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Murray's Information/Biography

I have been running a commercial photography business in Scotland for over 20 years and when not indulging in my passion for both flying and teaching paragliding

 I put a lot of my energy into writing articles on safety and 'tech stuff' for  Sam Gaylord's 'Paraglider Magazine' as well as this, most Tuesdays (including sometimes when the flying would be good!) I try to support the Paragliding Show by joining the talk and discussion, specializing on safety and technical matters.

 With a background in wind sports (sailing etc.) as well as science combined with a lifelong innovative approach to problems solving has all lead me to into providing the information to the paragliding community which is very gradually leading to a large number of the common held beliefs in freeflight being re-evaluated world wide as they simply do not hold up to examination unfortunately for the safety of new pilots there is very vocal opposition to any questioning and improvement in training & theory used in paragliding, the result of which is those with a poor accident rate attack those with a far better safety record!

 The personal results of applying science to paragliding is seen in me flying about 300 hours each year when most pilots fly about 10 in the UK. Those training with PPC usually reach the same average flying hours of the BPHA coaches at a large Scottish club (25 hours p/a) within their first six months to a year! Long term most of our members aim to be logging 100 hours by the end of their second year. 

 Well know for flying (yes we do get warm days in Scotland) while wearing the kilt as well as more normal flying suits, I fly the only paragliders in the UK (the world?) with national aircraft registrations! This includes the worlds first Dual Control Tandem Paraglider G-BZJI a modified Nova X-Large 37.

 Unlike the rest of the UK paragliding we only use legal fully licensed radios, this opens up airspace to us others may not fly in and reflects our whole approach of treating paragliding as a proper branch of aviation.

 Born in Kenya I have spent most of my life in Scotland and started getting involved in wind sports by skippering my own boat (a 16ft Wayfarer) by the age of 11, coming 3rd (in class) in my first regatta back in the early seventies. During school days Dux awards in most of the engineering and science subjects combined with sports to give a running start into paragliding which I taught myself a the end of the 90's reaching 100 hours accident free airtime in just over my first year. Living about an hour drive from Glenshee ski area paragliding fits well with extreme skiing when we get lucky with the winter weather.

 I am a member of the BHPC (in the UK) and USGHA and have flown over 1,500 hours since 1998, in 2003 I totaled 332 hours airtime. Precision Paragliding Club was set up to cater for the training needs of those in the UK, especially Scotland who wish to brake the cycle of identical accidents seen in paragliding by approaching the sport as a grown up branch of aviation not an extreme sport!

 In late 2003 I launched ESPclub along with Duncan Booth from Aberdeen to provide a more social flying club (no training) for those who have attained their CP ratings (CP = Club pilot, roughly the same as the American P3 rating) and wish to fly with other high standard pilots for fun & safety and live in East Scotland.

Readers of the magazine hit this link to go to the support pages to read on-line the technical articles written by Murray 'fotoglider' Hay along with extra supporting information, video clips and photographs/illustrations and updates.

(When asked just enter the password and user name which will be printed in the summer 2004 edition of the magazine, current subscribers wishing access contact murray)

If you know the article you are looking for more information on use the link bar at the side of this page to jump to summery page and choose the one you wish more info on (user/password still needed) any problems just email/phone murray.

On-line MSN Messenger support available for all your paragliding questions.