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