Two days ago we got a fairly good day with clouds and 15 kt northerly winds mixed with plenty of dustdevils. I towed up in some rough air, and my weaklink broke at around 250 meters in a strong thermal. I started climbing in the thermal, but had to avoid drifting too far downwind across the runway. I struggled staying upwind for around 20 minutes but had to come down out of the lift in the end. By the time I landed the wind had picked up a bit too much to go alone on the dolly with no groundcrew, so I parked glider in the hangar and had a nice aftenoon at the Forbes pool.
Weaklink break;
Yesterday we had a god looking sky early in the day;
Forbes sky
But it was quite windy with strong thermals mixed in with the gusts, it would not be possible to keep the glider on the dolley. In addition we had storms building around us, so after some hanging around at the airport we decided to try some evening tows if the storms had passed by then. It was still raining in town at night, so no flying yesterday.
Storm building
Today looks too windy again so far, but the RASP forecast predicts less winds in the afternoon and less potential for storms.
Had a nice flight today, starting to get the gear sorted out and getting back into the routine of flying. Some more pilots showed up to tow around noon, I was first off the ground and straight into a 3 m/s thermal. Some of the other pilots were struggling a little in the beginning, but I think they all got away in the end. I had a knot in the harness zipper line and could not close it enough to relax my legs. It’s good to sort out stuff linke this before the comp :-)
Some pictures;
My new glider
Marco towing us up
36 degrees today again
Better clouds to the north of us
Primoz taking off
The thermal after tow, vario goes high and silent for a while :-)
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;
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.
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 6
Highly motivated to head up to launch in the rainAt Launch day 5, fog is just lifting
Johnny packing upAt LZ day 5
Blog, pictures, videos, and articles from my flying adventures aound the world. Content in English.
