I had two nice ridge soaring flights the last weeks. Last Thursday Gunnar and I went to Sundvollen backed up by a nice forecast. As we arrived a Paraglider started and stayed up for some seconds before gliding out to land. (A student by the looks of the flying position, feet wide, arms locked :-))

It was forecast less wind during the day, and we set up quickly. Gunnar borrowed my Malibu, and got off before me. He did not stay close enough and fell through. I took off with my Litespeed RS, and slowly got up in front of launch, before gliding to the right and hooking up on the main ridge. Very smooth, lots of 0.1 m/s lift. The RS is very sensitive to the air, and seeks out be best lift almost by itself.

After about 1 hour ridge soaring I usually get bored, it was nice conditions still. But Gunnar was waiting, so I spin down to the landing to drive him up for a second try. He did much better now, but the conditions were just too weak to stay up in front of launch.

Yesterday it was too windy for our beginner course, but Steinar convinced me to try Grefsenkollen. It’s a site in the middle of Oslo, and I’ve never flown there before. The landing zone is a footballfield for kids, full of obstructions, goals, and not safe for a high performance hangglider. Just right for the Malibu in other words :-)

It was windy and gusty, more than 10 m/s in the gusts, and quite turbulent by the looks of it.  So we quickly set up while the paraglider pilots packed up. Steinar got off in a lull, and seemed to find nice and smoot ridge lift. I got ready, but had to wait through a period of strong wind and gusts before I could get off.

A short video from the takeoff below. We did some very nice close passes, but both of us had dead batteries in the camera. It was super nice light, so that was a shame. Next time perhaps.

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