Köping – Day 2 and 3

On day 2 We got a 84km task to the South, back north past Köping and back again. The weather was a little better than the day before, with less winds. Still it was clearly going to overdevelop, so we all got ready early. I towed as number 4, but had to release just after takeoff to avoid a lockout. Then I was in the back of the line, and waited for more than 1 hour to get back up again. Jon, Olav and Robin was well away on the task by the time I got my second tow, and the sky was full of showers from collapsing cumulus clouds.

I got a nice tow by Kai to over the golf club, and released into a weak thermal that got me to about 1300 meters before it started to snow from the cloud above. I went on glide towards south, and found a nice 4 m/s thermal from 300 meters above the ground just where I thought it should be. I got to about 1800 meters before it started to snow, but at this height the snow was dry and did not stick to the glider so I got above 2000 meters before I went on glide. The path ahead was crossing under a cloudstreet that had overdeveloped and I could barely see through the snow. I aimed for for some sunny fields ahead, but could not find any useful lift. I searched the area for some time as it was pointless gliding on with no sun ahead. I slowly fell through, and landed just 20 km out in the task 9 km from the first TP.

Robin landed at the first TP, Olav made second TP, while Jon made it almost to goal. Only Johan Dalquist made goal with a rigid wing. Arnt, Bjørn and Johnny could not get away from the field.

Day 3 was even more unstable than the day before, and we decided it was pointless even setting up. Jon and Robin flew, but did not make it far. The forecast was bad for day 4, and we packed up to go home.

It was a nice comp, Köping is a very nice flying site that has potential for some really good tasks. One pilot set a new swedish record from Köping a few weeks before with a 245km flight, he landed almost in Norway.

Köping, day 1

We arrived in Köping last night, after driving trough some very strong wind and showers. Arnt got his first two tows in a calm period last night. Today it was about half the strength of yesterday, about 10 m/s, and it calmed down during the day. We set a 84km task to the south, but it was not flyable because almost every cumulus cloud collapsed into a rainshower. We waited on the field for a loong time, and the task got canceled at 15:30 when no one had taken off. We went to town and got some food, and finally got some flying at about 18:00. It was quite nice conditions. I had spent the morning changing the sprogs on my glider to carbon ones, and wanted a few flights to test it.

Forecast for tomorrow looks very good, only problem could be overdelvelopment.

Hjartal Cup – Day 2 and 3

More wind from NW, but we went up to takeoff after the second briefing on Sunday. It was quite flyable, but it got canceled when a paraglider pilot tested the conditions and found some turbulence. It was probably the right thing to do, since it was not launchable most of the time anyway.

Monday seemed nice with sun and cumulus clouds, but it was forecasted stronger winds during the day. The organizers cancelled the PG task at the first briefing, and I think we were too few HG pilots there to make it worth it having a task for us. I was a little dissapointed, since it seemed like a good day to fly hanggliders.

Tomorrow we drive to Köping in Sweden, to fly a competition there. It will be Robin, Johnny, Arnt, Olav, Jon, Bjørn, and me. It’s been logged some good paraglider flights in the flightlog from the area near Köping while we have been grounded here in Norway, so the forecasted strong winds might not be a problem that far east.

Hjartdal Cup – Day 1

The winds were from the North West, and we had to go up to the takeoff on the other side of the valley here. It was windy and some lenticularis clouds on the sky. I’ve never been at the takeoff before, and the walk up there was too far and wet through the marshes. We only brought the harnesses, at the takeoff it was windy and no way the paragliders would fly. We chose to go to Notodden and try to get some aerotowing instead of carrying the gliders 1,5km and flying in what looked like quite turbulent air.

We set up at the airstrip, and Robin made a round with the trike around 18:30, but reported too much wind to tow safely. When we had packed up and left it calmed down to almost no wind. The sailplane pilots reported making 3500 meters in the wave, and turbulent air from 2000 meters and down to ground.

Today was forecasted better, and it looked good this morning. Now the lenticularis are back, with some wind at ground level. We postponed the briefing until 14:00. Forecast for tomorrow is more of the same…

Hartdal Cup weekend

This weekend it’s Hjardal Cup, I will travel there tomorrow morning. It will probably be a good competition unless the wind becomes too strong. The forecast is OK, but might make it difficult at the takeoff if the NW winds become strong.

The cup is for both hang and paragliders, I think it’s fun when we can all to fly together, and the paragliders ususally take off before us and make good thermal markers.

Ringerudkollen

I had to work Thursday and Friday, so I had to skip the planned Acro course in Voss. It was overdeveloping Saturday so no flying, but the weather cleared up and I went for a bike ride around Oslo instead.

Sunday looked very promising, I was up at 8:00 to get ready to go to Ringerudkollen early and if possible fly some XC southwest. Erik Vermaas called to get a ride since his car broke down yesterday on the way out to go flying. We met Bjørn and Erling at the landing, and went up to takeoff. It was unusually calm, the CU’s were building high around us, but no thermal activity where we were getting ready.

Erik took off after some paragliders were able to soar at takeoff height. I waited for 20 more minutes until a few paragliders were climbing good over the south takeoff. I took off straight into the thermal, and quickly climbed out over takoff, but it stopped at about 1000 meters. The conditions were strange, and even if there was no wind the cores were easily lost. I sunk back down to takeoff again before getting up together with Bjørn and Erik to 1300 meters. Since we had no permission to go higher into the TMA, any serious XC was out of the question. It’s not possible to cross the mountain over to Sokna with only 1370 meters under the TMA. We flew down the ridge, in nice smooth conditions, and landed at a small airstrip in a field. Egil and Erling had to wait in crosswind for a while, and Erling joined Bjørn and me at the airstrip later while Egil probably flew home.

Erik and I had meatballs, coffe and icecream at Vik to finish of a good flying day. The summer is here now, it was shorts and t-shirt temperatures all day.

Frya Cup 2004

We got some good days flying this weekend at Frya. Hedemarken hanggliderklubb made a well arranged competition, and I think everyone had a good weekend. I drove up on Friday afternoon and met Robin at takeoff. It was clouded, but the sun broke through as we got ready, and I got a 20 minute flight thermalling in marginal conditions. Robin had his trike ready at the Airstrip, I had the towing rope in my harness and landed on the airstrip. Robin towed me up three times so I could play a little with the setup of the glider between each flight to feel the difference.

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