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The first Arriba had been sitting quietly waiting for the sunny days of spring and Wed 18 March 2009 provided the perfect opportunity to give the Arriba a try...

Last season saw the introduction of the Tequila2 from Skywalk and it was an immediate hit. The designers had produced a near-perfect cocktail combining great passive safety with nimble handling and class-leading performance. Reviewers and pilots alike raved about it and they flew out of the door (excuse the pun!). So, we were more than interested to see what would happen when you take a good design of paraglider and equip it with lightweight cloth (including the superb Aerofabrix [AL]29 aluminium coated cloth), Gin's riged-foil leading edge system, drag-optimised risers and a good number of unsheathed lines.

Even as I packed my bag before leaving the centre, the attention to detail on the Arriba is evident - a superlight meshed carry sack and riser bag and broad padded clinch strap show that Skywalk are proud of their products and want them to be taken care of! The Arriba is light, my small weighing in at 4.5kg. Not all that light you may be thinking, but Skywalk have designed this as a glider you can use all the time, not one of the stripped-to-the-bones ultralight gliders that exist. Anyway, throwing my bag on my back made me smile as I knew the walk that was coming up...

With a light and variable breeze from predominantly the west we decided to hike up and fly the main Mallerstang ridge. The walk up is about an hour, but well worth it for the views towards the Lake District.

Out of the bag, once again the Arriba oozes attention to detail. The first thing I noticed is that even the unsheathed lines have a few cm of sheathing on them where they are doubled and stitched into a loop. This will reduce wear in critical connection points compared to a normal unsheathed line. Also the risers are beautifully made with neat little skirts over the pulleys and harness attachment points. The glider envelope is as usual very tidy and the leading edge stiffeners make the wing stand open and ready even before the launch. Just looking at it you can tell that it will be a doddle to launch in light airs.

With maybe 10-12km/h of breeze, launch was very easy. And during those first few minutes of ground handling it was patently obvious that the lightweight construction has produced a glider that is simple to handle - it responds to every input and is easy to move around in the air; if it drops down, a little tweak on a front riser sends it eagerly back up again. After a couple of minutes a nice thermic cycle came through and I was off... Conditions were scratchy so I took a wrap and slowed the wing down as I hugged the slope. This paid off with a nice bit of lift as I flew onto a steeper part of the ridge. It took a few beats of close scratching to work up above the top enough to relax and let the glider fly at trim.

Now, I've been paragliding for 21 years and in that time I will have flown hundreds of different gliders. I am not going to pretend that the Arriba is the best glider since sliced bread - there are many many good gliders around. But, in the 45 minutes or so of flying the wing for the first time I can say that it did one thing that not that many paragliders do for me - it put a huge grin on my face!! Motorcycle mags go on about 'grin factor' and the Arriba certainly has plenty of that - it is a delight to fly; very light on the brakes, very responsive to brake and weight shift and with a very, very respectable turn of speed (50km/h on my Flytec 6020 on full bar). But sometimes this combination of factors just feels right and this is how it is with the Arriba. I felt as if I could fly this glider all day and not be tired, and not be scared to push it to its limits. With LTF 1-2 only on accelerated assymetric tuck you can relax and just fly. Isn't this what paragliding is all about?

So who is the Arriba for?

Skywalk's experience with the Aerofabrix aluminium coated fabric is that it is phenomenally resistant to UV but not great at being abraded constantly with the ground. So, don't be buying one of these with hours and hours of ground practice in mind. The Arriba will appeal equally to the low-airtime pilot wanting safety and performance in a light package that travels well or to the more experienced pilot wanting a light glider offering bags of fun and respectable XC performance. The Arriba should appeal to any pilot whose keyword is FUN FUN FUN.

I am certainly keeping this one in my bag until the winter cobwebs are dusted off and by that time I hope to have more than a few XC km on the clock!

For full product information click here.