The Paragliding Team

Rob Mansley

Chief Flying Instructor, Tandem Pilot, Senior Instructor and Paramotor Instructor

Rob having learnt to fly and cut his teeth in Mid Wales and has taught full time for over 15 years and flown for over 19 years. Being a keen XC pilot he has travelled with his glider far and wide. His teaching has taken him across the world from Mexico to the East coast of Australia, New Zealand, Greece and Turkey  Colombia, Africa and Worldwide. Here´s a quick cheeky snippet one of his students took during an Beginners paragliding week out in Spain whilst drumming out some pre flight nerves!

Russell Hesketh-Roberts

Senior Instructor, Tandem Pilot, Paramotor Instructor

Russ having learnt to fly In Sussex over 9 years ago, having flown around Devon, Dorset, Bristol and the South Downs, Russ has given up a successful carreer in the fire service to give something back into the sport. Russ is a top instructor and a top notch pilot, in the last couple of years he´s effortlessly picked up teaching pataragliding and paramotoring. He´s turning into a  keen XC pilot and has travelled out with us to both South Africa and Colombia.  He works with us full time here in Spain is happily married with 2 dogs and a recently aquired kitten

Marcus Payne

 Paramotor & Paragliding Instructor and Guide

Marcus is the latest Instrucotor to join us, Marcus is an incredibly trustworthy and enthusiastic Guy. His enthusiams for all types of flying has eventually led him down the road of wanting to pass on that information to others. A generous and honest  a fellow you'll never meet and the sort of concrete chap we all value having around.

Over the last ten years he´s flown all over the world from Brazil to Nepal, India, South Africa.  Extensive European flying guiding in Slovenia, Turkey, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Germany, and now Spain.

 You´ll meet Marcus on our paragliding Training courses and occasionally on our  paramotor courses and holidays. 

Tony Conway

Instructor , Tandem and Paramotor Pilot

A pilot of 15 years, he´s flown extensively in his home area of Northern Ireland,Slovenia, France, Morroco, Columbia and Bulgaria as well as been a regular competition pilot. A instructor for 2 years already with us Tony is always centre of the party, his enthusiasm for the sport comes through, if you don´t get the idea that flying is for fun then there´s no hope.  With a passion for all things paragliding you´ll most likely meet Tony either on our Paramotor courses as well as helping out on paragliding  tuition and guided holidays here in Spain

Ross Trevellan

Instructor, Guide and Tandem Pilot

Ross is a fairly new instructor to our group. He´s been with us three years and has made quiet an impression, not just for being a solid and quietly confident coach and instructor on our paragliding courses but also being a demon table tennis and badminton player. Theres not much Ross hasn´t tried, a high level competition downhill skater in his time. Top chief and snowboarder...the more we see of Ross the more surpises we see...obsessed by anything acro we look forward to him making a splash with the pilotage courses we run here 

Jimmy Piper

Instructor, Tandem Pilot & FlySpain sponsored Competition pilot

Gentleman Jim has been flying 8 years and he's made a great impact with everyone he has taught. If there any flaws then they are ours as Jimmy is a FlySpain homeboy, having learnt here originally with us he has gone on to be an excellent XC pilot and very good coach.

This year Jimmy competes again in the British Open - we expect good results as last year he placed 5th in his first comp on a no frills serial class glider.  This years he´s already made personal bests of 120 & 150 k xc flights in the UK. He´s a natural pilot and a brilliant instructor and you´ll see him flying his FlySpain Mantra 6

Nicola Mansley

AKA the Boss

Nic has been flying for over 8 years. As well as being a natural pilot, instructor and ex-motorbike champion, she is the hub of our operation and generally your first point of contact with Fly Spain. Any advice sought re:accommodation or bookings, then Nic has her finger firmly on the pulse.

Niall Harvey

Instructor, Tandem Pilot, Acros natural and SIV Instructor

A pilot for 12 years and with us for two. He´s a natural pilot and a likable Instructor and a brilliant member of our team. Niall has spent the last few years in Nepal as a Tandem pilot and coach, the high mountians of the HImalayas is where he´s done the majority of his flying although ironically he´s well known in Jersey for his flying and coaching style having lived there on and off for ten years. With a passion for all things paragliding he will be organising our  Pilotage & S.I.V. training as well as helping out on paragliding  tuition and guided holidays here in Spain

Ric Womersley

 Paramotor & Paragliding Instructor

Ric is a top level paramotor pilot, having been flying paragliders since he was 14 in the North of England, paramotoring since he was 16  he has now competed on the medal-winning British Team at the World Championships 2012,and coming in the top 5 in the British Nationals, for the past 3 years in a row.  This years has seen him win the British paramotor championships on his Parajet unit. He is mellow, patient and always happy, all of which make him a popular and excellent instructor on our paramotor courses and holidays.  He is regularly seen taking to the air once the teaching is over for the day.  He is always great to watch in the air - a master of paramotoring.

Stu Kelly

Paragliding Coach & T.I

Stu is from South Wales, you can tell, he´s patient, friendly, relaxed and likes a pint! He qualified with us some six years ago and has turned his hand to as many aspects of flying as possible, from Paramotoring , Speed flying and Mini wings to paragliders. Since qualifying he´s a regular pilot around his home patch of the  South Wales and is makinghis mark here in Spain, he's a talented pilot with a natural gift for thermalling. Stu also manages our Airport transfers as well as our Xc retrieves, he´s a keen and talented pilot and a real asset to us both as an instructor and a coach during the guided weeks.

Sue

Coordinator

Next to Nic, Sue is our right hand girl, help with booking or complicated arrivals and accomodation comes down to Sue, she coordinates all extra curricular flying trips over winter as well as makes sure the behind the scenes dirty work gets neatly and efficeintly solved and sorted. When not working for us she runs here own Walking tours around Andalucia.

Fred Gustaffesson

Guide and Tandem pilot

A top flight pilot with years of Xc experience.He´s worked with Crosscountry magazine taking photos, writing articles and testing gliders for their magazines and books competed in Xc races in Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, Norway, France and La Palma. 

Having flown lots of acro, nowadays  he prefers minigliders when playing around! XC is his favorite type of flying. He´s a great recent addition to our team of pilots as both Guide and instructor. 

Sam Kahuna

Instructor and guide

Sam,  is our latest addition to the FlySpain team, he comes from a background of instructing already and its easy to see. He spends winter with helping us with all aspects of the paragliding School and guiding. He started his flying in Cornwall some 6 plus years ago and he's flown the length and breadth of Britain. He's a great pilot and hugely entertaning on the Kareoke(we only allow him Stevie wonder moments once a month)