Season summary so far

10 flights over 300km have already been flown this season.

The King of Big Distance flying is Brazilian, Marcelo PRIETO with 11 flights over 300km! (461,6km (Previous World Record), 414,7km, 402,0km, 371,0km, 364,7km, 348,4km, 348,0km, 340,4km, 340,2km, 320,0km, 302,0km)

Rafael SALADINI, BRA has flown 7 flights over 300km, Karel VEJCHODSKÝ CZE has now flown 6 and Olympio FAISSOL, BRA has flown 5.

21.11.2011 367.4km Rafal LUCKOS POL Ozone Mantra R11 Quixada, Brazil

04.12.2011 360.8km Karel VEJCHODSKÝ CZE Gradient Aspen 4 Riacho das Almas, Brazil

10.01.2012 359.5km Sebastian BENZ CHE Nova Triton Greenacres, Australia

03.11.2011 354.5km Josh DEGENAAR RSA Gradient Avax SR7 Copperton, South Afri

15.11.2011 336.7km Rafal LUCKOS POL Ozone Mantra R11 Quixada, Brazil

21.11.2011 319.0km Karel VEJCHODSKÝ CZE Gradient Aspen 4 Quixada, Brazil

29.11.2011 316.3km Karel VEJCHODSKÝ CZE Gradient Aspen 4 Patu, Brazil

14.11.2011 312.9km Martin BÜHLER LIE Ozone Mantra M4 Patu, Brazil

29.10.2011 311.5km Olympio FAISSOL BRA Ozone Mantra R10.2 Quixada, Brazil

26.10.2011 304.6km Olympio FAISSOL BRA Ozone Mantra R10.2 Quixada, Brazil

Texas Droughts

According to Dave Prentice it was too dry in Texas last year for Record flying with clouds disappearing inland. According to the Oz Report the drought is set to continue into next year.

Wow

Seeyou are working on a great new format. Thanks to the Oz Report for the link.

Matt Church leads the XC Contest!

Congratuations to Matt Church who now has 5 200km flights to his name and leads the XC Contest with 1356.2km.

Matt Church flies into the British Record Books

Congratulations to Matt Church who has been flying in Quixada at XCeara 2011. He has already flown 4 flights over 200km with a personal best of 277.7km, the fourth longest flight ever flown by a Brit! His total of 6 flights is 1126.8km already the highet score ever in the UK Intenational XC League. Not bad for a competition that has been running for 20 days!

7 Summits Team, great film

Great footage of the first of 7 summits, Kilimanjaro.

Longest flight of the year so far, Josh Degenaar

Congratulations to Josh for an amazing early season flight from Copperton in South Africa, 355km. He thinks that there was another 2 1/2 hours left in the day so the record was on! Even better, he did the flight on a Gradient SR7!

Olympio Faissol

The Brazilians are on fire once again with Olympio Faissol flying his first 300km flight of the new season on the 29/10.

2011 world record encampment

It looks like strange conditions aren't helping the World Record attempts in Texas.

Texas Record Encampment

The OZ Report indicates that the hang-gliders are waiting in Austin for conditions to improve in Zapata. The Ozone Record encampment has had to be cancelled at short notice but Steve Burns is still able to offer a tow service for anyone who wants to travel independently. Give me a call on 07974208076 to discuss.

Amazing flying in the Himilayas

http://www.thomasdedorlodot.blogspot.com/

Gradient Montana 2011

The Montana for 2011 is now available. It is the light weight allrounder. Ondrej Dupal designed the wing to be universally suitable for the target group of Walk & Fly mountain pilots. With the XC-qualities of the Montana 2011 large distances are also possible (Martin Mueller, 180km FAI). Its agility shows, in addition, its qualities in the Freestyle range. Flight figures such as SATs, Helicopters and Loops can be conducted without deformation of the profile. The lightweight construction developed by gradient provides a good compromise between weight and stability, as well as aerodynamic behavior in extreme situations (e.g. tendency to shoot forwards). For travelling, the Montana 2011 easily fits into hand luggage. The new Montana 2011 has a new color Design and is available in sizes 22, 24, 26, 28, 30. The glider has received the certification EN/CLTA 1-2. Series production began in April. Contact us for a test flight.

