Norwegian Hanggliding

Lat weekend I got a nice local XC flight from Ringerud, we had NE winds and unstable conditions, so unstable that my big XC plans were stopped by showers in the air. I changed directions and flew south to Sundvollen, approacing from NW, a direction I’ve never done before. I saw a few paragliders flying on the ridge there, and I turned around over them and flew back out to land at Steinsletta. I could have flown to Oslo, but the airspace is a little too low to safely cross over to landable terrain from Sundvollen. It was a very nice and refreshing flight, too bad it was so short at only 45 km.

Olav, Nils Aage, Dag and Bjørn are in France, flying the worlds. I was on the team, but I could not go this year due to travel and work. They have had a few good flights, Bjørn did very well the first task.

Right now I’m at San Francisco airport, waiting for my flight home, via Frankfurt. It’s a Lufthansa flight, maybe I run into Corinna on the flight? I’ve been here for just a few days on business at Cisco in San Jose, I stopped by the Moyes demo days at Fort Funston in San Francisco on Saturday. The conditions there were not soarable, not enough seabreeze, so I just hung around and had a chat with Kraig Coomber, and Alex. It looked like a nice coastal site to fly if the conditions were good.

When I get home I’ll turn around and go to Brazil with Georgia, for her sister’s wedding in Brasilia. So no flying there again. We stay for 2 weeks, and then head home to the North of Norway to see my family for a week. Weather permitting I will get time to do some hanggliding in the end of July and early August.

I came across this photo from the space station, of a erupting volcano with a nice condensation cap, that’s a solid thermal there…

Erupting volcano with cloud cap (Photo: NASA/JPL)

I finally got my new Litespeed RS 3.5 on Friday. It has the new type of inlaid smoke sail (not so smoke anymore, more light gray) that Gerolf was testing in Bassano, and all carbon options. It’s white/White/Fluo Orange, and has the Litespeed RS logo so I can tell it apart from my old RS 4 that Jan Erik now flies :-)

I did not expect to go flying whis weekend as the weather forecast was bad, but when I checked it again late Friday night it had improved a lot and it actually looked quite flyable with low winds and a red thermal prognosis. Since I was itching to test my new toy I changed weekend plans, kissed the wife goodbye and set off to Vågå - Only to realize I was too tired to drive 4,5 hours at night, so I went to bed instead and got up at 5:30 Saturday morning to start driving.

320km later fueled by coffe and RedBull I was in Vågå, and met up with Steinar, Terje and Benedicte. We quickly got ready as the day looked good already at 11:30, Benedicte got off early and had her first real thermal flight. I did not have any plan other than testing the glider to see how it flew.

AK and Tom (PG) were declaring an out and return to Kvam (75km), looked like a good day for it. Stein Are (PG) and his crew were going for open distance. Steinar wanted to set a new personal best by flying to Åttekanten at Fåvang and have a burger there, I thought that was a good plan and when I took off and got a feel for the glider and the air I might join him.

The flight

There was an inversion around 12-1400 meters, so thermalling up in front of launch was a bit tricky in the beginning, but I found a nice thermal to the west over the old ski lift, and got to 1800 meters. I glided to Gråhøe and then towards Tordkampen where I saw some of the Paragliders thermalling up under a nice cloud where I got to a rather cold cloudbase at 2500m. From there I saw the conditions were really good looking towards the south, and I committed to going XC, Steinar was thermalling up underneath me and I expected him to tag along, but that was the last time I saw him in the air.

At Torgerkampen I found a real boomer, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the vario blank out completely with 9 m/s climb (around 1800 fpm for my metrically challenged readers), it was rough but I hung on for a few turns until cloudbase. I catched up with Stein Are in that thermal and we glided towards Vinstra and a nice cloudstreet towards Frya.

My glider had a strong left turn in it, both thermalling and on glide. Since I’m out of flying shape my shoulders and back started to ache and cramp up on me because of all the work keeping the glider going straight, so by now Åttekanten seemed like a very good place to land. I took a nice slow glide from Frya to the TP at Fåvang kirke, and turned north again to glide back to Åttekanten and landed next to the cafe.

Thanks to Benedicte for driving, she drove from Vågå to find me, and we drove south to Øyer to get Steinar who had passed me while I was finishing my dessert, he had set a new personal best XC with 104km flying his WillsWing Sport 2.

