Monthly Archives: January 2013

Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2013, day 10, task 9

Blog posts here are getting shorter as I am getting more tired :-)

Task 9 was around 250km, 4 turnpoints, going back to Forbes. Olav Opsanger again did a great flight and reached goal as only Norwegian, while Nils Aage landed just short, me and Olav lien just behind that, Johnny at the 3. TP, and Tormod between the second and third TP. Less than 20 pilots made goal, so the task was hard enough… The leader Manfred landed out and lost his 200 point lead, so it’s suddenly exiting again in the top.

We had real clouds for the first time, and conditions in the startgate were good, even though we started one hour earlier than normal. I had a good start with Olav Lien and Johnny, but got some really bad air all the way to the first TP. I lost over 30 minutes to Olav Opsanger and Nils Aage on the first 70km leg, just could not find any decent lift even under good clouds I had to take 1 and 2m/s thermal when Olav were reporting 5m/s thermals all the way.

After finally getting the TP I had a good run the rest of the task, gaining around 30km on the leaders, but the day ran out in the end, the last thermal was 0.2 m/s and drifted the wrong way, so I landed at sunset at 19:40 40 km short from goal after nearly 7 hours in the air.

Last day today, close to 200km out and return to the north, looks like a very hard day again.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2013, day 9, task 8

Task 8, 184km triangle
Task 8, 184km triangle

Long task again today, blue conditions, light winds, and thermals up to 2000m. The team had a good day with Olav Opsanger, Nils Aaage, me, Johnny and Olav Lien Olsen in goal. Tormod landed near the second TP.

I had a low start at 1500 meters, but found good conditions along the course and soon caught up with the main gaggle. I was flying with Nils Aage and Olav Lien most of the task, but we lost Olav at the second TP. Final glide of 1:11 and straight into goal with around 4:30 in the air today. Reasonable fast day and much improved from yesterdays disaster task for me. Too tired to write more now, we are all looking like old men getting stiff bodies out of the harnesses in goal, only two more days to go so hope the shoulders and back can take the abuse a little more.

At the startcylinder and ready to go
At the startcylinder and ready to go

 

Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2013, day 8, task 7

240km straight downwind task. Only Nils Aaage made goal from our team. Olav Opsanger had 4 tows to get up and away, and flew very fast to catch up, but landed 41km before goal, Johnny and Tormod around 25 km from goal.

I had a frustrating day – when I got ready to fly and discovered that my VG rope had gone up into the upright on my glider, so I had to derig completely, disassemble and reassemble the upright and VG rope, and set up the glider again while the clock was ticking. I got a good tow and find a nice thermal up to 1600m with some other pilots. I was too late to take the first start gate, and moved up towards the cylinder to get in position for the second clock, but hit massive sink and could not go back to get more lift. Struggled out of the startcircle at 10 minutes too early, and drifted up to bogan gate not finding anything to get up.

I landed at 38km out from the start. This is my worst competition result in my career so far, not having much fun these last days…

Happy happy joy joy
Happy happy joy joy
Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2013, day 7, task 6

Task 6 was a dogleg to Gulgong goal, 220km. It was nice conditions early in the morning, but lots of cirrus moved in over us when setting up, shading the courseline. I got a weaklink break, and had to come back for a reflight. As I landed the winds picked up strongly, and that would be the case for the rest of the day. I got a good reflight towing behind Bruce, and drifted out of the startcircle under the shaded sky.

A lot of pilots took the first start gate at 14:10, so we had a nice gaggle going up towards the turnpoint. The wind was quite strong the whole courseline and increasing as we approached the turnpoint. It had been open flatlands with good landing options in strong winds, but after the TP we got hills and forested areas. I got a thermal over some small ridges, but the drift would take me in over trees and non-landable terrain. I was flying backwards into the trees in the wind, so I chose to play it safe and pull in to land at the last landable field. It was not fun to land, very turbulent and gusts of 50 km/h that increased to over 100 later in the evening. The task was stopped because of the winds, but sometime after I decided to land, so I get penalized in the scores.

