Uk XC season round up

Another xc season has come to a close and again we see Gradient Pilots and their gliders at the top of the stack. Congratulations to you all.

Uk national XC league 2010 champion Richard Westgate clocked up and inpressive total of 837.5 km in six flights. Richard spent the season on board either the Aspen 3 or the Axax Xc3. He was also the runner up in the national weekend league.
While in the Sports class Mark Jones was runner up (Xc2) and a creditable 9th overall. With Phil Wallbank thirdon his new Aspen 3 ( 15th overall)
The Uk winter league was won again by David Thomson onboard his trusty Avax Xc2. While I was the runner up on board an avax proto.

In the local club leagues to Gradient pilots did well

Cumbria - yours truely with flights on board the Xc3 and Avax protos Tony Bradley the sports class victor on board his Xc2
SMPC - Winner Ian Miskin Xc2
SPHF - A clean sweep for Xc2 pilots 1st Julian Robinson, 2nd Ian Miskin 3rd Dave Thomson
Dales - Dominated by neighbouring Cumbrian Pilots with yours truely managing a 4th place from only three visits
Pennine - Ist sports Class Mark Wilson (Aspen 3) and 4th place overall.

Not only that Gradient pilots across the country continue to be at the top of the stack
Well done to you all and roll on the 2011 season

The New Student (NG) Harness from Ava Sport

Three years of research and development, The design team from AVA Sport have found an innovative solution to provide the lightest and simplest School harness. Very functional design, that incorporates many new innovations and refinements.

The new Student^NG Harness is only 2.8 kg complete with carbon seat and incorporates Ava's new generation of air protector (^NG ), which aims to put an end to the heavier foam and voluminous Cygnus protectors yet offers no compromises in terms of pilot protection or comfort. A new revolution has now begun.

We are offering PG Schools special discounts on this new Harness. - Call for details.

British Paragliding Cup 2010

Congratulations to Richard Butterworth (Gradient Avax XC2) on winning this years British Paragliding Cup. A close second was Tony Spirling (Avax XC2). Local Pilot Tony Bradley managed to come a way with best new competitor with his 8th place (Avax XC2) Well done Tony.
Alan Ford took best EN-B and Sheryl Cameron the 2nd female place on Golden2 and Aspen2 respectively. Congratulations to these winners
The racing highlights this year seem to have been a good race task from the Long-Mynd and pilots are still talking about the sublime cloud surfing which was had in Snowdonia.

Gradient pilots held 9 positions within 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

New demos have arrived

Just to let all who have eagerly been anticipating , we now have demos of the New XC3 in sizes 28 and 30, We also have aspen 3 demos in 28 and 26 and the size range of the golden 3

Triangulation by xc2 pilots

XC2 pilots again prove that the Scottish Highlands is the ideal place for big triangles
Following on from Julian Robinson's excellent 53.1km triangle from Squrr Finnisg-aig on 25th May onboard his Gradient XC2, Ian Miskin has just flown a 54.4km triangle from Glencoe, also on an XC2. Well done guys!

XC3 Vid

Thanks to Felix for providing yet more great footage of the new XC3

Going XC on the 3

Monday the 17th was to be my second flight on the new XC3 and hopefully a chance to get a comparison against the very sorted M3 from Ozone. Taking off ( simplicity itself) into a good cycle soon had me exploring the site ( a new one for me) and it was not long before I was making my move to the next suitable ridge 10km downwind. The glide was excellent though again I was unable to do a comparison as the wing had me floating downwind on a buoyant line without company.
The flight itself was technical and with the wing very much looking after itself I was free to make tactical decisions on where best to fly. Transitions crosswind to avoid spread-out seemed simple just point and go. The speed bar is easy to apply and feels very solid even on 3/4 bar it also did not seem to degrade my glide much. Doing 3 figure flights from the Lake District is still a very uncommon thing, However I think like our political scene, we are at a time of change. My second flight on this wing was only the 6th 100+km flight completed from the Lakes and the 3rd this year. This wing above anything else allows the pilot to spend more time on making the most from your decisions rather than spending valuable energy on flying the wing.
The XC3 is what flying PG should be all about.

Here is a link to the test results. http://www.para-test.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=4&id=30&Itemid=37