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