About me

I am Simon Murphy, the namesake and proprietor of the Flying Circus. You are probably wondering how such a good-looking lad finds himself in this predicament - the resident clown in what can only be described as a Circus. It's a long, long story, but after school I went to work in the City of London, whilst trying to make the grade as a racing driver. It didn't take long to decide to devote my life to trying to enjoy myself whilst somehow scraping a living together.

In Karting I won enough races and championships to be offered a drive in a team racing single seater cars, but there was never a good enough budget to bring success, and I lacked the exceptional ability required to make up for shortcomings in the equipment. I was subsequently offered a dream drive in one of the UK's best karting teams for 1976, it was too late - other things had attracted my attention.....

Totally engrossed in the exciting new sport of hang gliding, I was selling flying kit within months of getting involved. Everything else went out of the window as sales blossomed, and eventually my various other business interests were dropped in favour of trying to earn a meagre income from Free Flight. Financially this was a very foolish move, but it is one I don't regret. Much.

I fly both hang gliders and paragliders, but my best days are behind me and I now fly just for pleasure, and business. I'm probably more at home with some rigid tubes inside my sails. I actually flew for Great Britain on a couple of occasions, but more as a result of being in the right places at the right times than as a result of having any special skills. However, since I have held the local XC record continuously for almost 26 years, I guess I can still hold my head high!

My ideal is to be drifting off XC, but the reality is that I just love to have a pleasant flight, whether it is on a Litespeed, Raven, Malibu or Freedom.