World Record on the Bi Golden XC

Congratulations to Brett Janaway for setting a new Multiplace 100km Out and Return Record of 31.9kph.

British Records tumble.

In an incredible spell of weather in the UK, 14 British Records have been broken in the last month.


On 26th April, Richard Westgate (Gradient XC3) and Mike Cavanagh (Ozone Mantra M4) broke the UK (Local) Distance around a Triangular Course record with an epic 90km flight from Ben Toaig in Scotland. Mike completed the task in 4hrs 8mins and Richard in 4hrs 22mins. They will share the record. The flights score 338 points in the UK XC League, the highest individual scores ever recorded.

Gradient Acro Video

Gradient Freestyle Team

Superior from bernhard paraschach on Vimeo.

Amazing March Airmass

This has been the driest March in the UK on record with an amazing airmass giving great flying conditions in the north of the country for the last 2 weeks. The Winter XC League has been won by Phil Colbert with a record score of 406.9km, including a 125.3 km open distance flight on 18th March (the earliest ever 100km flights), and a triangle in the Lake District scoring 94.2km on 25th March. The excellent conditions migrated to the Alps with stunning early season flying on 29th and 30th March. Gerald Ameseder flew a 219.1km FAI Triangle on 30/03 from Hochstein in Austria and Paolo Manfrin flew a 174.3km FAI Triangle on 29/03 on his Aspen 3 from the Eggishorn in Switzerland.

Texas Cloud Streets - from the Oz Report

Bright 4 is South Africa

Glider comparisons

Craig Atwell tested the Gradient XC3 (EnD), Nova Mentor 2 (EnB), Ozone Delta (EnC), Gin Tribe (EnC) and GTO (EnD) at Devil's Dyke yesterday. All amazing wings but which one did he rate as the best handling on the ground and in the air ..... and the most fun...the XC3!

Record Encampment

From the OZ Report.

Heading for Texas! If the current La Nina conditions persist, Edinburg may be the place to go for World Record Breaking conditions this year. 31 Rigid and Hang Gliding Records have been set from Zapata (down the road) and Will Gadd set a previous paragliding World Record in 2002 of 423.4km. I am planning to run a Paragliding World Record Encampment from 17th June 2011 to 17th July 2011. Let me know if you are interested in joining us! La Nina does lead to increased hurricane activity which may spoil the fun.You can monitor the drought conditions here.

Gradient introduce the Bright 4

Gradient has comes out with a new school glider, the Bright 4. It has passed the EN A certification in size 24, 26, 28 and 30. All sizes are available. The Bright4 22 will be coming soon.

The Gradient team took a lot of time to finalize the wings' development. The target was to create a wing for a wider range of beginners. According to Gradient director and developer Ondrej Dupal, it was the wings' safety that has been improved. For this, a lot of test flights took place in the rough conditions of world record spot "De Aar", South Africa. The gliders' characteristics and ground handling should achieve an effective and fast learning progress among new pilots. Easy take off and stable flight fit for beginners that are looking for relaxed paragliding fun. The Bright 4 comes in a brand new colour design: The Gradient wing got replaced by a big logo on the down sail. This matches with the upper sails colour combinations. Test reports will be available on DHV and Gradient web during next few days. Serial production for all four sizes will start at the beginning of January 2011, size 22 will follow in February-March 2011.

Where should you go to fly megga distances?

Thanks to 'otto' on PGForum for compiling this list of 300km + flights.

Anthony Allen on fire!

The last three days has seen South African pilot, Anthony Allen fly an incredible 141.1km, 137.1km and 173.2km from Pampoenfontein on his newly aquired Gradient XC3. The latter is the Western Cape State Record.