Nordic Open 2004 – Day 3

By nine in the morning it was already overdeveloping, and it was some heated discussion at takeoff on what to do with the day. The weather forecast was for nice weather in the afternoon, and at 11:30 it was lots of showers around us. Eventually the decision was to open an early start window at 11:45 for another one way to Frya task. The window closed early at 13:00, to get people out and away.

Andreas, Olav and me waited 15 minutes in cloudbase at 1900 meters for the last start. The conditions were good along the course, and we got a good run together. Andreas took what seemed like a detour to Teigkampen and some nice clouds, after Torgeirkampen, while Olav and I went straight for Vinstra. It turned out to be a good move by Andreas as he got in 3 minutes before us.

We went on a very fast final glide together from Vinstra, and got to goal with Olav 3 seconds before me. I had more height, but got thrown around in turbulence that forced me to a 360 halfway to goal, and that was some distance that is hard to catch up at those speeds.

I think 18 pilots made goal, unfortunately we flew too fast with the three of us under 1:10, and that devaluates the day quite a lot. Some pilots who took off too late did not get away from Vågå as became shaded and weak. It was raind and thunder at Frya when we packed up at goal. It was a very lucky task, it could easily have overdeveloped on course and stopped us.