Saturday was another classical good day in Vågå. We got a layer of cirrus making it challenging to get up and away early, but the day improved and conditions were very good later in the day. The window was open from 12:30, the first gaggle hat problems when crossing to Grimsdalen and most landed there. Later pilots got good conditions and we had many pilots fly to Tynset, with Nils Åge stretching it 139km to Røros.

The weather forecast this weekend have been quite precise, and we could see the forecasted warm front moving in late Saturday. We hoped it would pass sooner than predicted so we could fly in Bøverdalen, but at the briefing at 13:00 it was obviously going to stay for some hours more. We cancelled the last day and had price giving. Many people seemed happy to go home early after two days of long flights and longer retreives.

Total winner of Milslukern PG 2005 was Mikael Ulstrup. This is Mikael to the right, with Fredrik Jensen to the left.

Nils Åge Henden won the HG comp. All results at Jetta LSK homepage

Me on final glide towards Greifenburg, as seen from the Swift.

Manfred is on my tail

Olav with the Alps in the background

The class, a international team, from the left; Phil (New-Zealand/Germany), Leigh (South Africa), me (Norway), Olav (Norway), Bob (Flying Dutchman), Marcus (Sweden), Manfred (Austria), Duncan (England), Arnt (Norway)

Finally the winds died down and we got a good day for flying. We got up quite early and set up among the rest of the pilots at takeoff. It was quite crowded, but plenty of space compared to during the German open. We got a 133 km task from Manfred, with a 3 km startcylinder 12 km east on the ridge, 13:15 start time, then SW with 2 valley crossings and back to goal at the camping.

As I got ready to take off conditions shut down when a cloud shaded the takeoff area, I moved to the side and let a few other pilots out. I had earlier bombed out twice because of shading, and did not want a repeat even if the conditions looked much better than the days before. As Olav and Marcus started climbing I took off and flew over to them on the left side. It was a little work a first and we had to fly quite far out from the terrain to get a nice 3 m/s core up to 3000 meters. I joined up with Marcus at cloudbase and we glided east to the start gate. I was there first, and had to hang around cloudbase for nearly 40 minutes before the start, I was glad I had put on a extra sweater under my Skyline flightsuit as it was kinda cold at over 3000 meters. After a while the rest of the pilots joined us at cloudbase, and all of us took the race start at 13:15.

I could spot some paragliders climbing good over takeoff and flew back west there in a straight line, just utilizing the clouds to get a good line. I could spot Olav and Arnt heading into the mountains, but I thought it did not look that good to be worth the risk. Later it turned out they had to glide back out again when it was not working. Over takeoff I found a nice core again and got up to 2600, when it became weaker I remember some of the advice from Manfred and moved on instead of loosing time. I was rewarded with another good climb to cloudbase at the next peak, and could look down on the rest of the field struggling 1000 meters below me. Manfred was down there marking the lift and giving some advice over the radio.

From the next ridge we had to make a long crossing over to the hills behind Lienz, I spotted some good clouds and got a OK line going there. Arriving at the lower hills I quickly got up to 2500 again, but had to search for the next cycle to get up to cloudbase before the next crossing. Going low from this point would mean a early landing for sure. As I left on glide from cloudbase I could see Olav, Arnt and Marcus climbing with Manfred under me.

Arriving quite low at the other side of the valley I went into the leeside under some ragged clouds, it was strong, shitty and turbulent lift there and I had to fight very hard to stay and get up. The place is called “Mad woman hill”, I can understand why :-)

Getting up to cloudbase again it was easy going to the TP, the view in to the Dolomites was fantastic in the crystal clear air. I took the TP at 2500 meters and got a good 4 m/s climb after gliding some 6-7 km back again. Manfred came gliding towards the TP and asked over the radio if we should fly sightseeing into the Dolomites. I declined as I got quite tired in the leeside after the crossing and it would mean 1-2 hours extra flying time to get back.

I made my first big mistake crossing back from the “Mad woman” again, aiming too far away from the working clouds after the first crossing. I slowly sunk lower and lower on the ridge, getting worried I would have to land at Lienz. Finally I found a weak thermal and stuck with it until I could fly in under the clouds to the west again, I spotted Marcus and Manfred climbing and got up with them again. The next crossing was OK, with a stop halfway to tank up a few hundred meters to make sure I had plenty of height on the last ridge. It worked really well there with nice clouds on the north side, I just flew straight starting my final glide 24km out, climbing from 2400 to 3200 meters. It was turbulent over the hills, and I flew out in the valley so I could keep up the speed. Manfred joined me on the glide, flying with the brakes on the Swift to have the same glide as a hangglider. Marcus came into goal 10 minutes later. Olav and Arnt landed 20 and 25km out, Leigh and Phil near the second TP, and Duncan had problems after the start gate and landed at the camping.

