Dalby 2010, day 2

2010/04/19 Øyvind Ellefsen

The grey skies broke up at little, and we got a task of 77 km direct to goal at Chinchilla airfield. It was a bit more windy than yesterday, and with more overcast conditions it looked like a difficult task.

I got a great tow straight into a nice thermal and got to cloudbase donwind off the airport, where I pushed into the wind to get upwind on course when starting form the startgate. It was gray to the east where the wind came from so it was a balance of staying over somewhat sunny terrain, while not drifting too much off the courseline in the 35 km/h winds. I had an OK run about halfway, but soon found myself under some very overcast conditions and no good clouds ahead. I got down to 500 meters, and were going downwind before I finally found a very weak and broken thermal that took me up to a 15.1:1 glide to goal.

The glide varied around the 15:1 angle all the way in, and I would not have made it if I did not get a small bit of good air just as I came in over the end of the runway, it gave me 50 more meters and enough to get into the 400 meters circle and land.

So a bit better than yesterdays disaster, but I was still slow today. It was a pretty nice flight despite the windy conditions, I hope we get some more sun tomorrow.

Hanggliding

Flying at Lake Keepit

2010/04/18 Øyvind Ellefsen

I stopped a few days in Manilla to fly Sailplanes at Lake Keepit, conditions were great, and I finally got to fly the really nice LS7 sailplane on the last day, before having to pack up and head off on the 6 hour drive to Dalby.

Here’s a rough video from the flying, audio is in Norwegian only this time :-)

Competitions, Hanggliding

Dalby 2010, day 2 pre-briefing

2010/04/18 Øyvind Ellefsen

It looks like a gray and windy day, there is a layer of thick high clouds in the sky shading the gound, but with some embedded CU’s. The forecast is for it to burn off and become better around midday. We’ll see, the briefing has been postponed to 11.

Results should be up on the dalby website sometime soon.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Dalby 2010, day 1

2010/04/18 Øyvind Ellefsen

It looked like a repeat of yesterdays conditions, windy and strong lift. We got a 12o km task via one TP, mostly downwind. I towed up and took the second startgate at 13:15, and headed down courseline with a few other pilots. It was OK going in the beginning, but as we got closer to the TP we flew in under a layer of high cirrus clouds that shaded the area.

I got there in a bad time as the clouds were dying and conditions in front of use were shutting down. It looked a little better further to the north of the course line, and after getting up from low after the TP I gambled on going a bit more to the north for some good clouds. I flew with Dave May for a while, but we got stuck in really slow conditions and just drifted more and more off the courseline.

I got up to 1800 meters again, and glided for a nice cloud ahead where I could take a final glide, but as I got close it started to rain from that cloud and I had to divert into the gray overcast. I landed 18 km from goal, but almost 90 degrees off course.

So it was not the best start of the comp, but I could not say I did any major mistakes, the other pilots who made goal were either one start in front, or came after us and took a different courseline.

I do not have a link to results yet.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Dalby practice day

2010/04/17 Øyvind Ellefsen

Great sunset sky over Dalby. We had an excellent practice day today, booming conditions but a bit windy. I found out I had no batteries in my instrument, it would not turn on at all. But I was already on the dolly, so I flew and practiced flying without vario. It worked out allright, and I stayed up over the airport for about one and a half hour just pushing into the wind and trying to feel the thermals. Cool flight.

Lars went downwind on the Malibu and I picked him up around 30 km down the road.

Competitions, Hanggliding

On the road again

2010/04/14 Øyvind Ellefsen

Just stopping for coffee in North Sydney. I plan to stop in Manilla tomorrow if it’s flyable, and then it’s on to Dalby.

Hanggliding

How to tame your dragon

2010/03/29 Øyvind Ellefsen

I thought the flight scenes in the movie Avatar were extremely cool and well done, but that was until I saw How to tame your dragon today. I saw both movies in 3D theaters. Avatar had some jawdropping visuals, and as a pilot I did enjoy all the small realistic details that were put into the flying craft and animals in Avatar.

But the pure joy and feel of flying was so well done in How to tame your dragon it made me laugh and cry at the same time. There is a great scene with the hero “Hiccup” on the ground after his first real flight, with wild hair and a stunned look on his face – He looks just like every new hangglider student after his first high flight off a mountain. It’s a great movie for kids who like the new Monster High dolls and want to see a cute cameo, as well as adults, I really wanted to go flying after seeing it!

Hanggliding

Another good day at Lake Keepit

2010/03/16 Øyvind Ellefsen

After one more check flight in the two-seater I got the chance to fly a single seater, a Jantar Junior. Nice little plane,with sensitive controls and good handing, not exactly open class performance but it’s better than my Litespeed anyway.

I took it up for a three hour flight around the area, I was told to stay withing gliding range of the airport, so I had to behave and not go too far. I got to take a look at Mt Borah and saw a lone hangglider struggling low on the west launch. The conditions were good, cloudbase at 8000 feet early in the day, and rising to 10k later. I had to go down to pee, as I have not learned all the tricks of the trade yet. In a hangglider it’s relatively easy to “get it out”. I will bring a empty bottle tomorrow :-)

Some pictures;

A layer of smoke blew trough, looked like a gustfront.

More roos, these came within 15 meters of us

Competitions

First solo flights

2010/03/15 Øyvind Ellefsen

It was quite gray skies at Lake Keepit this morning, which was perfect for doing a few tows to train aborted tows. Apparently I did well as the instructor got out and asked me to fly solo. I did four solo flights, the first two was just a landing circuit, then the weather cleared up a bit and I stayed up for about 1 hour in weak thermals. The electronic variometer with audio stopped working after about 10 minutes, I could look at the mechanical one to stay up, but it’s a lot better to fly with audio. After landing and getting some water I took the last flight and stayed up for about one more hour.

Tomorrow I will fly a single seater Jantar Junior, should be fun!

Some pics;

Hanggliding

Sailplane flight at Lake Keepit

2010/03/14 Øyvind Ellefsen

I finally got to take another sailplane flight today. I drove up from Sydney up to Manilla last night and went to the Lake Keepit club this morning where I got to fly the Puchatek 2 seater, as it will actually spin and I needed to practice spin recovery. That exercise went well, and we boated around in some good thermals for 2 hours and landed before the kangaroos come out in force. Dave Seib also came out and I saw him come gliding underneath us in the LS6, we met up for dinner at the Pub in Manilla.

Tomorrow I have to practice aborted tow, and then I hope to go solo, should be fun!

Some pictures from today;