460km ??

There is a rumour of a 460km flight from Copperton in South Africa in the last few days. If true one of the longest flights ever completed...watch this space

Update:

Essayez avec cette orthographe : French pilot Stephan flew 420 kms from Merridale, landing between Middelburg and Steynsberg. He is intent on coming back next year with a crew of Super Pilots and breaking Nevil Huletts 502km World Record.

Parapente Magazine 133

A bit of news from the competition! The Nova Mentor 2 has just been tested by Parapente Magazine and they have measured the glide at 9.5, and a min sink of 1.05m/s. Amazing performance for an EnB glider and almost as good as the Ozone Delta (EnC). So what does an EnD give you thats extra...the Gradient Avax XC3 had an extra 0.8 on the glide, 0.06m/s min sink, 1kph trim speed and 4kph top speed. 2011 should be a very exciting year with further advances in performance and stability.

Is this the new face of footlaunched paragliding in the flat lands?

Electric Ascent aids, the Charly Scott-E and the Skywalk E-Walk

and again!

with another 300km flight on the 23/11! Oly now has 4 flights in the top 10 of the 2011 season.

First 300km of the year from Quixada

Congratulations to Olympio Faissol who flew 300km on 18/11 on his R10.2.

Quixada time again!

Quixada providing consistent flying again with a season best so far of 280km. Also, the Western Cape in South Africa is 'going off' with some great flights by Legendry pilot Anthony Allen, back from a long sabatical. Conditions stayed good to the west during the last La Nina event.

Gradient Aspen 3 unofficial World Record

On 09th November, Mariano Vissania flew 341.8km from Aero Rufino in Argentina, a new unofficial World Record for the En C, LTF 2 Class. This beats Simon Headfords British (National) Record of 338.2 km flown from De Aar in South Africa and is currently the longest flight of the season.

La Nina forecast to be strongest since 1955/56

UK Paragliding XC League 2010

Congratulations to all participants in this years Paragliding National XC League for making it another record year. Again, in terms of total KM flown, the top three pilots would have won any previous year.

The League was won by Richard Westgate (Gradient XC3) with 837.5km, the highest total KM ever accumulated (an average of almost 140km per flight!). This is Richard's third XC League win and his second in 3 years. The end of the season battle is summarised here.

Mark Jones on his Avax XC2 was 10th with 623.0km (and 2nd in the Serial Class) and in the top 50, 16th Philip Wallbank (3rd Serial Class) 552.1km, 24th Jon Collie 474.7km, 26th Julian Robinson 465.9km, 27th Ian Miskin 464.0km, 28th Burkitt Rudd 458.1km, 29th Graham Richards 449.4km, 30th David Thomson 432.0km, 41st Martin Nichols 344.7km, 48th Gary Puhl 324.8km.

Gradient did well at Club level again with the following podium places:


Avon League: Graham Richards, Aspen 3, 1st; Martin Nichols, Aspen 3, 2nd
Condors League: Simon Fouracre, Aspen 3, 3rd
Cumbrian League: Burkitt Rudd Avax 1st
Dover League: Tim Pike, Avax XC2, 2nd
Gap League: Mark Jones, Avax XC2, 2nd
Joint Services League: Alistair Andrews, Aspen 3, 2nd
Thames Valley League: Mark Jones, Avax XC2, 3rd
SHPF League: Julian Robinson, Avax XC2, 1st; Ian Miskin, Avax Xc2, 2nd; David Thompson, Avax XC2, 3rd
SMPC League: Ian Miskin, Avax XC2, 1st
Wessex League: Shamus Pitts, Golden 2, 1st;Martin Foley, Aspen 3, 3rd

Gradient Avax XC3 tested in latest Parapente Magazine

Philippe Lami has just tested the Gradient Avax XC3 (24) for Parapente Magazine (no.132, 6th October 2010)

The glide was measured at 10.3 (at 39kph), top speed at 59kph, min sink below 0.99mps and a fast trim speed at 40kph.