James Stinnet landed just behind me and we packed up together in the paddoc and walked out to the main road, only to find locked gates so we could not get the car in. Georgia did a great job of finding an alternate route through another property so we only had to carry 500 meters.

Scores on the two stopped tasks are not fair, as they do not take into account start times and height of the pilots.

Courious cattle following us around the paddoc
Courious cattle following us around the paddoc
This guy had no hurry crossing the road
This guy had no hurry crossing the road
Lizard with a blue tounge
Lizard with a blue tounge

 

Competitions

Worlds 2013, day 6, task 5

Task 5 ;

Task 5, 193km
Task 5, 193km

The forecast for task 5 was uncertain, but we got lots more wind than forecasted, and the gusts were close to the limit for towing. Everyone seem to get away safely as pilot’s towing skills have gotten better every day. I got my first weaklink break at around 300 meters above gorund (We normally tow to around 600m), I found a weak thermal to drift with in the strong winds, and drifted out of the start circle with a few other gliders at 1000m.

The thermal took off, and we got up to 2300m and could start flying the course for real. Just before the first TP I got a nice thermal that took us up to 3000m, it started to get weak so I went on glide, but I heard Olav Opsanger report 3900m in that same area behind me after I had started towards the next TP. We got some good air and stayed high in strong headwinds over the second TP, but a long glide into the wind saw me, Nils Aage and Johnny searching for lift over some low hills in 40 km winds, and lots of gliders on the ground below us. We had to get up to cross over a range of forested hills, so we tried hard to get up and just then the task was stopped because of the strong winds.

Results are at http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

 

Wool, neoprene and lycra, and 42 degrees
Wool, neoprene and lycra, and 42 degrees
Hooking up
Hooking up
And away in the dust
And away in the dust
Competitions

Worlds 2013, day 5, task 4

Olav Opsanger did a great flight, starting late and getting the fastest time of all pilots in the 200km dogleg task. Olav Lien Olsen also had a very good time, Johnny, Nils, Tormod and I did not make goal. It’s not been the best worlds for the Norwegian team so far with regards to the results.

I started developing cramps in my shoulder during the first part of the task, and could not stretch or find a position that gave relief, approaching the TP i met up with Nils Aage and we found a rough and strong thermal that needed some active flying to stay in it, during this the cramps came back and would not give up no matter what I did. I tried to fly to take the TP and get high again to get some more time to try to stretch, but had to give in when it started feeling like inserting a knive under my shoulderblade. I landed at the TP, and Lars Olav came there to pick me up 5 minutes after landing. Dinner at Cowra where the team met up on the drive home.

Had my share of bad days in this comp now…

All gliders set up and ready
All gliders set up and ready

 

The milky way seen from Forbes
The milky way seen from Forbes

 

Competitions

Worlds 2013, day 4, task 3

Yesterdays task turned out to be a good day of flying, blue thermals and not much wind made it a good task. We all got away and flew around the startgate waiting for the time to pass until first start. I was on the edge of the start circle with around 30 other glider at the first start gate at 14:40, I wanted to wait until the 15:00 startgate, but it looked like the whole gaggle I was with took the first gate so I went with them.

It was slow going at first, but conditions turned on near the first TP after around 50 km. The lead gaggle from the next startgate caught up with us just before the second TP, but I made a mistake loosing the TP thermal and lost the gaggle there. I got low on final glide and had to spend a long time getting up in weak lift before Icould glide in to goal. Olav Lien Olsen, Johnny, Nils Aage and me made goal. Tormod landed near the first TP. Olav Opanger had instrument problems, landed and relaunched, and the instrument failed again before the first TP. Looks like it was defective batteries, even though they were brand new Lithium AA’s. Massive stroke of bad luck for him, and not good for the team scores.

Todays task is a bit longer, 200km dogleg into the eastern hills. Conditions similar to yesterday, but with more winds from the NW.

