In terms of sales during the first season of its life the UP Summit XC is close to beating that all time classic, the UP Vision, a well-known representative of the boom years in the mid nineties. Considering the otherwise somewhat stagnant paraglider market nowadays that is no mean feat, and we even have a hunch that it is the best selling DHV 2 wing on the German market this year.

So what has made this wing so popular out there? Well, instead of me filling you all with maketing hype lets see what the pilots out there have had to say - all quotes COMPLETELY unedited content-wise.

Glen Burrows, of London, UK, has the following to say:

"Hi all, I flew a demo Summit XC yesterday and managed my first ever XC. I have been test flying a couple of different DHV 2 wings this summer as I desperately need to update my old Gin Oasis. I was very kindly lent an UP Summit XC and had a quick ground handle and 10 minute top to bottom, after walking back up the hill, I launched into a thermal, climbed up to 1000m above take off and flew 12 km cross country on my own, this was twice as high as I ever climbed in the UK and the first cross country I have ever done, the wing just simply goes, UP (pardon the pun).

Later the same day I flew it in strong wind (20 mph +) on a ridge soaring site with some thermals and shared the air with other DHV2 and 2/3 wings, there were no lower graded wings flying. Impressions....At first I found the handling a bit weird, the wing is very stable in pitch and yaw but gives loads of feedback in roll, this makes centering thermals almost 'automatic' I felt like i was being pulled into the centre of the lift, i was going up in 6m/s thermals and could have had a cup of tea! it felt like all I had to do was hold a circle and use the pressure on the inner brake to make adjustments, none of that constantly changing my radius to find the core, the wing seemed to be pulled into it constantly.

One thing I learnt is that it is not as dynamic a wing as others I had tried such as a Sky Antea but did turn as well and as flat, it just needs more brake pressure due to the bigger surface area and maybe longer lines, once I got used to the brake pressures and travel I found it more precise in handling than initial impressions. I tired a few gentle pitch exercises, pulling both brakes to about 50% and releasing, I couldn't believe what happened, the wing gained height on pulling in the brakes and then settled overhead, no dive forward, so I did it again with more gusto, the same thing, the only way I could upset it from it's pitch was to use the pendulum momentum of my body weight, even then it barely moved forward, much less than my old oasis!

When flying on my own I had thought the wing was quite slow because of how stable it feels but later in the day next to some other wings I discovered that I was easily keeping up with wings in the 2/3 rating for speed and sometimes bettering them in climbing and sink rate. I know why the wing is called an 'XC' it just wants to go up, it is not a throw around acro wing but that is not what I want, after my first taste of cross country I want more, I had no idea something could climb this well without being filled with helium! I have one more wing on my hit list to try as I promised myself I would, but it will really have a hard job to impress me now!"

And David Southern adds:

"I've just completed a SIV course with my Summit XC over Lake Leman with Alain Zoller of Air Turquoise (excellent course by the way - highly recommended).

The glider behaved in an exemplary fashion. Full stalls were really a non-event. The glider exited perfectly and symetrically each time with no big surge. One of the exercises was to induce a 50% asymmetric collapse, allow the glider to go into auto rotation, stop this by weight shift and counter steer then start a turn in the opposite direction, whilst holding in the collapse - a rapid decent method. Amazingly, with a full 50% collapse in, the glider didn't want to turn! I even repeated this manouver to try to initiate a turn and weight shifted heavily into the collapsed side. Still a very very slow rotation! B line stalls were also a non-event, other than the sheer efort of getting them in (especially with a shoulder injury I felt very reassured by the glider's behaviour throughout the course and didn't find any adverse issues with the high(ish) aspect ratio."

Both are from a crop of recent comments to the Summit XC on the www.paraglidingforum.com discussion list - there are plenty more, check them out yourself!