Damn those Austrians and their RedBull and vodkas, the party lasted until 07:00 and it was hard to get up, pack up and go home on Sunday…

I’ve put the final scores online, http://hp.nlf.no/vaagaaopen

Short update;

Yesterday we finally saw the sun again. It was flyable in Bøverdalen, and we made a local task of around 55 km. Unfortunately some clouds shaded the valley for a long time, and the early starters all fell through. I took off around 19:30, when I saw Seppi and Johnny who had just taken off start to climb slowly. We got a weak lift to 1600 meter, I glided to take the start at Raudbergstulen together with Seppi, and them back to under the takeoff where the rest of the gaggle were struggling. We glided towards the first TP but got nothing usable, it was just too late. I had to turn back 1,5 km before the TP because there was a mountain in my flight path :-) (The TP was at 1300 meters) Seppi was a little higher and turned back 600 meters before it. Nobody made it furter, Seppi won the day, Nils Åge second and me third. The day was worth nothing in the scoring, the winner got 13 points.

Today was another very good day in Bøverdalen, 64km local task, blue thermals and good lift. I had lost my last bit of motivation and did not complete the task, but abortet halfway and landed at the main LZ. It was very turbulent and switchy because of the thermic conditions, the wind switched 180 degrees 3 times while I was trying to land. The last time when I was on final, I slammed in downwind and took out 2 uprights and 2 fittings.

Results will be posted later.

Bad weather, not much flying. Yesterday we went to Bøverdalen after the day was cancelled to see if the site is suited for a speed-gliding course. Olav, Seppi, Gerolf, Michael, and Jon flew down from Dugurmålskampen and landed at Galde. It was too windy and unstable to do some real speedgliding, but it turned out to be a good test. The site has potential for a really long speed-course.

Last night the rain came in, and it’s been wet all night and thir morning. We cancelled today at 10:00, it’s less rain now, but might still be some showers tomorrow. Forecast is 50% for flying tomorrow.

The results have been offline due to some webserver problems, but now I’ve fixed it and things seem to be OK. http://hp.nlf.no/vaagaaopen

Yesterday was forecasted to be really good, we got up to Vole and had a look before deciding to go to Salknappen because of the easterly winds. The task comittee set 70 km to Otta and up to goal at Lesja. It looked very good early, but some big clouds shaded the whole area in front of takeoff and made it very weak in front of takeoff. The earlier pilots all fell through and had to land, Otto and Nils Åge made it back up just in time for another attempt. Jon managed to ridge soar and finally got above launch and crossed over to Blåhøe, this finally inspired many pilots to get out. Arnt and me had to wait for better launch conditions and missed the first gaggle, I got out at last and took a weak thermal up to cloudbase from the ridge before Vågåruste.

It was quite strong lift in the core of the thermals, but hard to stay centered. I took the start and made a long glide into the shade towards the sun at Otta. I had to fly through some rain on the way, and arrived at Otta just below the top of the mountain. I met up with Nils Åge, Jon and Johnny there. We ridge soared for a while, and then got up to 1800 meters when I glided out to take the TP.

I did not see any other gliders, and mad a huge mistake by not planning ahead where to go when I went out to the TP, but just turned around and expected to find the same lift as we had been climbing in. It was not there, but I saw some gliders to the northeast going slowly up. I did the second mistake not going back to them, but kept gliding expecting to find more lift on the Otta platau that usually works good. There was no clouds however, and I should have realized it was much better to go to the northeast side. Instead I glided until the middle of Vågåruste without finding anything, and back down to ridge soar at Nord Sel where I slowly fell through. Landed nicely by the road there, and looked up to see beautiful clouds forming where I should have gone. This turns out to be the worst flying I’ve done in a comp so far. 12 pilots made goal yesterday. Gerolf and Michael were first with around 1:32 minutes, Andreas was third.

Today we had a rather pessimistic forecast, with overdevelopment and chance of thunderstorms. We did go up to Salknappen, where some pilots had set up. But at 12:00 the safety comitte decided against a task at that time, and pilots did not want to wait, so it was cancelled and people could freefly. It OD’ed quickly and there were some interesting landings, one Swede overcorrected wildly on his Combat, missed the tents and building and cars, and crashed into the main road. He was unhurt, but had some sail damage to the glider.

Forecast for tomorrow is pessimistic, but we hope to fly again on Tursday.

Results are delayed because of major problems with CompeGPS, they do not answer any of my support emails. The quality of this program is getting worse and worse as they add features. Right now it’s not possible to get results out of the program. I’ll make a link as soon as I have it up and running again.

Day 1 saw no-fly conditions. It was too windy from the North in Vågå, and too low cloudbase in Bøverdalen to make any task there. We had a nice 4 hour session where Gerolf Heinrichs talked about the design and construction of topless hanggliders.

Today the forecast was pretty good, with weak northerly winds, and unstable air. The task comitee set a 70 km local task Vole – Sjoa – Tordkampen – Vågå bru – Goal. First start at 14:00, and 5 15 minute intervals. I got up but struggled to get to cloudbase in the start cylinder. Took the second start after getting up from Gråhøe, but did not have enough height to cross over to Heidal and flew over to Andershøe in hope of some more lift there. It was shade in the whole area by now and I could only get a few hundred meters there, when the sun broke through at Lalm I glided back there and got a very turbulent thermal to get over to Heidal in the far north end.

Heidal was completely in shade, and Bjorn Joakimsen and me glided from cloudbase without getting anything usable. The headwind became stronger close to the TP and I did not have enough height to go through the narrow part of the valley, so I glided back to the main landing where I had seen 5 gliders packing up.

Only 4 pilots made goal, Jon won the day, Andreas Ohlsson second, and Gerolf Heinrichs third.

Results at http://hp.nlf.no/vaagaaopen

We got a great day for XC flying, the weather was classical Bismo with high cloudbase and weak SW winds. Longest PG flight was Arne Kristian Boiesen, with 97km to Atna. Kjell “Speidern” Keogh got the best HG flight with 118km south to Fåvang.

Nice takeoff at Bismo

Longest Paraglider flight was made by Arne Kristian