About Us

Flybubble is a BHPA approved paragliding school offering first-rate paragliding courses, tandem flights and trips for all levels run by highly experienced Chief Flying Instructor and winning British team pilot Carlo Borsattino and the Flybubble team.

Carlo is Flybubble Paragliding's British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (BHPA) Chief Flying Instructor (CFI). He is also the main Flybubble Paragliding trip organiser and fly-guide, and has run countless paragliding thermaling and cross country flying trips, and SIV courses, for paraglider pilots in diverse countries such as: Argentina; Brazil; Chile; Croatia; France; Greece; Namibia; Peru; South Africa; Spain; Turkey; and the UK. Flying paragliders full-time since the early 90's, Carlo has amassed over 5000 hours of airtime, flown at more than 600 sites, in 33 different countries* across six continents (Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North and South America).

Over the years Carlo has flown countless different makes and models of paraglider, from school wings to competition prototypes, over all kinds of terrain (flatlands, hills, big mountains), in all manner of conditions, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous! As well as 'hill launching' (flying from hills and mountains) Carlo has extensive experience at tow launching (using a winch to get you into the air, then releasing from the tow line), and paramotoring (A.K.A. "Powered Paragliding" or "PPG").

Carlo has been a licensed BHPA Senior Paragliding Instructor and BHPA Dual Paraglider Rated since the early 90's. He has instructed at many different schools in the UK (e.g. Sussex Paragliding, Airworks Paragliding Centre, Paramania) and worldwide. Over the years, Carlo has helped teach literally hundreds of people to paraglide around the world, and has had occasion to work with many different instructors and school owners, many of whom had very different ideas on how to teach paragliding! This was a fantastic opportunity to observe and learn from all of these instructors and schools - and their students - and gain from the years of invaluable experience that came with it.

As well as being an extremely enthusiastic free-flying pilot, Carlo has also been a succesful competition pilot over the years. He has extensive experience of competition flying worldwide. To date he has taken part in over 90 major international paragliding competitions, and has represented Britain in many top level paragliding events.
Amongst many other great past achievements, Carlo won the Manilla Paragliding Open in Australia in 1998, was Argentine Paragliding Champion in 1998/99, won the Serial Class in the 1999 Nordic Paragliding Open, held at Kossen in Austria, won the Serial Class at the 1999 X-Cerea Paragliding Open, held at Quixada in Brazil, was 2nd Overall (top British pilot) in the British Paragliding Open, held at Piedrahita in Spain, ranked 2nd Overall in the British Paragliding Championships 2001 (the last time he competed in the series), was selected for the elite British Paragliding Squad for 4 years running (1999-2002), was British Paragliding Squad Team Mentor for the Paragliding World Cup in Mexico Jan 2002, and finished 2nd Overall in the 2004 British Paragliding Cup series.

Carlo was selected by the British Paragliding Competitions Panel for the 2004 British Paragliding Team, to represent Britain in the Bleriot Cup (see picture right). As well as being on the winning team, he won the paragliding competition overall, whilst at the same time setting a new UK 'Declared Distance to Goal' Record.
Nowadays Carlo is far too busy with helping others learn to paraglide and become better, safer pilots to be able to take part in paragliding competitions, and anyway he prefers to free-fly and go cross country whenever he can find the time - working nights to catch up!

*The countries Carlo has flown in so far are: Argentina; Australia; Austria; Brazil; Chile; Croatia; Dominican Republic; England; Egypt; France; Germany; Greece; Israel; India; Italy; Jamaica; Jordan; Lesotho; Mexico; Morocco; Namibia; Portugal; Peru; Scotland; Slovenia; South Africa; Spain; Swaziland; Switzerland; Turkey; USA; Wales; and Zimbabwe.

Greg has been an active paraglider pilot since 1992. He qualified as an instructor in 1994 in South Africa and ran a busy school before moving to the UK and qualifying as a BHPA instructor in 1997, where he worked with Carlo before leaving to compete on the Paragliding World Cup circuit. He has 2000 hours airtime and has flown over 100 different wings in the course of writing reviews for paragliding magazines.

