RGP’s Dave Matthews gears up for the 2016 Hang Gliding European Championships in Macedonia!
Dave grew up in Eastbourne on the south coast of England near Beachy Head cliffs and used to watch the early hang gliders jumping off thinking it looked a lot of fun. After going to University in Brighton to study Architecture he decided to have a go and in 1988 took his first flight!
He learnt to fly on the south downs when it was really just about having fun and getting as much airtime as possible. He joined the British League in 1994 but didn’t get any good results until 2003 when he was runner-up in his first ‘Litespeed’ glider.
This glider really changed his flying, it was a lot of fun to fly and gave him the confidence to know he could keep up with the good pilots. He bought the glider from Simon Murphy who has looked after him ever since. This year Simon re-built his current Litespeed after it was involved in a accident. Dave’s neighbour took out half his garage and some of the glider after she lost control of her 4 litre Jag. Simon did a great repair job and it now fly’s better than it did before.
Dave’s had some great results so far:
- 2011 British Open Series Champion
- 2010 British National Champion
- 2009 British Open Champion
- 2007 British Open Series Champion
- 2007 US Nationals Champion
Member of the 2007 winning British Team in the Worlds, Texas, USA. 16th individual.
As for what’s next? He’s currently planning to compete in the European Championships in Macedonia in Summer 2016 and Brasilia World Championships in 2017.
RGP has quite a few high fliers, and Dave is certainly one of them, in more ways than one!
