Weekend flying

I went to Hallingdal and Gol this weekend. I’ve never been flying there before, and the weather forecast looked nice enough to attempt some triangle flying. The valley have a 90 degree bend at Gol, really nice for triangle tasks. I woke up at 7 and looked out at fast developing cumulus… It did not OD totally, but it was not possible to do the triangle I had planned. I flew locally for a while, and landed at the RC strip at Gol. My students from this years course, Tor Inge and Johnny, got some nice flights as well. Johnny did well in the thermals, and got up from quite low. The Paragliders flew north to Hemsedal, I was thinking of following them, but wanted my triangle too much… A few of them flew 60 km, damn.

Steinar tried to a XC flight, but got stuck for 2 hours above Gol and came down to land when I started calling him on the phone so we could go get some food:-) That meal was a strange mix, eating indian food on the constitution day with Norwegian flags and people in national costumes all over. The resturant even played traditional norwegian folk music, wierd.

We went back up to Flatagrov takeoff as it cleared up a little, to see if we could find some magic air. The wind was gusty and shifting at takeoff, it was strong cross down in the valley, and wave clouds were setting up over us. Tor Inge and I rigged in a hurry to get ready and did not pay attention to the conditions. We both got off, barely… I nearly ended in the trees, it got much better up on the ridge. I flew back towards Gol, climbing nicely in smooth wave lift before getting my ass kicked in turbulence again. I landed back at the strip, turbulent all the way down.

Turbulent takeoff, shitty conditions.

Conditions at Frya was obviously better, as Alf flew 165km to Åndalsnes with his Millennium, and El Loco got his first 100km.

Sunday was gray and not very promising, stayed mostly inside and worked.