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.
Bogong Cup 05
Jon Gjerde is the only Norwegian in Oz this year, he is doing well after two days of the Bogong Cup with 11. place overall of 66 pilots. The Hungarian mafia of Atilla and Balaz did really good on the first day and are in the lead in front of Olli.
Andreas is the only Swede, and he seems to be struggling, it’s unusual for him to be down at 28. place overall in this comp that he knows well.
Gamez
I got a link to some cool free games at BinaryZoo, very fun and addictive. I liked Mono the most, it’s like Asteroids on acid and speed. Reminds me of old school arcade machines (1 or 2 Kr. per play) and some of the Amiga classics. Quick and no-brainer games for instant fun in the wintertime.
If you have a modern computer and some spare time, X3 – Reunion is my current favourite. I spent many hours playing the prequels X – BTF and X2 – The threat when they came out years ago, and so far the hours have gone quickly while playing X3.
X3 is a realtime space game, where you play a pilot building an empire by trading, fighting, exploring and building in a huge universe. If you have played the games Elite or Freelancer you get the idea. X3 was buggy and crashed frequently at first, but download the version 1.3 patch and everything works fine. You do need a good 3D card and lots of memory for the game to run.
Site updated
I’ve upgraded the site to WordPress 2.0 that was released yesterday. The site should look the same as before, but let me know if there are any problems.
I also gave Bjørn’s site the upgrade treatment, he’s running the default layout for now as the old template was hard to upgrade. Looks good, so why not.
In other news there’s a few pilots heading down to Oz to fly the comps there, check out the blogs of Brett, Johnny Jr. and Kevin, links in the menu to the right.
Seasons greetings
Wish all my readers a merry xmas and happy new year!
Maintenance
The website is under some system maintenance, please have some patience while I finish the upgrades. I am in Cannes, France for a conference this week, and do most of the work in the breaks between sessions.
Also the HP/NLF, OOHGK, Jetta LSK, and Bjørn Hammers websites will be unstable during this week as they run on my servers.
NHPC meeting in Stockholm, Day 2
Scott, Hans Peter and Riika. The PG Nordic Trophy on the table…
Anton, Violeta, Stein Tore and Anders. Scott ghosting in the background.
Acro status
Only Norway seems to be doing anything in HG Acro, while in PG Norway, Sweden and Finland have activity. Denmark have no pilots that are interested, Latvia and Lithuania have SIV courses that might be developed towards acro in the future.
Training and safety
The Swedish paragliding federation presented their new education system, since their old education system was not working good. They made their own system in the early 90’s. The new system is not based on ParaPro, thus they have reinvented the wheel for the second time.
CIVL matters
Scott and August updated us on what’s going on in CIVL, bids for the Cat 1 comps, new and updated badges for flights. Scott is trying to get the OLC working with FAI. August is running a group in CIVL to make flight verification software for competitions and records and badges available for free through the CIVL. This is very good news, as todays situation with a myriad of different versions and databases is difficult to handle. The WPRS is also under change, August is working on incorporating changes to the formula and validity.
We also discussed the proposals from DHV about measuring sprogs at the comps, and the combining of class 1, 2 and 5 world championships.
Other matters
The different countries have varying accident investigation procedures, Sweden have had to make an official investigation about every accident by law. Other countries seem to make their own investigations. Our common insurance have changed to another company, but all the fees and insurances are the same as before.
The isurance matters is aways discussed at length, Denmark have an extremely high 3. party liability. If you want to fly there you need the same insurance as a 747.
The next meeting will be hosted by Latvia, 25/11 2006.
Nordic Records
Current nordic records can be found at http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=77&Region=2
The speed to goal records are there only for historical reasons, we do not recognize new speed to goal records as CIVL stopped this some years ago. Current diciplines to set new records are;
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• Straight distance
• Straight distance to a declared goal
• Out and return distance
• Distance around a triangular course
• Speed around triangular courses of 25, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 300 km
• Speed over out and return distances of 100, 200 and 300 km
• Gain of height
NHPC meeting in Stockholm, Day 1
I’m currently in Stockholm at the Nordic Hang and Paragliding Commitee (NHPC) meeting, where we discuss Nordic matters. The NHPC decides about matters like Nordic championships, records, and disccuss safety, training, and other matters that are of concern to the Nordic organizations.
From Norway it’s Me, Anders and Stein Tore. Sweden have Riika and Hans Peter (No HG pilots, don’t know why), Finland is Esa and Pasi, Denmark have Scott and Niels, and August from Iceland. Also the Baltic countries are here represented with Violeta from Lithuania and Anton and Sergei from Latvia.
The Nordic Championships for 2006;
Hanggliding XC is awarded to Norway, to be arranged in Vågå, Norway
Paragliding XC is awarded to Norway, to be held in Annecy, France
Paragliding Acro is awarded to Norway, to be held in Åra, Sweden
Paragliding Accuracy is awarded to Lithuania, to be held in Trakai (28 km from Vilnius capital of Lithuania)
New Nordic records
HG – Olav Opsanger (NOR) – Speed over 100 km FAI triangle, 33,2 km/h
HG – X X(FIN) – FAI Triangle Female,
PG – Peder Sperstad (NOR) – Speed over 50 km out and return
The Nordic Trophy is a awarded for the longest flight within the Nordics every year. Out end return distance is multiplied with 2, FAI triangles by 3. Olav Opsanger (NOR) won the HG trophy for his 100.1 km FAI triangle, and Sindre Hauglum (NOR) for his 52,4 km FAI triangle.
All countries reported about safety matters, going through the more serious accidents. Finland reported a trend with accidents occuring in the winter when towing PG on the ice. They have had several stalls that seems related to the cold weather conditions combined with the winch type start.
We had a long discussion about motorized HG and PG. Some organizations have the paramotors within the HG/PG organization, the Danish do not organize motorized within the HG/PG. The Swedish have one standalone organziation for paramotors, as well as some pilots in the PG federation. Seems like if it has wheels it goes under Ultralights in all countries. The Latvians told us stories about Russian Paramotor pilots lengthening the brake lines to steer with the feet so they could hunt from the air… Seems like every country anticipate a big growth in Powered PG, and it needs to be handled within our organizations
Numbers of pilots vary in the different countries, from 50 in Latvia, to Norway and Sweden with around 2500 members each.
Riika updated on enviromental issues in Sweden, where there are some sites under threat. Enviromental issues are getting more attention as we come into conflict with other sports and development of areas where we fly.
Winter, tug news
Bjørn and I met up at Sundvollen for a short but very welcome flight after a long hiatus. We met Arild and Johnny there. It was almost soarable, but the wind died down again after we had set up. Nice air, and nice weather. Pics by Eamon the Ozzie backpacker.
Set up on the sun on top
LZ in the shade, happy pilot
Today Alf flew the Tug from Kongsvinger to it’s new home at Spydeberg. I was there plugging the last holes in the roof with silicone and screws, should be less leaky now. I had a short flight as Alf and Truls had to leave, and parked the tug. Pretty cold, and I did not bring enough clothes to fly for any long time. I got a nice view of the area and I’m looking forward to having more hours in the air there.