This confirms the fantastic performance that I have experienced, having flown this wing for the second half of the season.

Jochen Schweizer on a Gradient Tandem

The end of a dream - for now

My brothers Guy's amazing Swift Display Team had a spectacular incident last month at the Shoreham Airshow. Luckily, pilot Mike Newman, will make a full recovery.

Walter Neser in action, from Extreme Wildlife, BBC Wildlife Films

Flying with the Vultures at Thabazimbi, South Africa. To wet your appetite this winter!

The Distance Record Season is almost upon us

GRADIENT XC AFRICA OPEN 2010
De Aar, South Africa, 27^th November - 4^th December 2010
Entry Fee: R1000.00 per entry & includes:
A winch release, T/shirt, scoring or wireless internet for uploads (avoid cues),
winching facilities, Prize giving function, medals for each class, briefings, weather reports,
Cell phone tracking & local maps. Excludes recovery!

Your first 100km in the UK

Current UK Paragliding XC League leader, Richard Westgate, will be offering one to one guiding next year to any XC pilots who want to extend their personal bests, with the aim of flying over 100km. You will pick up more top tips in one day than a year of flying on your own. Flights can either be one to one on radio or tandem. Let Richard take care of site selection and navigation around airspace and concentrate on the magic of a long XC. Phone 07974208076 for prices.

Vne

A good demonstration of Vne

La Nina is back

With a moderate La Nina developing expect an increase in frequency and strength of hurricanes and more old hurricane track low pressures systems hitting the UK. It is expected to be a wet windy Autumn and Winter. Also it will be wetter than normal in northern and eastern Australia and eastern South Africa but drier on the east coast of Brazil. So head for XCeara this November!

British Paragliding Cup success

Congratulations to Richard Butterworth (Gradient Avax XC2) for winning this years British Paragliding Cup.

There were 9 Gradient wings in the top 20.

2nd Tony Spirling Gradient Avax XC2
7th Dave Thomson Gradient Avax XC2
8th Tony Bradley Gradient Avax XC2
13th Raffaele Lagrutta Gradient Avax XC3
15th Gary Jackson Gradient Aspen 2
16th Mark Riches Gradient Aspen 2
17th Alan Ford Gradient Golden 2
19th Malcolm Grace Gradient Avax XC2

Sheryl Cameron was 2nd best female on her Gradient Aspen 2 in 22nd

XC3 glide is impressive

The only problem with the XC3 is getting down! Charles Norwood flew the length of the Coombe landing field like this!

Avax XC3 30

A correction to the table below. The XC3 30 is certified 110-130kg.

Gradient's new Felix Wolk XC3 video

Another massive triangle in Scotland

Following on from Julian Robinson's excellent 53.1km triangle from Squrr Finnisg-aig on 25th May on his Gradient XC2, Ian Miskin has just flown a 54.4km triangle from Glencoe, also on an XC2. The weather in Scotland looks great for tomorrow as well (15/06) so watch this space!

Mark Riches on Aspen 2 wins first round of BPC

Congratultions to Mark Riches who won the first round of the BPC in the Borders. He completed 17.5km of a 38.3km task. Tony Bradley (XC2) was 4th, David Thomson (XC2) 6th and Tim Pilling (Aspen 3) 8th. Most pilots were awarded points for landing to assist Matrin Sandwith who was helicoptered off after a minor accident.

XC3 wow

I have just done my first flights on the XC3 (132km and 109km) and I can realistically say that it is the best glider that i have ever flown. despite the high aspect ratio, launching is effortless and handling is incredible. The wing is beautifully coordinated and is equally able at carving out flat turns in weak lift and sitting in a high banked turn in strong stuff. The leading edge is stiffened with 'strimmer cord' and feels very stable, even flying at the bottom of the weight range I had no handling problems in rough air. The glide is amazing and fast at trim speed (40kph), the speed bar is light and useable. The wing is so reassuring that within 30 minutes I was thermalling with one hand taking photos and gliding at 1/3 bar with my hands off the brake handles. If you are ever thinking of giving up paragliding give this wing a go and rediscover the dream!

