⁷.

SERA’s table in the EU gives, at low level in Class F and G, 5 km~3 mi visibility, clear of cloud and with the surface in sight; the national authority may allow down to 1,500 m~0.9 mi for aircraft at 140 kt or less. Low level means at or below 900 m3,000 ft above sea level or 300 m1,000 ft above the terrain, whichever is higher. Above that, and in Classes B to E, you need 5 km~3 mi, and 1,500 m~4,900 ft horizontally and 300 m1,000 ft vertically from cloud; from 3,050 m10,000 ft up, the visibility rises to 8 km~5 mi¹⁸.

Figure: Choose where you fly, the airspace class and your height band. The hatched box round the cloud is the air you must stay out of, drawn to scale; the paraglider is not.

FAA Part 103 in brief

• Who: single-seat ultralight vehicles flown for sport or recreation, with no pilot certificate or registration; unpowered ones weigh less than ~70 kg155 lb⁴. Tandem instruction runs under an FAA exemption held by USHPA²³.
• Daylight: sunrise to sunset; the 30 min twilight periods only with an anticollision light and in uncontrolled airspace²⁴.
• Where not to fly: over congested areas or open-air crowds, or in any way that endangers people or property²⁴.
• Permission first: for prohibited and restricted areas; stay out of TFRs unless authorised¹³.
• Right of way and visibility: give way to all aircraft, and keep visual reference with the surface²⁵¹⁹.

The UK framework

• No licence or registration under the Air Navigation Order 2016; the CAA names the BHPA as the governing body⁵.
• Minimum heights: SERA bans flying below 150 m500 ft above the ground or obstacles within 150 m490 ft, and over towns or crowds below 305 m1,000 ft above the highest obstacle within 600 m1,950 ft. A CAA permission lets gliders, paragliders included, hill-soaring by day, away from towns and crowds, fly lower and closer to people and structures, though never recklessly²⁶.
• Take-off and landing: not inside a town (except at an aerodrome or with permission), or within 1,000 m3,300 ft of an open-air crowd of more than 1,000 people²⁶.
• Tow launches above 60 m~200 ft need CAA permission²⁷.
• NOTAMs before every flight; later, for cross-country flying, CANP and a current chart¹⁵.

Europe: SERA and national rules

SERA sets the rules of the air, but countries add their own, especially for visitors. Germany, for example, makes an IPPI card mandatory for foreign pilots, needs IPPI stage 4 to fly unsupervised, and asks for liability insurance; Switzerland lets non-residents make occasional flights with IPPI level IV or V⁶. The UK’s hill-soaring permission is a CAA one, so check the national rules before you soar a ridge low abroad²⁶³. In Europe the ridge and thermal rules are not legally binding, and the EHPU advises checking the national federation’s rules²⁸.