Hanggliding, HG Course

Fall to winter

1 Comment

Today our beginner course had their last planned day of the course, we wanted to get their first footlaunch high flights done before the winter break in December and January. I met up with Terje Solberg at Lier and we both brought our gliders along. We drove to Hjartdal and met up with the students and instructors there, but it was foggy at landing and tailwind at takeoff. It was a very pretty view above the fog though, but I did not bring my camera to takeoff. It looked like it would clear up a few times, but in the end we had to pack up.

Terje S and I were desperate to fly so we drove to Flesberg in hope of better conditions there, the fog was not as thick in the valley, but it was still not possible to fly. We sacrificed two burgers with chips and salad to the weather demons, and drove home.

My new moyesmobile with depressing winter conditions in the background.

Fog at Flesberg
Fog at Flesberg
Non flying

Fall pictures

It’s been a few very busy fall months this year, catching up on work, starting working out and running, instructing our new beginner course, and organization work for the airsports federation. I’ve only had one flight for myself since our nationals ended in July.

Here’s a few pictures from one of the nicer days where both me and Georgia found time to take a walk in the hills close to Sundvollen. The lookout is called “The Kings lookout”.

Hanggliding, HG Course

Preparing for our next beginner course

Tomorrow we start the first intro days to our beginner course this fall, the intro days are free and gives the potential students a chance to see and try to fly a little in the training hill. After this they can sign up for our beginner courses if they want to learn how to fly. The course will be run as a scootertowing course, making it very efficient and safe.

On monday we had an instructor meet, to teach all the instructors how to use the scootertowing system. All 7 instructors were there, and we had a good afternoon of towing with me acting as a student making all the normal mistakes we see among the students.

Today Terje and I sat down to make new bridles for the student harnesses, as our old and worn out bridles are getting unsafe. Since this was a lot of work we had to fly in some foreign labour from Germany to help us finish in time;

Imported labour :-)
Corinna as our new bridle maker :-)
Today's result
Today's result, 6 complete bridles.
Hanggliding

Three flights in one day

I drove to Vågå on Friday night to pick up my glider that I had left there after the Nationals. The forecast was for marginally flyable conditions on Saturday and a rainy Sunday, so I did not have too high hopes.

On Saturday morning it was cloudy and not very promising, but we went up to Vole and got a 40 minutes flight ridge soaring on Skagsnebb in very light conditions that slowly died out. After landing it seemed to break up and get a bit more sunny, so we went back up to Vole. As we got ready it got grayer again and the second flight was an extended glide down to landing. Olav did some filming and took a few pictures while we were gliding together.

While packing up again the wind picked up and turned easterly, so why not try Salknappen? Up there it was soarable, but we had to wait for a small shower to pass, and  we had a black wall of rain slowly pushing closer from south of Otta. All of us got a great flights in very soarable conditions, the front seemed to generate quite a lot of lift. It’s been a long time since I flew three flights in Vågå on one day!

After packing up for the last time I checked the forecast again, and decided to go home to Oslo. I drove through quite a lot of rain on the way home, but otherwise an uneventful 4 hours in the car.

Competitions

Vågå Open 2010, final day and results

(Delayed update)

On the last day we saw a forecast for strong winds, but good thermal conditions. Looking out before the briefing at 10:00 the wind seemed to be dying off and we saw good cu development. At Salknappen takeoff we had nice conditions, 5-6 m/s winds at takeoff and a rising cloudbase.

I was in the task committee with Bjørn and Trond, and we discussed at length what to do about the day. The wind seemed to be less than the forecasted 10-15 knots, but the direction was more easterly than we liked for flying upwind and staying locally. On the other side if we went downwind we would have to set goal at Lesja, where it’s usually stronger winds again on that direction, and the task would be way to fast to get a good scoring day. We went around and asked what the pilots wanted, and in the end we decided to fly a 80km task in the Ottadalen valley, with a headwind second leg.

It turned out to be more wind that we anticipated, and I think the task was unsafe in some areas. I decided to abort the task for safety reasons and land back in Vågå. I was a bit shaken after having a very close call with Speidern while waiting at base for the start, and getting kicked around a bit in the leeside a few times did not help. I knew I would lose my second place by doing this, but I did not feel like risking an outlanding in the windy conditions.

Nobody made goal, some made it almost halfway, and Bjørn who pushed into the potentially unsafe areas did pay for it with a bad landing. It’s very easy to see in retrospect , but I believe it would have been a perfect task for the wind we anticipated – 5 knots less and we would have lots of happy pilots in goal.

Olav Opsanger is our new national champion, with Nils Aage and me on second and third place. All three of us are from the Jetta club, and Jetta is also the club winner again this year, with Lier and Oslo behind.

