Sportavia open finished

The competition at Sportavia is finished, 4 out of 7 days flying. The last proved to be difficult with overdelvelopment on the course, only Crag Coomber made goal. Jon lost a few overall places by landing after only 11km on the last day, and he got 7. place overall. Jon jr. won the comp, with the Hungarian mafia of Balaz and Atilla on second and third.

Complete results at http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/results/Sportavia06/

The comps in Australia have not attracted many international pilots this year, with mostly only the “resident” international pilots attending. On the positive site it seems like there’s many new Australian pilots flying competitions.

Next up in Oz

The pilots are in Tocumwal at Tove’s Sportavia soaring center. There will be a week long aerotowing competition that starts on the 21. Tove is running a training camp for new pilots these days before the competition.

According to the Oz report there was a fatal accident there today, where a pilot tucked and spun to the ground from about 130 meters. I feel so sorry for Tove and the pilots there.

There is no competition in Hay or Deniliquin this year, guess the green grass and pool at Tocumwal is preferrable to the desert and dust further north.

Goal at Tocumwal last year, there’s a pool, and resturant between the trees. Nils Åge, Jon and I made it in, after a good day that got difficult at the end.

TocumwalAtilla

Atilla won the Bogong cup with a strong 400 point lead on Gerolf in second, and Olli got third place. All Litespeeds. Jon got 13. place overall. Full results from the Oz report

Atilla at Goal in Tocumwal last year.

Tracklogs in Google earth

It’s nice to be able to analyze the tracklogs from the Bogong Cup soon after each day is scored. I was looking at the best flights, and found Jon’s choice on day 4 to be interesting…
Day 4, Google Earth
Jon’s track is the green on the left, he chose to go all alone, way off course to the first TP. I emailed him and asked if it paid off, and he wrote it did not really work. He wanted to be smarter than everyone else, and took the chance to go by himself. He got low, and met headwind going to the TP anyway.

Kevin Carter writes about flying with Steve Moyes in his blog, Steve is the Ninja Master, Kevin is the Grasshopper, and no one can beat the Ninja Master :-) Flying with Steve is a humbling experience, he is super smooth and efficient in every move.

Jon in Bogong

After another good day yesterday with 6. place, Jon seemed to have a bad run today with only 38km of the 104km course. He’s now in 13. place overall.  Gerolf won the day today, with his apprentice Michael 9 seconds behind. Atilla is still way ahead after 3. place today, Andreas on 4.

Bogong Cup, day 4

Looks like it was another difficult day in the Bogong Cup, Jon did not make goal, but landed 20 km short on the 134km task, at 17. palce. He dropped down to 11. place again in the overall scoring. Atilla won the day again, showing great form and now have a comfortable 339 point lead on Johnny Jr. in second, and Olli just behind in 3.

Andreas did well and got to goal and 6. place yesterday.

Bogong Cup – update

After day 3 Jon moved up to 7. place overall! He did really well with 6. place on day 3, according to the Oz report it was a very slow day with total overcast conditions. Only 9 pilots in goal, Andreas missed it by a few km in 10. place. Atilla is still in the lead, while Steve Moyes moved up to second place after outclassing everyone on day 3.
Results are available from the Oz report, the official homepage of the Bogong Cup did not have any result links, nor does Wesley Hill who is the scorer put them on his homepage.
I have not spoken to Jon yet, but according to Nils Åge he is flying one of Gerolf’s old gliders. Jon complained it was stiff, but had good performance.

Bogong Cup 05

Jon Gjerde is the only Norwegian in Oz this year, he is doing well after two days of the Bogong Cup with 11. place overall of 66 pilots. The Hungarian mafia of Atilla and Balaz did really good on the first day and are in the lead in front of Olli.

Andreas is the only Swede, and he seems to be struggling, it’s unusual for him to be down at 28. place overall in this comp that he knows well.

Gamez

mono_6_t.jpgI got a link to some cool free games at BinaryZoo, very fun and addictive. I liked Mono the most, it’s like Asteroids on acid and speed. Reminds me of old school arcade machines (1 or 2 Kr. per play) and some of the Amiga classics. Quick and no-brainer games for instant fun in the wintertime.

If you have a modern computer and some spare time, X3 – Reunion is my current favourite. I spent many hours playing the prequels X – BTF and X2 – The threat when they came out years ago, and so far the hours have gone quickly while playing X3.

news_2005_08_13_001_th1.jpg

X3 is a realtime space game, where you play a pilot building an empire by trading, fighting, exploring and building in a huge universe. If you have played the games Elite or Freelancer you get the idea. X3 was buggy and crashed frequently at first, but download the version 1.3 patch and everything works fine. You do need a good 3D card and lots of memory for the game to run.