Competitions

Worlds 2013, day 3, task 2

Day 2 was cancelled due to strong winds. Day 3 gave us flyable conditions, but strong winds, blue and weak conditions, lift to 1600m (13-1400 above ground) and a 163km task made it a difficult day. Olav Opsanger was the only one from our team to make goal, while the rest was spread out along the courseline. I took a quite bad start misreading the start time on my instrument and had to go back against the strong winds and thermal up again, I feel that I am still too rusty after no “real” competition flying for 2 years, but at least it felt like my flying was a little improved since the first task. Body is hurting in many places though :-)

I could see the main gaggle ahead, but catching up is very hard as the gaggle is usually fastest in blue and low conditions. Tormod joined up with me and few other pilots and our small gaggle worked a few weak thermals until we spread out for another long glide. I hit the next thermal core and lost the rest of the pilots behind, now flying alone over terrain becoming more and more shaded under thick cirrus.

I spottet a few more gliders ahead of me but could not get the thermals they had, and had to turn upwind again to avoid drifting into very remote countryside with no roads or farms nearby. I landed near a farmhouse, and was well received by the owners who invited me and the french girl who landed next paddoc for tea and cookies. They had pilots landing there many times in the past years, and sailplanes from the nearby Narromine gliderport.

Olav Lien had landed in an area without phone coverage that was very hard to find, but in the end the local farmers helped our retreive driver to get through the fields and gates to get to him.

My outlanding field, task 2.
My outlanding field, task 2.
Cirrus covered sky
Cirrus covered sky

 

Today we have a better forecast with less winds and a triangle task back to Forbes airport again.

Competitions

Worlds 2013, official practice day

Yesterday we had another warm day, and after taking the glider out for a short test-flight after some sprog adjustments we went to the opening ceremony with parades and speeches, and a nice BBQ at the Forbes Rugby club. It was over 40 degreees even after the sun went down.

Hanggliding Team Norway 2013
Hanggliding Team Norway 2013

Our team from back left, Tormod Helgesen, Johnny Nilssen, Olav Lien Olsen, Nils Aage Henden, Lars Olav Lund (Driver)
Front, Øyvind Ellefsen, and Olav Opsanger

Tove is expat norwegian, flying for Australia in this worlds.
Tove is expat norwegian, flying for Australia in this worlds.

Today was the offical practice day, with full task setting and scoring. We got a short task of around 140km, with first start gate at 14:00. We towed up into very good conditions, and after a few weak thermals in the start gate I found a boomer that took me to 2900 meters just in time for the second start time. From there it was a few long glides with good thermals inbetween, but the stong conditions also meant rough air, and it was physically hard flying today. I wanted to save some strength for tomorrow, so I cut the task around 30 km short, and made a final glide to goal in headwind and strong sink. It was nice and cool up high, getting low again was like opening the door to  an oven, the towpaddoc saw 47 degrees today, it’s been a long time since I drank so much water in a day.

Tomorrow it’s for real, the first task in the Worlds 2013.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Practice days 1 and 2 in Forbes

I’m back in Forbes with blue skies, thermals are booming, and all is well. I met up with the rest of the Norwegian team who had spent a few days flying at Gulgong, they had good conditions and nice flying there, and now it’s time to get up in Forbes and be well prepared for the Worlds that start on Monday.

It’s stinking hot in the tow paddoc at the airport with 38 degrees today, and predicted 40 degrees tomorrow. Yesterday was quite windy and gusty, with dustdevils working their way through the gliders in the setup line. We waited to set up until most pilots had towed up, and was rewarded with an afternoon flight in windy but OK conditions.

Today we set a task out and return to Peak Hill, about 150km,  and in hindsight  we should have set a start time to get a small gaggle going into the blue conditions, instead of getting spread out from the start.

I was some km behind Olav Lien from the start and had a few good thermals until I pushed a little too hard hard upwind and started getting low in sink. I found some weak thermals and got up to around 1000 meters, but lost a nice 3 m/s core and could not find it again – searching through the 6 m/s sink soon had me looking for a landing again. I decked it around 35km from the TP at Peak hill, so it was a short flight for me today. Olav Lien seems to have done the whole task as I write this he’s still flying, while Olav Opsanger and Nils Aage landed on the way back between Peak Hill and Forbes. Johnny and Tormod flew locally at Forbes.

It's summer here...
My landing site, somwhere west of Parkes. It’s summer here…