Gradient XC3 is here!!

Give us a call on 07974208076 or email rich@born2fly.org.uk to place your orders!

SimplyGradient email change

Due to the massive amount of spam hitting my current address, I have changed my email address to rich@born2fly.org.uk.

Gradient XC3 28 certified

Turnpoint reports that the XC3 28 has been successfully certified.

Felix Hoddinott

British pilot Felix Hoddinott is having some great flying on his Gradient Aspen 3 in Bir. From 14.03 to 23.03 he flew nearly everyday and managed an 80km and 110km flat triangle. Felix is also currently third best Brit in the 2010 XC Contest

Gradient XC3 almost here

The Italian Gradient importer says that he tested the Avax XC3 in Bassano. The glider is confirmed as a 3 liner, rigifoil, arc on the rib at the height
of the B, new diagonals, aspect ratio 6.8. Quite similar to XC2, handling more straight, even more agile and nice!
The leading edge gives the impression of great solidity. Speed system on 2 pulleys, is soft and the wing speeds up a lot just touching it lightly. Speed increase is considerable. Ondej Dupal is happy with the result; he said the leading
edge is very stable and he tested the wing up to 68 km/h (this won't be the trimming for the certification). He states that for gradient this is an innovative wing with big performances and is very nice to fly.

More Gradient Golden 3 information

The Gradient website has more information on the Golden 3 and a great video



The G3 manual http://www.gradient.cx/res/files/golden3_en.pdf is also out on the Gradient website:

• The Golden3 has a new elliptical shape that includes a slightly positive
contortion of the leading edge. This means that the "ears“ (stabilo) of the
canopy are slightly swept back in flight.

• The Golden3 has a new aerofoil section to achieve the optimal balance
between performance and stability. The aerofoil’s characteristics deliver
maximum stability over as wide a speed range as possible.

• Special attention has been paid to the position, area and shaping of the cell
openings to ensure high stability over a very wide speed range (ie angle
of attack). Graduated-sized cell-openings help to increase stability and aid
pressure distribution within the glider.

• For better distribution of the forces within the canopy, diagonal segmentedrib
technology is used. The forces in the wing are carefully calculated and
balanced to give a flawless sail presentation and an intuitive feel to the flying.

• A special three-level line concept with progressively differing diameters means
the top-level lines are made from very strong Dyneema Liros DC. All lines have
the advantage of spliced loops giving maximum overall strength, durability and
the lowest possible drag.

• Four sets of lines (A, B, C, D) are used for the upper suspension system. The
upper C and D lines then combine lower down, so the glider has only three
risers. This helps to reduce drag and gives a simple line layout, which pilots
will appreciate during pre-flight checks and on launch.

• The main C-lines are connected to the karabiners through loops, allowing for
easier adjustment when your glider is serviced.

Where are the Vultures?

I had one of my top 10 flights of all time a few years ago with legend, Walter Neser at Thabazimbi. Here's why...

XC 3 Photo

Brad Nicholas reports that Gradient expect the XC3 to be entered for certification in March. It will be a 3 liner with plastic arc reinforcements, leading edge reinforcements and special diagonal ribs too. AR is 6.8. Five certified sizes are planned........ Can't wait!

2010 UK XC League now live

John Stevenson has done an amazing job with the new UK XC League.

New features include

Automatic flight entry
International league
Payment can be made with PayPal
Flights displayed in XC Player
Flight statistics
View flights for All Years
and you can add a story about your flight.

David Thomson is once again winning the Winter XC League on his Gradient XC 2

Crazy Water Landing

This has just come to my attention! Cris Miles at Annecy with Flyeo. Very funny. Thanks to Judith Mole's blog for the link.

Gradient Golden 3 should be ready by March

More information on the new Golden 3

De Aar triangle

De Aar isn't just a windy, open distance site. Great 156.3km triangle on 20/01 and 110km triangle on 05/01 from Joost Visschedijk.