Some pictures from day 2
Pictures, day 2
Forbes 2010, Day 4
Got stuck in the start circle, almost landed, and had to start way behind everyone else. Crap. Got to goal, but it was too slow.
Day 4, briefing
Out&Return 110km. Crosswind, high chance of thunderstorms.
Forbes 2010, day 3
This server was down due to some power problems in the datacenter, hope it’s fixed now.
Yesterday was pretty good again for me, got in as number 5 across the line, and got 7. place. We saw heavy rain on course, and it was a lot of shade from towering clouds for the last part of the course. Olav landed about 30 km out from goal, and he got to wait under a tree while the storm cam over and dumped wild rainshowers.
When the gustfront from the storm his us at goal it was extremely strong and violent. Check out Jamie’s pictures at http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/2010/01/wild-day-at-goal.html
Sorry for short updates, no time to upload pictures as we have to get some food and go to the briefing.
Forbes 2010, day 2
A classic good day at Forbes, clouds and about 20 km/h winds. We got a 196km task, dogleg with crosswind the first leg. I had a good flight and got to goal as number 7 across the line, I took the first start so maybe some came in after with a better time.
I’m dead tired now, so I’ll sleep and see if I can upload some pictures and video tomorrow morning.
Happy new year, Forbes day 1
Lars Olav, Georgia and I spendt new years even in Sydney, watching the spectacular fireworks in the harbour, with 500 000 other specators, I’ve never been in such a big crowd before.
The next morning Olav picked us up at the hotel, and we drove to the Moyes factory to pick up gliders, and then to Forbes. My bag did not arrive with me at the airport, so I had to buy a helmet at Moyes so I could fly the next day. My harness with some of my flying gear was already at Moyes, but helmet, clothes, shoes, and lots of other stuff was still missing with the bag.
At Forbes it rained, so we just slept and got up early the next day for a test flight. It still rained in the morning, but soon enough the sun cam out and we could tow up. I had a nice flight quite early, and landed after about one hour happy that everything worked out.
The next thing that happens is that one Australian pilot parked his kingposted Malibu in from of my glider, and just walks away leaving it there in the wind, the glider gets picked up and the kingpost land on my top surface, making a nice hole and stretches the sail. I must be cursed af Forbes, last year I had a similar expirience. I could tape up the glider, this year so I can still fly, but it’s annoying to say the least. The responsible pilot claims he has no money and cannot buy me a new sail. Funny that since he has a new Malibu, all the hanggliding gear, and can afford to travel and Aerotow at Forbes. We’ll see what this ends up with…
Anyway, yesterday was the first comp day, after some changes we end up with a 140 something task, over quite wet terrain. I took the first start, and struggled to stay up for most of the day after that. I’m very rusty after no real competition flying for a year, and almost no flying at all last season. I quickly lost most of the pilots I flew with, and got very low at the first turnpoint. We never got more than 1100m AGL, so it was short glides and much thermalling in weak conditions.
From the turnpoint towards goal the terrain was very wet, it looked like flying over swamplands at times, and the roads were flooded in places. I did my best to stay up and get to goal, but I did not find the last thermal I needed over a tractor plowing a field, and had to land around 30 km from goal. I was extremely tired and not very focused by then, after more than 4 hours in the air.
On the way back to Forbes we stopped in Parkes to pick up my bag that finally arrived, 4 days late.
At LHR, waiting…
The fog was dense at OSL airport yesterday evening, and the captain of the SK 737 we flew in from Northern Norway aborted the landing and did a new approach due to problems with the ILS instruments. The second attempt was good and smooth in very poor visibility.
This morning we got up and Fredrik drove us back to OSL in the -13 degrees and fog. The flight to Heathrow was on time, and we are currently waiting at LHR at the Bridge cafe. We have a Singapore Airlines flight on an Airbus 380 via Singapore tonight, it’s going to be interesting to fly in the A380.
Merry Xmas
I’m celebrating with my family in Northern Norway, it’s been a traditional christmas with real winter and lots of good food and relaxing days. Georgia got to see the Aurora borealis for the first time last night, since she got a Canon 500D for christmas it was a good opportunity to test the camera. It was -8 degrees, and windy so we did not stay outside for very long, but we got a few good exposures.
The moon was very bright in the clear arctic air, so it was like twilight outside all night.
We will spend two more days here, and then fly back to Oslo and then to Australia. We land in Sydney on the 31. and plan to spend new years eve there. Hope the weather’s good for watching the fireworks when we get there.
Rainy season
The weather demons have shown us who’s the boss the last month or so, Mr. Wet and Mr. Windy have been hyperactive. So when the conditions cleared up for half a day I took the opportunity to get some airtime. It was ridge soarable at Sundvollen for some short periods while Jarle, Harald and I were setting up, but too soon it was just a matter of getting out in the air before the katabatic flow kicked in with tailwind.
I did an extended landing pattern as a video demonstration to show our students how you can handle a situation being too high on the base leg. Hope it comes out clearly.
Todays video;
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It was good for the soul and body to get back in the air again. Soon I will get more quality airtime in Forbes!
Some pictures from the day;
Helicopter…
