Algodonales, Spain, Day 1 and 2
We had two days of good flying, the inversion stopped us at about 1500 meters both days. Yesterday we had a task of 47 km, 9 to goal. I landed out about half way to goal, around 40. place. Today we had a 97 km task, going NE towards Orsoua and then to goal in Antiquera. Around 20 made it in a little better conditions than yesterday. I pressed a little too hard, and had to land 28 km from the second TP. Nils Åge made goal today and landed out near goal yesterday. Retreive has worked great both days, but the days are long anyway. Now it’s 2 AM. Good night!

Algodonales Spain, Day 3
Best conditions so far, we got to 1800 ASL and quite good thermals. 64 km task. I got off early, and was among the first on course, flew fast and good, until I came low under a gaggle that was going slowly up over the end of a ridge. I never got that thermal, Robin was 50 meters over me and got up. Argh! I was lying on my back under the glider watching the world flying over me… Nils Åge and Robin made goal, Olav and Erik V landed near the second TP, and Erik B busted.

The forecast for today is a little lower inversion at 1800, and winds from SW. It’s probably going to be a long task today.

Algodonales, Spain.
We had a few day of flying, it have been stable and blue, but OK for local flying. Today was gray and overcast, soaring on the west launch and a few weak thermals. Lowpasses over the start for the camera crew pissed off the local Spanish paraglider pilots :-) Last night someone broke into Erik B’s car, and stole some CD’s, in addition to breaking the dashboard and window.

Lots of people have arrived, I met the Ozzies today – First question was: How’s your roof rack? They had not forgotten how much trouble we had finding one in Manilla earlier this winter. This time we had ordered a car with racks, but there was no racks on it. After some dealing we got one in the next town.

Algodonales seems like a nice place to stay, it’s hot and dry, cheap beer and food. The landscape around here is small hills with olive trees and few good landings. I don’t like this site for comp flying, the launches are too small for 150 pilots with cars, and the landings in high winds looks scary.

I’m off to Spain for the Pre-WAG competition. I’ll update these pages whenever I can with results and reports.

This server might be unstable the next few weeks, as we’re moving offices and I’m in Spain with no control of the process. Hopefully it’ll stay up, but come back in a few days if it goes down.

Hasta la vista baby… :-)

Hjartdal Cup was held last weekend. The weather was not so good, with strong winds and showers. We got a nice evening fligth on Saturday, and a few got off on Sunday. I waited for better conditions on Sunday, but it never cleared up. Sverre Bjølgerud won, total results are online.

The party at “Bottom Bar” was great though, but no paraglider pilots had the guts to stay.

Milsukern 2000 was held last weekend, we only got one competition day on Thursday. Ingar Johansen flew to Røros and won the comp with 153 km. Werner, Trond Olsen, and Sverre also got over 100 km’s. I flew into bad weather and landed after 30 km.

Next weekend is Hjartdal Cup, see you there.