The inaugural meeting of the Cumbria Hang Gliding Club was held at the Globe Hotel, Cockermouth on the 9th January 1975. For at least twelve months prior to this there had been some rudimentary attempts at flight. Father and son team, Roy and Dennis Richards from Workington had been striving to coax their home built glider into the air since late 1973. Meanwhile independently Dave Weeks from Keswick was attempting the same a few months behind them. Dave's attempts suffered a set back however when he became the first reported hang-gliding accident. The Keswick Mountain Rescue Team Report for 1974 states: "...a crosswind forced his triangular gliding frame into the hillside" (13/4/74). The result was a broken thigh.

During his enforced idleness Dave decided to advertise in the West Cumberland Times and Star to see if anyone else was interested. The outcome, in December 1974, was a meeting at the Ship Inn, Harrington. Those present included Martin Fortune, Bill Short and his sons, Eric and Doug, Roy Corbet and of course Dennis and Roy Richards (Roy is remembered as a VERY quiet lad in those days). Last to arrive was Dave, a stranger to all those present but easily identified by a considerable coverage of plaster! The humour of the situation was not lost and the club almost began life as the "Broken Leg Club".

At this time the longest flight was measured in seconds rather than minutes. Neither Dave Weeks nor the Richards on their early Skyhook had met with much success. Dennis Richards is noted as saying that, "...there isn't a hill steep enough to get airborne from!". They were soon joined by the Short trio who acquired a CB 240 (Curved Boom - 240sq. feet), which seemed a great step forward at the time.

Following the formation of the Club (subscription £3 for flying and £1 for non flying - the Club had to take out its own 3rd Party insurance in those days and this was quite costly) flying got seriously underway.

The first organised meet took place at Bewaldeth, with the CB 240 quickly showing its potential with a flight of 25 seconds from two thirds of the way up the hill. Within weeks this was eclipsed by Martin Fortune who managed a whole six minutes on his new Argus 216. This record was short lived in more ways than one when an hour later Eric Short raised it to 15 minutes, then as the wind picked up, brother Doug made the first, unplanned top landing. So ended an eventful day. By the end of the year everyone had made flights of over an hour and endurance flights were given up. Top landings retained their mystique for a little longer.

Experience and confidence gained on the smaller hills soon led to attention being turned to the high mountains. One of the early highlights was a flight from the summit of Fleetwith Pike down to Buttermere. So impressed were they by the experience that the following evening Martin Fortune, Dave Weeks, Eric Hindmarch and Roy Richards flew from the summit of Skiddaw. The descent took a mere 6 minutes! Only some weeks later, and not without some annoyance, did they discover that Ken Messenger had "pirated" the same flight just ahead of them - local pride was wounded.

Slowly the number of sites grew. Overlooking Keswick, Latrigg enjoyed a burst of popularity, landings being made on the as yet unopened Keswick by­pass. One such landing, captured embarrassingly on cine film witnessed the neat removal of the rear part of Eric Hindmarsh's trousers on a barbed arrestor wire strung inconsiderately across the road by contractors. The black coal slides at Lowca, on the coast, still exerted a strong pull despite their unappealing nature. The growing popularity of the sport was brought home by a mass flight of thirteen gliders from Skiddaw. So ended the long, hot summer of 1976 described in the Secretary's Report as, ".... the year of the mountains, but also for some reflection". The last point alluding to the tragic death of one of the Club's founder members on Binsey.

The New Year began badly when Eric Short had a crash whilst learning to fly prone but with time he went on to make a full recovery. This salutary reminder of the risks of the sport caused others to take stock and approach the summer with added caution. Membership now stood at just over twenty and the performance of the new second-generation gliders was viewed as remarkable. A comment from the 1977 report sums it up admirably: "... To take off half­way up a mountain, go over the top, soar to 500' then to 1000' above the summit and fly downwind to land six or seven miles away; this is really something."