You don't have to fly a hotship to achieve great flights! Although having more performance helps, you don't have to fly a Performance Class or Competition wing to achieve your Big XC dreams. The gliding and climbing ability of the modern Sports Class (mid EN C) is now remarkable! Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than Flybubble Carlo Borsattino's recent performance on his Artik 4.
Checking the 'best flights' from the UK Paragliding XC League shows that currently the highest scoring flight of the year was flown on an EN C wing (Niviuk Artik 4, piloted by Flybubble's Carlo Borsattino).
The Artik 4 is a mid-range EN C wing, with a flat aspect ratio (AR) of 6.1. Meanwhile Neil Furmidge has so far scored the top 20th flight (out of 1038 so far) on his Ozone Delta 2, also a mid-range EN C wing (AR 6).
Meanwhile Tim Pentreath flew the 23rd best scoring flight of the year (out of 1295) on his Advance Sigma 9, again a mid-range EN C wing (AR 5.8). And you don't have to look that far down the list to see big flights being done on XC class paragliders (high EN B) too.
And of course the 2015 season isn't over yet, so who knows what surprises are yet to come!
Looking back to 2014, Al Wilson flew the second highest scoring flight of the year on a Gin Carrera (hot EN B with AR 6.2, similar level to Artik 4, Sigma 9 and Delta 2); this incredible flight in very strong conditions is still the UK declared goal record, beating all the hotships!
We believe true performance comes from the right match of pilot and wing.
If you'd like to try out the latest generation of Sports Class paragliders, we can arrange demos for a great range.
