We had more NV winds and some difficult conditions. I got sick and did not fly on Tuesday, Arnt and Marcus flew the course we set, and we did some theory and discussions at night.
Yesterday was forecasted to be unstable, and we got thunder and lightning at 12:15 on the takeoff. It rained all night, and forecast for today is not good, but the sun is shining now just after 9 in the morning.
I drove from Oslo at 13:00 on Saturday, picked up Marcus in Helsingborg in Sweden, and 26 hours and some 2000 kilometers later we were in Greifenburg, Austria. The travel was OK, one trying to sleep in the back and one driving. It rained as usual when we came into Austria but it cleared up in the evening. We met up with Manfred and the rest of the pilots from the coursem, Olav and Arnt came driving up from Croatia. The German open is here this week and lots of pilots here.
Today was the first day of the course, we talked a little in the morning, went up the mountain and Manfred talked about glider tuning with focus on pitch and sprog settings today. We then set a task of some 80 km in the valley and took off after the German open pilots. It was NV winds and the shade came and went. I got a nice thermal 200m under Arnt that took off 5 minutes before me. I was climbing slowly, until it became shaded again and I slowly started to sink out. I went west towards the sun on the lower hillsides but could not find anything usable, glided back east to some more sunny areas but could not find any usable lift, and landed at the main landing. Seems like only Marcus and Arnt who took off first got up, the rest of us bombed… Not a big deal since we do not fly in the comp, but a little annoying to only get 40 minutes on a OK day.
The area here is nice, with the Dolomites to the south of us and green wide valleys.
On Wednesday I went with Finn and Bobby Bailey to Kongsvinger to fly the Dragonfly. Bobby was here to help Finn get some progress on his plane building project, they got a lot of work done and it only needs some paint and paperwork to fly now. It was NW and windy, so it did not look good for soloing, but I was optimistic and when we arrived at the strip it was almost straight North there and quite smooth air.
After Bobby did a quick inspection and test flight of the Dragonfly he jumped in the back seat and let me fly. It was a little different to fly than Bobby’s new tug in Florida, and the weaker engine was also a bit different when climbing, otherwise no worries. I did 4 landings and then wanted to give the plane to Finn so he could fly, but Bobby jumped out and told me to fly it alone. I took off and flew around 10 minutes to get used to the feel of it alone, and then set up for landing. While I was flying it became more turbulent as the wind turned more west and picked up in strenght, I had to work a little to keep it straight. I misjudged the combination of stronger wind and lighter weight of the plane, and put it down too early when I should have kept it flying for 20 more meters. It was embarrasing but now I know the feeling of the lighter plane. Finn flew around for 30 minutes, and then we had to pack up and drive Bobby to the airport.
The plan is to go up there on Friday again if the weather is fine and get some more flying.
At the Extreme sports week in Voss it have been some action. Jon Gjerde tucked while attempting a spin, and threw his chute to splash down in the water. Unharmed as far as we know, but the glider had some broken parts as far as I could tell from the video. The whole accident was filmed and is on the NRK WEB-TV. Check out “dagens video” from 22/6. http://www.nrk.no/veko/ I’ve not heard any comments from Jon yet :-)
I was trying to archive some letters sendt to me from the US, while cursing the odd sized letter that I had to fold to make it fit inside a plastic sheet I decided to find out what the story was. I came across International standard paper sizes. Interesting read, the “A” format was invented first by the French, soon forgotten, and then reinvented by a German.
Yesterday was a very nice day for hanggliding, unfortunately I did not get out to fly. Nils Åge got a 147km flight from Vågå to Brummundal, and the guys at Dokka had very nice flights too. Today the thermal forecast was very good, and weak SE winds. I met up with Bjørn, Petter and Kristian at Ringerud at noon, it was already strong cycles at takeoff, but a blue sky with no signs of cumies.
Petter quickly fell through after takeoff, while Bjørn and I stayed just above takoff in typical high pressure conditions. Lots of lift, but a strong inversion at 800 meters that proved unbreakable today. I flew down the rigdge to try to get around the corner after the dam, but the headwind and lack of coherent lift made it too risky. I glided back and boated around until I got bored, flew off my height in lazy wingovers over the lake, and landed nicely. Good day but it would be nice to get a XC flight from Ringerud soon, it’s been at least 2 years since I flew anything but local flights there.
When we left Harald was soaring just above takeoff with his Extaccy.
Me and Bjørn thermalling just over takeoff.
In Croatia the Pre-Europeans started today, I talked to Olav on the phone this morning, and it was too windy to fly today.
I met up with Bjørn, Alf, Johnny, Petter and Lene at Brandbukampen yesterday afternoon. Alf was there to test his new WillsWing Sport 2. It looked like a nice glider, with slipstream uprights and a profiled speedbar. One sprog on each wing to compensate for fewer lufflines and makes the profile much better performing. Alf promised me a test flight on it, maybe I’ll tow it up.
It was nice conditions, but a little too south to use the (nicer) west launch. The others got off the south launch, and got up. I was last in line, and it died out completely. The south launch is not very tempting in nil-wind. The wind then established itsef with cross on both launches, but I finally got out on the west when the sun came around and generated some thermals. By then the others had landed, I flew around the area enjoying the nice big thermals and just boated around for one hour.
Two days ago Olav and Arnt drove south towards Croatia, they will try to fly as training before the pre-Europeans next week. Originally I was going too, but plans have changed. I will meet Olav and Arnt at Manfred’s course in two weeks.
Tom Lanning is another US based pilot, posting pictures and blogs about flying.
Kevin Carter’s blog is getting better after a slow start. He’s currently in Europe, flying the T2.
Saturday was forecasted to be flyable, but it was quite gray and windy in Oslo when I woke up. I called Bjørn and Alf, none of them wanted to go flying because of the weather. I met up with Ric, a visiting pilot from the states, and picked up the Falcon at Bjørns house. Terje Solberg wanted to fly and came to takeoff just as we were getting ready. Erik Vermaas and Gary were also at takeoff, at the NE launch.
Conditions were looking good, the cirrus layer gradually got thinner and cumulus clouds started popping up around us. Erik took of first and quickly got over takoff. Gary took off and scratched for a long time around launch before he had to land. Ric took off in a slow period and also landed after scratching for a while over a clearing in the forested hillside.
I took off in a good period and got up in a thermal to the left into the wind, it was slow in the beginning and I had to go back out three times before I had enough height to drift in over the higher peaks behind takeoff. In there it was very good air, and hard to stay below controlled airspace. I saw Erik coming back from the north and I followed him in case we should go for a XC, but it was rain and gray to the south west over Sokna. Terje Solberg also got up and was cruising around in the nice air. I flew down to the airstrip south of the dam, and crossed over the lake to the sunny side again.
After landing Fredrik picked me up and we had a nice barbeque at the takeoff with Maria and Georgia, while Ric flew again, this time he got up nicely.
Today it was rain with thunder in the afternoon.