In 1998 Greg ran his own school in South Africa, specialising in extreme manoeuvre training and cross country courses. In recent years he has focused on training potential tandem pilots as they learn how to pilot the larger tandem gliders.
Greg enjoys cross country flying and has flown a personal best of 255km from De Aar in South Africa. He was ranked 17th on the Leonardo world cross country rankings for 2007.
Greg is an author and has written a paragliding novel about freedom (Beyond The Invisible) and a paragliding guidebook for South Africa (The Fresh Air Site Guide) which has been translated into German.

Greg has also scripted and performed in the TV production Fresh Air Riders, a film about a paraglider and a hang-glider who go on an adventure together. His latest production, The Journey is available on DVD - it follows the journey of a lone pilot who flies over the mountains in search of freedom.
Greg returned to the UK in 2008 and looked for an outstanding paragliding school to team up with, which naturally led him to Carlo and Flybubble Paragliding. He looks forward to working under a sunny sky and inspiring students to fly!

Nancy started her illustrious career as a paraglider pilot and instructor when she enrolled on a paragliding course in May 2001, learning the 'ropes' (or should that be 'strings'?) flying over the South Downs hills near Brighton and 'quali-flying' a year later. Since then she has never looked back, and has got the paragliding bug BIG TIME! Nancy soon moved away from "The Big Smoke" to come and live in Sussex so she could spend as much time as possible being involved in, and progressing with, her flying!

As well as paragliding as often as she can from the beautiful rolling South Downs hills in Sussex, Nancy has travelled far and wide to sample the aerial delights other places have to offer. So far Nancy has managed to fly from such superb locations as...

The South Downs, East Sussex and West Sussex, England; Thames Valley area, Marlborough and Berkshire Downs, England; Avon area in Gloucestershire, Bristol, Wiltshire, Somerset, England; The Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, England; The Long Mynd, Shropshire, England; The Peak District, England; The Lake District, England; South, Mid and North Wales; The Scottish Borders, Scotland; Fort William, Scotland; Piedrahita, Spain; Andalucia, Spain; the Serra de Estrela mountains, Portugal; Governador Valadares, Brazil; North West Province, South Africa; Garden Route, Western Cape, South Africa; Dominican Republic; Mount Olympus area in northern Greece; Kamshet and Panchgani, India; Baba Dag, near Oludeniz in Turkey; Morocco, Tenerife and the French Alps. Where will she go next?...

In addition to being Flybubble Paragliding's General Manager, and all-round multi-talented super-organiser extraordinaire, Nancy is BHPA Paraglider Advanced Pilot Rated, the highest rating achievable in the BHPA Pilot Rating System, and an excellent BHPA Paragliding Instructor. She is also one of the fly-guides for our Flybubble paragliding trips and advanced courses, and an enthusiastic Club Coach for the local Southern Hang Gliding & Paragliding Club.

We pride ourselves on giving the best solo pilot training, but to do this means we must have small groups. To help with the increasing demand for our style of intensive schooling, we've got a new trainee instructor on the team!

A big welcome to Simon Steel, who has years of experience flying the South Downs. He can usually be seen right out in front of Caburn or Devil's Dyke, circling high up... 

Well, we've called Simon down from the sky to pass on some of his wisdom to the new generation of paraglider pilots! He's completed his Air Experience Instructor (AEI) tandem pilot rating with us, so is now ready to take paragliding students up with him.

Simon is BHPA Advanced Pilot rated, and already has well over 1000 hours of airtime on paragliders. Much more than this, he is the kind of individual that clearly takes great pride in being the best paraglider pilot that he possibly can be, and makes every effort to properly understand all of the different elements that come together to make paragliding the amazingly wonderful and eternally challenging activity that it is.

We are very happy to have Simon on the Flybubble team, and feel sure that our students and pilots will benefit greatly from his instruction!