Winners Vågå Open 2010
3. Øyvind, 1. Olav, 2. Nils Aage

The final top 10;

# Name Glider Sponsor T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RS4 997 111 380 1488
2 Nils Aage Henden Moyes Litespeed RS 3,5 908 127 382 1417
3 Oyvind Ellefsen Moyes Litespeed RS 4 Atea,Skyline, Elllefsen.net 966 104 125 1195
4 Johnny Nilssen Moyes Litespeed S 767 72 234 1073
5 Kjell Keogh Aeros Combat L 13 790 108 163 1061
6 Dag Ring Moyes Litespeed S4 781 60 177 1018
7 Tormod Helgesen Willswing T2 154 638 41 293 972
8 Trond Olsen Willswing T2 154 Meg 511 60 361 932
9 Vegard Hansen Moyes Litespeed S4 622 58 243 923
10 Jan Erik Gjerland Moyes Litespeed RS4 733 164 897

Link to full results

Competitions, Hanggliding

Vågå Open 2010, Day 5 and 6

The conditions were overcast and slow in the morning, but the forecast said better conditions later in the day. We went up to Salknappen and waited in the clouds for the conditions to clear. We set a 31km task late in the afternoon, staying locally in the valley.

I took off as one of the first pilots, and took the second start gate as the first pilot. The conditions were very slow and the cloudbase was down on the ridge making me fly around the clouds which gave me a crappy start as I came back low into the lift. I was a little too impatient there, should have stayed back and waited for the gaggle and the next startgate.

The gaggle took the next start gate and caught up with me halfway to the next TP, where we had a excellent ridge race going up and down the ridge to tordkampen with me, Olav and Speidern very close together. Nils Aage and Bjørn were ahead of us and got to goal first and second, I pulled away from Olav and Speidern and got in as third, but with my earlier starttime I got 5. place in the end.

The task was heavily devaluated as expected since it was short and we flew it fast.

Results here, not much changes since first day with Olav in the lead, ahead of me and Nils Aage.

Day 6 saw rain again, and we cancelled the day at first briefing, it still raining heavily now at 14:30 so it seems like the right decision.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Vågå Open, day 2 and 3

Day 2 blew and rained away.

Day 3 looked promising on the forecast, and we woke up to a sunny but windy day. We first went up to Vole, but after hanging around at takeoff for 30 minutes it was clear it was too windy to safely take off from Vole. Nobody had set up so we loaded up and drove to Heidal and the Espesetra takeoff in search of better conditions.

At Espesetra it was very nice, and almost too mellow conditions. We made a 88km task to Frya, back to Kvam, Brandstadkampen, and goal at Frya, with first startgate at 14:45.

I took off quite early, and stuggled a little to get up, and I did not get the best startgate position. But I was not too far behind the leaders, and took the first startgate working to catch up. We had an OK run to the first TP, where Olav, Nils Aage and me pulled away from the rest of the gaggle. I was above and a little behind Olav and Nils Aage at the next TP at Kvam, where I went a little more upwind and got a good 3 m/s thermal.

I went on a long glide over the Frya plateau, and Olav came in behind me at Ringebu where I we were getting a little low and had no good clouds ahead. I found a weak thermal and we took a few turns together there but it was not enough to get us through the last TP and to goal. I saw a bird tuning over the last TP and went on glide to it, while Olav went a little left and got a good thermal. At the TP the bird was gone and it did not leave any lift for me, so I was now lower than Olav before the final glide to Frya. He overtook me and got in around 30 seconds before me.

Nils Aage came in a few minutes behind us, and Dag and Speideren were not far behind either. There were lots of happy faces in goal, and I think we got a good days flying from conditions that turned out to be much better than we had hoped for. Coming back to Vågå we heard it had calmed down after we left and many pilots had good local flights there too.

Tomorrow looks like it will rain again, but the next days should be good.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Vågå open 2010, day 1

I arrived in Vågå last night,after taking the very full train from Oslo to Otta. Thanks to Stefan for picking up my glider at Finn’s place and bringing it to Vågå.

We had a very windy morning, it was forecasted to calm down during the day. We went up to Vole at 15:00 in hope of a late task to Frya, but the conditions were not good for a task and we had to cancel it after waiting until 17:30. It did calm down more and I set up to fly down at around 18:30. I took off and found a nice thermal in front of the west takeoff that took me up above launch. I boated around in weak lift and got a few more weak thermals up to 1800m where the wave started generating widespread lift.

I felt that it could get a bit dodgy with wave and strong winds, and decided to land.

Hope it get better tomorrow, forecasts are very variable.

Blog, pictures, videos, and articles from my flying adventures aound the world. Content in English.