X- Scotia 09

http://www.llsclub.org.uk/llsc_xscotia.html

Photo Credit ~ Matt Church

The second ever X-Scotia event is currenty underway this weekend the 30th and 31st May 09. This is a Paragliding and hiking adventure race, based at Loch Earnhead and involves rounding the 3 Munros of Ben Vorlich, Ben More and Meall nan Tarmachan with an approximate distance of 70km - Our Man, Paul Myerscough arrived at goal in second place(for the 2nd year running and flying). Paul was flying a Montana and was reportedly looking remarkably fresh but quite tanned. Not sure yet how much flying was achieved as the winds looked quite fresh.
Steve Nash celebrates his second victory in this events history arriving 79 mins ahead of Paul. WELL DONE TO YOU BOTH!

New Firmware updates for the Digifly Leonardo series

(Standard Leonardo and Lithio Version) http://www.digifly.com/discontinued/discontinued-downloads.htm







(Leonardo PRO and BT version ) http://www.digifly.com/leonardo-pro/leonardo-pro-downloads.htm AND http://www.digifly.com/leonardo-pro-bluetooth/leonardo-pro-bluetooth-downloads.htm

Aspen 3 in Action

Great photos by Peter Volf of the new Aspen 3 in action
We now have demo A3's in sizes 30, 28 and 26

XC2 leads current standings in the 2009 UK XC league

Julian Robinson is currently sitting at the top of the UK's XC League with his Avax XC2. Jules first got our attention with his impressive flights during the 2007 XCeará while on board the Aspen 2. On his return Jules moved onto the XC2 and continued to demonstrate his natural xc skills with some bold xc's across some of our remotest terrain in Scotland. Last year Jules was crowned 'Best newcomer ' in the Uk Championships and he's the current UK 'sport's class' champion.
At present he also leads the Uk XC league with 456.1km and his impressive 108.5km in the company of an other XC2 pilot Paolo Bellezze across the Highlands ,which is for the time being on track to winning the prize for 'Highest Scoring Turnpoint Flight on an EN C' in the league.

Keep it up Jules!

A good day at Broughton and the Start of this seasons BPCup

Another happy customer got to show to the rest of the field what still can be done on his trusty Aspen 2. The Borders British Paragliding Cup/ Scottish Open competition got this year's Uk XC comp scene underway and although only one day was possible, due to the great british weather.

Photo Credit S.Ethrington

This is what BPCup pilot Andy Plimmer (1st sports class and 2nd placed in the BPCup) had to say.

"After a wet and windy first day, conditions soon transformed into what turned out to be an epic days flying. The task a 46k race to goal at Hawick seemed ambitious initially as the very light WNW breeze played havoc with the field coming from all directions but the right one. A chance thermal from right of launch gave a slow scrabble up for a lucky few, one of whom was myself, this enabled connection with proper thermals and the game was on."

His plan was to try to stay high,based on the fact that the route had some long crossings of high remote moorland and to fly conservatively which hopefully would avoid any hot-slog walkout to the nearest road if he tried to rush to much.

"By climbing when able and progressing steadily I got past the worst bit until a long glide across the last valley left me a bit desperate 10km from goal. Some bumpy air and sniffs of lift drifted me on until a good climb from cut forestry got me up in company with an other lucky pilot. Now goal was in site and it was a calculated gamble to leave before my friend and dash for the cylinder. He stayed climbing for two more circuits which was just enough to give me 20 seconds lead and 2^nd place in the Cup. An entertaining landing in the middle of a cricket match was improved by several beers from the pavilion. Later pilots had the full hailstone and big lift experience as the day over-developed as predicted, this caused several to ping into airspace at over 5500ft".

"Brilliant views of both East and West coasts will stay with me for a long time and I really recommend the area if you get a chance."

Good to see the Aspen 2 can still do the business.

First official 100km in Ireland

Two years ago Mark Piggot bought one of my demo's Aspen 2's - Today I heard that he has completed the first official 100k flight in Ireland.
Mark launched from a hill called The Playbanks near Sligo and landed near Eglington in Derry for a distance of 106.8k last Sunday. This beats the previous official 65k made last year by a long way. Enda Murphy completed a 140k flight a couple of years ago but unfortunately clipped Dublin airspace and so the flight was not officially recognised.
It appears there may well be a lot of very frustrated pilots in Ireland at the moment! As all those at the Celtic Cup never got to fly despite a very good forecast and they were on what should have been a better site. He was the only one of the group in Fermanagh that managed to catch the last lull of the day to launch – so his was the only flight that day.
Well done that man!
Mark's tracklog can be viewed on the xc league page of the UHPC website http://www.uhpc.co.uk

Spring time flying

Just received this; - This is Spring time flying above the Lake District at its best. It was shot during the recent fantastic spell of flying weather, which some of us were lucky enough to be able to experience.
Enjoy!

Temporary Enlightenment from pimple queens on Vimeo.

This vid was taken above Blencathra (Blease fell site).