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 :-)