Mahony Aviation - About Us

“Paul Mahony – CFI of Mahony Aviation”

Paul Mahony – CFI of Mahony Aviation

From a very tender pre-school age whilst playing in his back garden, Paul had long gazed skywards at the Royal Navy’s trainee pilots doing circuits at Roborough Aerodrome in their little Gypsy Moths and Chipmunks and marveled at the spectacle. The ‘flying bug’ was probably sown there and then but it was a long time germinating! Paul eventually began his aviation career learning to fly paragliders in 1989 after stumbling across some intrepid aviators flying these wonderful machines high on Hay Bluff outside Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh / English border. He immediately signed up for a training course with Paraglide International belonging to the late Dave Hopkins and gained his British Hangliding and Paragliding Association (BHPA) Club Pilot rating 12 months later. The very first paraglider Paul actually owned was a Harley Typhoon which, he maintains, taught him all he knows about ‘active flying’!

After a successful career as an electrician and plumber in Plymouth, Paul then decided on a complete career change at the age of 31 and gained a Queen’s Commission in the RAF in 1990 flying his Harley Typhoon wing wherever he happened to be posted in the UK. Whilst serving in the RAF and as a member of the Royal Air Force Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association (RAFHPA), Paul took part in many foreign paragliding expeditions and completed a number of training courses culminating in attaining his BHPA Pilot and Advanced Pilot ratings.

In 1996, during a posting to the flatlands of N. Germany, Paul taught himself how to paramotor and spent many hours flying (and repairing!!) his Adventure F3 paramotor. Meanwhile, he also had become a paragliding Trainee Instructor for the Joint Services Alpine Hang Gliding & Paragliding Centre in Bavaria and eventually succeeded in passing his BHPA Paraglider Instructor assessment in 1999.

Over the years, Paul has also competed in many paragliding competitions including 9 Combined Services Alpine Paragliding Championships resulting in 5 wins and 4 runner-up positions in the premier Open Class. He was also the RAF Open Class Paragliding Champion and Team leader for a number of years. As recently as 2008, he participated in the Ozone Challenge in Laragne and came a respectable 22nd out of 120 pilots free-flying an Ozone Roadster paramotor wing.

Even when flying just for fun, Paul has been equally ambitious. In May 2005 he took off alone under his Firebird Hornet SP paraglider from a site in Germany, flew across the Austrian Alps, through Switzerland before landing in Vils, Italy – in just under 4 hours – a distance of over 120 kms across some of the most inhospitable terrain in Europe! See: http://www.paramotorsuk.co.uk/articles/article_44.asp

Paul has embraced paramotoring wholeheartedly seeing it as yet another method of getting his feet off the ground and maximising the use of his paraglider without having to travel great lengths to get to the hills from RAF bases in East Anglia. In 2001, on a tour with a group of paramotorists from around the world, Paul and one of his best friends, Paul Bailey, flew their prototype Bailey JPX 320 machines all around the Malayan Peninsula with the highlight being a flight between the two tallest buildings in the world; the Twin Petronas Towers. A superb DVD – Colonel Basir’s Flying Circus – was made of this epic adventure. Not content with that and to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, Paul piloted his paramotor across the English Channel unaided – one of only a handful of pilots ever to do this.
See: http://www.paramotorsuk.co.uk/articles/article_34.asp

He has also competed at UK National and World Championship levels in paramotoring competitions and was the GB Team Leader at the 2007 World Paramotor Championships in China leading the team to a highly commendable silver medal position.

More recently, Paul has assisted the BHPA’s Senior Technical Officer, Mark Dale, in re-writing the BHPA Self Propelled Hang Glider (SPHG) flat-from-scratch syllabus & Pilot (Power) exam, has gained his Power Instructor endorsement, Senior Instructor license and was recently invited to join the BHPA’s Flight Safety Committee (FSC) as the Paramotoring Panel Member.

Paul enjoys all forms of flying and besides many zillions of hours in paragliding; he has amassed over 400 hours in sailplanes and holds a British Gliding Association instructor’s licence. He also has Private Pilots
Licence to fly aeroplanes, motor-gliders and recently gained his microlight instructor’s licence.

Now aged 52, Paul has retired from his career as an RAF Officer and is now the CFI of a BHPA Registered School teaching paragliding (hill & tow) and paramotoring. Paul also hires paramotors to experienced pilots as well as offering tandem flights, dual pilot training and taking groups of paraglider pilots abroad on guided trips to locations in France, Spain and Slovenia.

Besides flying, Paul also enjoys motorcycling, skiing and playing the guitar - badly!

Paul Mahony

CFI & BHPA Senior Instructor
BHPA FSC Paramotor Member