Category Archives: Competitions

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…
Competitions, Hanggliding

Shoulder surgery, Norwegian nationals 2012

I’ve had problems with my right shoulder for some years, and after a small injury from playing Paintball and diving into a bunker in December I was unable to get back mobility and full strength even with the help of very good therapy. The MR showed that I would need surgery, and with the worlds coming up in January I decided to have it done now so I could get back to flying in time for the worlds. The surgery was 4 weeks ago, and went really well, I’ve started training and should have a full recovery.

This meant I had to skip flying our nationals last week, but I went up to Vågå to help out driving and had time to take some pictures at launch the last day. The competition was postponed one week at first because of bad weather, and the bad weather stayed so they only flew two tasks with very average conditions, and we only got 11 pilots who could fly the comp. Considering the poor weather so far this season it was good we got two tasks.

It was great to see two new faces among all the graybeards in the comp, congratulations to Lars Olav and Vidar for good effort, hope you had fun!

Nils Aage Henden won the comp, just a few points ahead of Kjell Keogh and Olav Opsanger. Results;

Total results

Task Date Distance
T1 Dag 1 NM 2012 2012-07-16 13:15 42,3 km Race to Goal with 1 startgate(s)
T2 Task 2 2012-07-21 13:15 51,6 km Race to Goal with 5 startgate(s)

 

# Id Name Nat Glider Sponsor T 1 T 2 Total
1 9 Nils Aage Henden M NOR Moyes Litespeed RS 432 400 832
2 2 kjell keogh M NOR Aeros Combat L 638 184 822
3 1 Olav Opsanger M NOR Moyes Litespeed RS4 378 358 736
4 6 Tormod Helgesen M NOR Wills Wing T2C 515 141 656
5 4 Jan Erik Gjerland M NOR Moyes Litespeed RS 402 186 588
6 10 Dag Ring M NOR Moyes Litespeed S4 437 141 578
7 3 Johnny Nilssen M NOR Moyes Litespeed RS4 147 141 288
7 8 Lars Olav Lund M NOR Wills Wing U2 160 147 141 288
7 5 Harald Steen M NOR Wills Wing T2C 147 141 288
7 7 Vidar Walberg M NOR Moyes Litespeed S4 147 141 288
11 11 Jens Krotseng M NOR Aeros Combat L 147 0 147

Pictures from the last day at Espesetra + the dinner;

Competitions, Hanggliding, HG Course

Worlds 2011, starting hanggliding beginner courses.

I did not get much out of that comp, got sick and lost all motivation. I went home early and did not miss out much.

On a more positive note I am running two intensive beginner courses in hanggliding the next two weeks. We still have capacity for a few more students, so please spread the word. Go to http://oohgk.no/kurs for more information in Norwegian. Contact me if you have any questions. The course will use scootertowing as primary method, and the course fee includes hotel for the week, all transport and equipment.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2011, Day 5 and 6

Day 5 and 6 cancelled due to bad weather. Forecast for the next few days looks bleak.

Yesterday we got a small break in the rain late in the afternoon, and we went up the hill to fly. It was tailwind most of the time, but Nils Aage, Johnny and I managed to get off in a short period of launchable air. It was mostly a glide down, but with some small areas of lift.

At launch today;

At launch day 7
At launch day 6

 

Highly motivated to head up to launch in the rain
Highly motivated to head up to launch in the rain
At Launch day 6, fog is just lifting
At Launch day 5, fog is just lifting

 

Johnny packing up
Johnny packing up
At LZ day 6
At LZ day 5

 

Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2011, day 3 and 4

We went up on the hill two days ago, it was OK conditions in the morning, but the winds got too strong for task flying so the day was cancelled. Some pilots flew and reported OK conditions, but conditions on launch were too difficult to get 150 pilots safe off and on time. We needed 3 wiremen each to turn the gliders round.

Yesterday we drove to Subasio and got a 122 km task. I had been feeling sick the evening and night before, and was not getting any better driving to launch. I set up and took off as one of the last pilots from the hill, into windy conditions but some areas of good lift. I got up and took the first startgate after getting sick and throwing up while flying inside the startcircle. I felt a little better after throwing up once, but soon got sick again and decided to glide out and land, I was too weak and dizzy to safely keep flying so I picked a huge field and just glided straight there.

My day did not get any better after hearing about the terrorist attacks in Oslo, but at least it put things in perspective.

The rest of our team spread out, with Vegar getting low and landing early, Johnny landed near the first TP with a big gaggle and many top pilots who hand to land, Nils Åge landed near the 3 TP at around 83km with around 30 other pilots. Looks like only 20 made goal, and Primoz is in the lead.

Today (Day 5) looks very gray from the morning, it’s been raining during the night, and the weatherman was not optimistic about flying today.

Results can be found at: http://www.cucco2011.org/

Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2011, Day 1, too windy

This morning we could see the low clouds whizzing by the takeoff hill as we were having breakfast outside in the sun. The day was cancelled for flying at the team leader briefing this morning because of forecasted high winds (50 knots) and fronts passing through the area.

We will go sightseeing today, as there is not much to do here in Sigilio. Johnny wants to drive go-carts, maybe we should save that for tomorrow…

 

Competitions, Hanggliding

Worlds 2011, Training day

It was as windy as predicted this morning, with lenticularis clouds over takeoff. The day was cancelled for flying at the morning briefing, but we had a nice safety briefing with Raymond Caux making a short talk about VG use, hooking in the harness before putting it on, and the mindset about incidents (We are learning to make mistakes every time we make one and live to tell about it, we should concider the incidents luck instead of bad luck)

The weather forecast for tomorrow is not great with rain and some more wind, but should be better after that.