Great finish to an interesting week, I just wish we could have had some more days like the last. But that is hanggliding, no control over the weather.

Driving home was uneventful except from the massive thunderstorms over Northern Germany, it was huge and powerful storms for 500 km.

It was windy and not flyable. We went Go-Carting and then to a bird-show at an old castle about 1 hour from Greifenburg. It was an impressive show with trained birds of pray hunting for stuffed animals beeing dragged or thrown around the area. The king eagle and hawk swooped just centimetres above our heads.

Today looks very nice, with blue skies and no wind so far.

Mostly it’s been huge amounts of rain. We flew on Thursday, but it was weak and hard to stay up. Olav got off early and flew parts of the course with Manfred, the rest of us slowly sunk out in the shade and landed at the main field. We had lots of time to do teory and discussions again, quite interesting stuff, mostly to confirm what we already know but also some new perspectives.

Today the German Open is cancelled because of 60 km NW winds at 1500 meters. It’s a possibility it flyable tomorrow so we stay. Most pilots are packing up and leaving for home.

We had more NV winds and some difficult conditions. I got sick and did not fly on Tuesday, Arnt and Marcus flew the course we set, and we did some theory and discussions at night.

Yesterday was forecasted to be unstable, and we got thunder and lightning at 12:15 on the takeoff. It rained all night, and forecast for today is not good, but the sun is shining now just after 9 in the morning.

I drove from Oslo at 13:00 on Saturday, picked up Marcus in Helsingborg in Sweden, and 26 hours and some 2000 kilometers later we were in Greifenburg, Austria. The travel was OK, one trying to sleep in the back and one driving. It rained as usual when we came into Austria but it cleared up in the evening. We met up with Manfred and the rest of the pilots from the coursem, Olav and Arnt came driving up from Croatia. The German open is here this week and lots of pilots here.

Today was the first day of the course, we talked a little in the morning, went up the mountain and Manfred talked about glider tuning with focus on pitch and sprog settings today. We then set a task of some 80 km in the valley and took off after the German open pilots. It was NV winds and the shade came and went. I got a nice thermal 200m under Arnt that took off 5 minutes before me. I was climbing slowly, until it became shaded again and I slowly started to sink out. I went west towards the sun on the lower hillsides but could not find anything usable, glided back east to some more sunny areas but could not find any usable lift, and landed at the main landing. Seems like only Marcus and Arnt who took off first got up, the rest of us bombed… Not a big deal since we do not fly in the comp, but a little annoying to only get 40 minutes on a OK day.

The area here is nice, with the Dolomites to the south of us and green wide valleys.

On Wednesday I went with Finn and Bobby Bailey to Kongsvinger to fly the Dragonfly. Bobby was here to help Finn get some progress on his plane building project, they got a lot of work done and it only needs some paint and paperwork to fly now. It was NW and windy, so it did not look good for soloing, but I was optimistic and when we arrived at the strip it was almost straight North there and quite smooth air.

After Bobby did a quick inspection and test flight of the Dragonfly he jumped in the back seat and let me fly. It was a little different to fly than Bobby’s new tug in Florida, and the weaker engine was also a bit different when climbing, otherwise no worries. I did 4 landings and then wanted to give the plane to Finn so he could fly, but Bobby jumped out and told me to fly it alone. I took off and flew around 10 minutes to get used to the feel of it alone, and then set up for landing. While I was flying it became more turbulent as the wind turned more west and picked up in strenght, I had to work a little to keep it straight. I misjudged the combination of stronger wind and lighter weight of the plane, and put it down too early when I should have kept it flying for 20 more meters. It was embarrasing but now I know the feeling of the lighter plane. Finn flew around for 30 minutes, and then we had to pack up and drive Bobby to the airport.

The plan is to go up there on Friday again if the weather is fine and get some more flying.

At the Extreme sports week in Voss it have been some action. Jon Gjerde tucked while attempting a spin, and threw his chute to splash down in the water. Unharmed as far as we know, but the glider had some broken parts as far as I could tell from the video. The whole accident was filmed and is on the NRK WEB-TV. Check out “dagens video” from 22/6. http://www.nrk.no/veko/ I’ve not heard any comments from Jon yet :-)