The glider, good, bad, and ugly

I had borrowed Nils Aage’s RS 3.5 a few weeks back, so I expected my new glider to be much the same but maybe a bit stiffer due to a new sail. I was in for a pleasant suprise…

The good

When setting up the new “smoke” sail felt lighter and a lot smoother and softer than the previous smoke. It looks like it has a lot more reinforcement fibers, but it feels very light. The sailcut looks more or less the same as my older RS4, but the 3.5 looks a little more loose in the center section when the VG is loose. I need to compare the two gliders to be sure though.

The handling was a lot lighter than I expected, it’s still a competition glider that demands refined skills to fly, but compared to my RS4 it’s feels super nice and light. In thermals where I normally would have to manhandle the RS4 using brute force, this glider turns into lift with just a little input and corrections. This glider handles a lot better than Nils Aage’s glider did when I flew it, maybe it’s the new sail, but it can also be the setup of the gliders.

In the rough air the glider felt very solid, it had good barpressure and felt reassuring when entering or leaving thermals. I had to do less highsiding than with the RS4, with similar trim speed, so this looks like a winner for my aching shoulders.

Performance is hard to tell without climbing and gliding with others, but it felt very quick and I think the better handling will improve my climbrates more than a bigger glider.

The Bad

The XC bag did not fit, it’s way too short, this is negligence from Moyes as the bag was marked LS3.5 (Which I believe is shorter)

The Ugly

This is the 8′th new Litespeed I buy from Moyes. I’ve had 4 Litespeeds, 2 Litespeed S, and 1 RS before this. I change often since it’s convenient and makes some economic sense when traveling to Australia for flying anyway, besides that I like having new gliders - they smell nice :-)

But it’s quite annoying that almost every Litespeed I get have to be adjusted before it goes straight. It’s (usually) not difficult to do, but it takes a lot of effort and time when I don’t have areotow or reliable toplanding sites available. It’s a mystery to me why Moyes fail time after time to deliver a glider that goes straight.

The RS I got now have definitively been testflown, I saw the sand left on the speedbar and A-frame corners. The left turn was not small, it was very noticeable within 10 seconds from takeoff in rough air. So now I have to spend the next flyable days tweaking the glider, as usual. Flyable days are not that common here in the far north, and it would be nice to spend them flying in glider that goes straight from day one.

The first Litespeed I bought in 2000 did go straight, and the Litespeed S that I got for the Oz worlds in 2005 was also good. The glider I got in Australia in 2001 had not been testflown, so it was expected to need some tweaking, that’s all OK. But this glider and 4 others were delivered testflown by the Moyes crew, it’s their job to make sure that the glider meet the customer expectations. They have failed repeatedly.

I’m very pleased with the Litespeeds and Moyes in general, they have the best glider, the best service, and the Moyes crew and pilots are really nice to be around and fly with. It’s definetively worth it to get a Litespeed that’s not quite straight, but if Moyes would invest in some more QA before delivery it would make at least this Litespeed customer a lot happier.

Day 2 was blown out, some pilots freeflew and reported turbulence and some wave conditions.

Day 3 seemed to be a good day at Frya, but the first pilot at takeoff reported strong tailwind, and we relocated to Heidal where conditions seemed better and it was cleary launchable. We set up and got a task via Otta, Fåvang kirke and to goal at Frya, 74km.

It was less thermals than usual in Heidal, and some of the first pilots struggled to get up, and some landed. I saw Nils F hooking a nice thermal to the right of the ramp, I took off and glided straight into that thermal. We got to cloudbase at 2600m with good timing, and only had to wait in the cold for a few minutes before the start gate.

I had a good run to Kvam, having Nils Aage a little in front, and Johannes just below me. Olav Lien had gone left and quite far into the mountains under some good clouds. I spotted a clodstreet from Kvam and after thermalling up at the start of the street I could fly straight maintaining altitude until after Harpefoss, where I could hop 45 degrees and continue under the next street towards Kvitfjell.

When I passed over Frya my instrument became very quiet, the display was blank, and I could not turn it back on. I remembered I had not charged it since Bassano, and in the -10 degrees air it did not have enough power to keep working. Shit… I glided towards the last TP, hoping it would turn back on in warmer air, but it never came back to life.

I turned around and had a long and slow glide back to Goal. Landed downwind and took out one upright just to complete the day. I was first in goal, with Nils Aage and Olav Lien a few minutes behind. 6 or 7 pilots made goal.

I’ll post some pictures later.

Some cool videos of bats in slow motion;

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/03/19/how-to-be-a-bat-life-in-motion/

Most of you have probably seen this safety notice from Moyes before, but it’s time to check your harness and rescue before the season anyway.