Vågå Open, Day 3 and 4

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.