Club communication

In the early days of flying in the Dales a note stuffed in the dry stone wall at the bottom of Windbank was used to tell people “where it was at” for the day.  More recently, a shoutbox on the home page of the website was used to post quick messages on where you were going.  This was removed in May 2020 as more functional and mobile apps took over.

1. Routine Communication

With the plethora of potential communication channels available now, unless it is tightly managed, key club information could easily become fragmented and difficult for members to keep track of.  We therefore take the approach below.

“Formal” club communication

Website – Flying Plans WhatsApp Group – Telegram Chat Group – Telegram XC Retrieve Group – Facebook page -  Skywords

1.1 www.dhpc.org.uk

The website www.DHPC.org.uk is the authoritative source of information about the club. All club announcements, significant news stories and updates, releases of the club magazine Skywords etc will be on the website. 

Public Information

Accurate site status, club contact details, how to join, how to learn to fly, instructions for visiting pilots and other potentially useful public information, such as safety information, links to other sites etc are on the publicly accessible area of the website. 

Members’ Forum

Members also have access to the forum, where they can share detailed flying reports, photos/videos, detailed chat about flying plans, and general information.  This area also includes safety reports, details of club meetings etc.  There is also now a user friendly members’ Google Drive (GD) where hi res photos can be uploaded, organised by flying site.  Access can be requested by emailing Turn on JavaScript!, quoting your name and BHPA number.  There is also a DHPC YouTube page for your videos.

Keeping up to date with what is going on on the forum can be made easy by subscribing to notifications of new posts in the forum. To do this, go to the forum, click on the area you are interested in (eg General Discussions / Site Issues, etc) scroll to the bottom of the first page, and UNTICK Subscribe forum – the button will change to say “unsubscribe forum”. You can check which tabs you are subscribed to by checking your user control panel, accessed by clicking your username at the top right of the forum screen.  Once subscribed you will receive e-mail notifications of new posts for that area of the forum.

We are investigating adding "push notification" functionality to the public area of the website, so that you can subscribe to news updates, or any other of the public tabs.  Until this is available, you could use a website monitoring tool such as changetower.com, https://visualping.io/ or follow that page.com.  These can be configured to notifiy you by email of changes to specific web pages - such as https://www.dhpc.org.uk/news

 1.2 Dales Flying Plans WhatsApp Group

What is it for?
“Dales Flying Plans” is a place for DHPC members and visiting pilots to help decide where and when to fly in the Dales and beyond. It is intended as a place to share your thoughts, plans and site reports in order to help meet up with other pilots and get the best out of any free flying opportunities that arise.  Information that is likely to be of longer term interest should always be put on the forum, to avoid repeatedly answering the same question on a short term chat group.

Who is it for?
The group is intended for people who have attained at least a Club Pilot or equivalent rating, for either paragliding or hang gliding. All DHPC members are invited to join and contribute. The group is open to all BHPA members, as well as suitably-qualified and insured visiting pilots, including those from overseas.

Joining and leaving
If you’d like to join the group please email your request to the DHPC Membership Secretary at Turn on JavaScript! . As it’s a WhatsApp group you’ll need to be a WhatsApp user and provide your mobile number. If you’re not a DHPC member please also tell us your BHPA membership number and which club you are from. For overseas pilots we’ll ask for your qualification – we are a BHPA recreational club and you may find the information provided at www.bhpa.co.uk/sport/bhpa/visiting_pilots.php useful.

Bear in mind that joining the WhatsApp group does not necessarily give you permission to fly at all DHPC sites. Please respect our site rules. All pilots should have third party insurance cover (included as part of BHPA membership) to fly at any or our sites. Landowners and your fellow pilots expect you to hold suitable (£5M) third party liability cover. Also as part of our negotiations with landowners a small number of our sites are designated as members-only. The latest information about our sites can always be found at www.dhpc.org.uk/site-guide .

It’s a fairly large group and can be quite active on and around good flying days. If the number of notifications bothers you remember that you can temporarily or permanently mute them in WhatsApp if you like. But if you decide to leave the group you can do so at any time – we’ll be sorry to see you go!

