Remember the Fritjof Arngren mailorder catalouge from the 80s’s, with the flying car? I always wanted one of those. Now some MIT students are working on the idea, but with no facts or even a prototype this is seems even less realistic than Arngrens flying car.
Guess it’s a good thing that we do not have to share airspace with every old geezer that can afford a flying car :-)
I spent last weekend in Lausanne, Switzerland, at the CIVL plenary meeting. I attended the HG sub-comitte working group all Friday, and had a short meeting with Scott about the records and badges rules on Friday night, more on that later. Knut Nygard and Stein Tore Erdal traveled with me, and attended the PG working group. Saturday and Sunday was set aside for the plenary meeting. Stein Tore Erdal was there to work on the new web-based scoring and ranking systems, as well as Jan Nielsen that represented the organization for the Acro World Chapionships 2008 bid.
The DHV proposal about measuring sprogs was put on hold until a working group has worked more on the issue, DHV admitted it was too early to implement any rules about it now. The working group want to start trials during the Europeans in Croatia.
Jan came well prepared and made a very professional and good presentation. Norway was awarded the Acro World Championshps for 2008 to be held at Voss! The dates are not set yet, but it will be in June or August 2008.
The European PG XC and Accuracy championships 2008 was awarded to Serbia Montenegro. There were no bids for the European HG championships, but Flip said he had contact with some organizers that might do it. The bureau was given the power to select a organizer.
The CIVL officials were re-elected with no changes.
All in all the meeting was OK, but quite inefficient with very detailed and long discussions. The CIVL bureau recognize this and have made some new guidelines to make the working groups more efficient.
More info on the CIVL web
Skyline’s range of HG harnesses have been thouroghly upgraded and updated, check out Skyline’s website for all info on the new range and options.
The top model Zero Drag FR is the most advanced and best made harness on the market. Lots of kick ass features, like long and flat pack chutes along the side with zipper cover for no drag, zipper cover over the main slider, carbon extension plate that slides out to support the lower leg section in flight, and lot more.
As always the harness is custom made for a perfect fit, with the options and colours you decide. I’m the Skyline dealer in Norway, if you want a new harness before the thermal season starts let me know!
Big boys, big toys.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqcDJGlfAGE
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.