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Lejair: Tony and Rona Webb

Lejair, founded by chief instructors Tony and Rona Webb, was for many years Britain’s primary hang gliding school and it is still running in 2021. It operates in the flatlands of Norfolk and in Spain. Tony and Rona pioneered the use of winch launch training in Britain after learning the technique in the mid-1980s from Donnell Hewitt of Texas, among others.

In the photo by American hang gliding industry expert Dan Johnson visiting the UK, they are using the center of mass tow bridle technique as advocated by Donnell Hewitt.

Lejair also organizes hang gliding expeditions to places such as the Spanish Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa.

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Wendling field is one of the winch launching sites used by Lejair over the years. (See under External links later on this page for a link to the Wendling field Wiki entry.)

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In 2018, this author accompanied Gary Dear, then a trainee instructor with Lejair, to a back street printing press in Bournemouth on the coast of Dorset, England, where these leaflets were printed.

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We lost instructor John Burrell to cancer in 2010. Tony and Rona divorced some years ago, but they continued to work together. Rona visited me (with Gary D, who was training as an instructor) in my home town during my time of trouble in 2018. We went to the beach and I kept a pebble from that day. It sits on a cupboard in my room. Then in January 2020 came the news that shocked so many in British hang gliding: Rona had died at home in Spain.

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The loss of her quiet competence will be felt throughout the hang gliding world.

— BHPA magazine SkyWings, February 2020

Wendling air base

Half a century before Lejair used Wendling field for hang glider winch launching, it was a U.S. Army Air Force base.

USAAF personnel painted wall murals at RAF Wendling, Norfolk, England, in World War 2, from where they operated Consolidated B-24 heavy bombers on daylight missions over occupied Europe and Germany.

Related

Skyting in Hang gliding early 1980s part 2 for Donnell Hewitt of Texas and his center-of-mass bridle system for winch launching

World War 2 related topics menu

External links

Lejair hang gliding school

RAF Wendling Wikipedia entry

Rona Webb 1956-2020 in SkyWings (BHPA magazine) March 2020