Posting and content
Experienced and novice pilots alike use this group to share thoughts and opinions about weather conditions and suitable flying sites, and to post site reports in “real-time”. Low airtime pilots and those new to the area may find the group useful to help with the process of meeting other pilots and choosing where to go flying. We aim to provide a friendly and supportive environment and encourage everyone to “have a go” and offer your own thoughts and suggestions rather than wait for someone else to tell you – it’ll help build your experience much more quickly, and you’ll find others more inclined to offer their advice and opinion if you do so.

It's quite a large group so it’s important not to stray off topic. For DHPC members the forum on our website is more suitable for in-depth discussion and analysis before and after flying, and other topics not directly related to going flying. Photos or screen-shots can be useful, for example to illustrate weather forecasts or site reports but people won’t necessarily thank you for posting lots of hi-resolution images, or video clips.

We do moderate the group and while we like to cut people a bit of slack please keep the banter to a minimum, it can easily get out of hand (the Telegram Chat group, below, is the place for banter and free ranging discussions)! Abusive or offensive posts will not be tolerated and moderators reserve the right to remove offenders from the group without notice.

It is possible that some important club announcements on the website will sometimes be linked from this group – but it should not be used as your source of all important information, as this is not its function.

1.3 DHPC Telegram Chat Group

As of Feb 2024, the club adopted the Telegram Chat group as a formal club group. This group, also open to non members, is for general chats about anything other than flying plans. You can request access to the group by supplying your name and mobile number to either Turn on JavaScript!, or Turn on JavaScript!, or by getting a mate to vouch for you and ask one of the admins to add you. Standard rules apply regarding behaviour (abuse, hate, praising anything Lancashire related etc) and moderators will bar anyone deemed to be transgressing these boundaries.  As with the WA Flying Plans group this group is for short term information, anything of longer term interest should be put on the forum on the website.

This group will from time to time be used to promulgate formal club information, usually via links to the website, but probably not in every instance.

Please note that membership of this group does not constitute club membership, or grant access to members only flying sites, it is simply a chat group for all Dales’ flying related chat for all parties with an interest.

1.4 DHPC Telegram XC Retrieve group.

For pilots going XC we have a Telegram group set up within the national XC retrieve system (XCRT.aero).  This enables you to drop a pin with your location when you land out and say where you are trying to get back to.  Again, this is open to non members.  A key aspect of the system is that, if used properly, all pins will appear on the same map, making multiple retrieves easier.  Instructions, and access to the group can be found through https://flyaszent.com/xc-retrieve/. Again, important club announcements on the website will sometimes be linked from this group – but it should not be used as your source of all important information, as this is not its function.

1.5 DHPC Facebook page

You can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/DalesHangGlidingParaglidingClub/ .  This page is a social media presence for the club and is primarily used to signpost important announcements on the club’s website. Again though, it will NOT signpost ALL the information on the website.

1.6 Skywords

The Club also produces a monthly magazine - "Skywords", which is available in the library on the website. As a member you should receive an email notifying you with a link to each new edition. You are encouraged to provide articles to the magazine if you have had a particularly good trip somewhere – home or abroad, or if you have photos, anecdotes etc that you think the paragliding community would enjoy.  You can contact the editor at Turn on JavaScript!

Informal groups

1.7 Flying Buddy groups

In addition to the “formal” club groups above, there are a number of smaller “flying buddy” groups set up by members that use telegram or WA. As you develop your own networks and buddies within the club and outside you may naturally join these groups, or indeed may form your own.  The club has no control over these groups, and the channels detailed above will remain the sources of all club information.

1.8 Phone/Wifi/Radio communication

Mobile phone coverage once you are out and about can still patchy in the Dales. https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage will give you some comparative information on coverage and reliability of the network providers. Our southern sites generally have good coverage on most networks. There are free-to-use WiFi hotspots available for customers at pubs and cafés throughout the Dales. For the price of a pint of beer (after flying!)  or a cup of tea and a cake you can browse all you like.

Pilots with 2m band radios are encouraged to use 143.850MHz when flying in the Dales.

2. Emergency Communication

Contrary to some reports, 999 and 112 emergency phone numbers both do the same thing and both work just as well in the UK.

The Emergency SMS service is designed to allow deaf people to text 999, but it could be very useful to us where mobile reception is patchy. You have to register first but it’s very easy - just text 'register' to 999 and wait for the text reply.

 

1 Feb 2024