Frode Halse is the most dedicated PG XC pilot in Norway. His website is updated often and has lots of good content. A few days ago we met and talked about the the possibility to convert it to a dynamic blog using WordPress. It’s some work, but should be doable. Check out the static version at www.fridistanse.no
Winter flying at Flesberg
On Saturday Bjørn and I decided to take two of our students to Flesberg. It was forecasted light snow and easterly winds, which turned out to be an accurate forecast. It was perfect conditions with almost no wind and only light fog at times. Both Petter and Lars got 3 flights each, they both made good progress in learning how to set up for landing.
We went back again today, driving under dense fog all the way from Oslo. Luckily it was sunny and clear skies at Flesberg, we could see the dense fog just down the valley from takeoff. Since it was almost no wind we gome some periods with tailwind from catabatic flow, but Petter got 3 flights again today, while Lars got 2. The course from Lier also showed up with 2 students that got 2 flights each. It was a cold day in the mountains with -11 degrees at the LZ when we packed up the last time.
Since Lars was late this morning I took the new WillsWing Falcon 195 for a test flight, it is a very, very good glider. The glider started easily, flies nice and slow, but handles like a much smaller glider. I was very suprised by the quick and effortless roll response, it’s by far the easiest beginner glider I have flown. It has no spiral instability, and suprisingly light pitch pressure. I tested to initiate a turn and just let go of the bar, the glider just continued the turn with stable bank and speed like it was on rails. Flare window was a mile wide, easy to nail the spot on first landing.
Compared to gliders like Atlas and Clubman this is MUCH easier and more fun to fly. The Aeros Target is in the same class, but the Falcon has better handling. If I was going to have a “just for fun” glider this would be it. Highly recommended!
Weather applet
Oh yeah, scroll down and check out the weather applet in the right menu. It pick up the latest METAR from Gardermoen airport.
Oz, Nordic records, winter flying
I talked to the owner of Hay Carvan park where we will stay during the worlds in Australia. It was forecasted 38 degrees, and the cumulus couds were starting to form at 10:30. With weak northerly winds it sounded like a very good day for flying in Hay. He also said it had not rained much the last months.
Last weekend Tor Erik Stranna and I traveled to the Nordic Hang and Paragliding Committee meeting, in Vilnius, Lithuania. The baltic states invited us to come there, to learn about our cooperation between the nordic nations. The meeting was good, with the main focus on safety issues in competitions. Vilnius looked like a nice city, but we did not have time to do any sightseeing. Most people spoke good English, while Russian is commonly used as language between the baltic countries.
If we include the baltic nations in our nordic group the records will also be included from baltic states. A female Lithuanian PG pilot flew 190km, so it’s potential for good flights in the baltic flatlands.
One other suggestion that came up was a request from Denmark to make it possible for any nordic pilot to set a nordic record in any nordic country. The Danes have run out of space, and so have Iceland. Norway has less than the HG open distance record of 309km between controlled airspace if you go North-South, while it’s still plenty of space to go east into Sweden.
What do you think of this suggestion? It will be decided next year. Feedback is welcome.
Winter has arrived in Oslo, it’s been snowing the last week. This weekend we hope to fly with the students from Flesberg.
Updates, Vikersund pics
This website is now running on the 3. generation of hardware. I’ve upgraded from a Pentium II 300Mhz server to an Athlon 1400Mhz. The old server had 450MB RAM, the new one has 1Gig. The speed increase it quite nice when doing searches and adding more pictures and content.
The first server back in ’98 was a Pentium 75Mhz, with 64MB RAM, it’s still running in my lab as a test server.
I’ve fixed some problems with image uploads also. To celebrate I’ve added some pictures from the Ski jump at Vikersund. These were taken with my Siemens S65 phone, the quality is no match for a current digital camera, but OK for quick shots like these.
The jumpers set off down here!
View from the tower
Walter and Bjørn checking out the view
Yours truly, in need of a shave :-)
2-0 to the weather demons
Bjørn and I went out to take some high flights with the students this weekend. Saturday we went to Vikersund as it was forecasted NW winds. It turned out to be mostly NE, and way to strong to fly in. We went up to the top of the ski jump tower and had a look. I think the longest jumps in Vikersund are above 200 meters.
Sunday was forecasted weak SW and sunny, perfect for a day at Brandbu. It looked very good until we came to Brandbu and met the fog, it was dense gray and not possible to see the takeoff from the landing. We drove up, and after a while the fog seemed to dissapate a little. The wind however was not favorable, blowing cross and tail most of the time. We waited the whole day, and then a front came in and shaded the sun making the tailwind stronger.
More records
Jonny Durant Jr. did a very nice flight in Australia yesterday, 443km from the family’s home site in Beechmont. The Oz report have more on the flight
New norwegian records
It’s been a good season for record attempts in Norway, the period in late May and early June provided some fantastic flying conditions. Here’s a summary of the records set or broken this year;
FAI triangle speed over 50km
Pilot: Olav Opsanger
Dato: 2004/04/29
Takeoff: Vole, Vågå
Landing: Sørem, Vågå
Distanse: 50 km
Oppgavetype: FAI triangle speed over 50km
Oppgavetid: 1:18:52
Gennomsnittshastighet: 38 km/t
Antall TP: 4
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=54540
Declared goal speed over 100km
Pilot: Jon Gjerde
Dato: 2004/05/29
Takeoff: Bjorli
Goal: Nær Ringebu
Distanse: 100 km
Oppgavetype: Declared goal speed over 100km
Oppgavetid: 3:45:43
Gennomsnittshastighet: 26,5 km/t
Antall TP: 2
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=57238
Straight distance to a declared goal
Pilot: Jon Gjerde
Dato: 2004/05/29
Takeoff: Bjorli
Goal: Nær Ringebu
Distanse: 130,1 km
Oppgavetype: Straight distance to a declared goal
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=57238
Speed over 150km out&return
Pilot: Olav Opsanger
Dato: 2004/05/31
Takeoff: Vole, Vågå
Landing: Srem, Vågå
Distanse: 150 km
Oppgavetype: O&R speed over 150km
Oppgavetid: 4:05:52
Gennomsnittshastighet: 36,6 km/t
Antall TP: 3
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=57558
Out&return distance
Pilot: Olav Opsanger
Dato: 2004/05/31
Takeoff: Vole, Vågå
Landing: Sørem, Vågå
Distanse: 150,5 km
Oppgavetype: O&R distance
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=57558
Open distance
Pilot: Jon Gjerde
Dato: 2004/05/31
Takeoff: Bismo
Landing: Rena
Distanse: 206,5 km
Oppgavetype: Open distance
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=57741
FAI triangle speed over 25km
Pilot: Otto Baste
Dato: 2004/06/03
Takeoff: Vole, Vågå
Landing: Sørem, Vågå
Distanse: 25 km
Oppgavetype: FAI triangle speed over 25km
Oppgavetid: 40:46
Gennomsnittshastighet: 36,8 km/t
Antall TP: 4
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=58437
Declared goal speed over 50km
Pilot: Bjørn Hammer
Dato: 2004/06/12
Takeoff: Blåhø, Vågå
Goal: Fåvang
Distanse: 50 km
Oppgavetype: Declared goal speed over 50km
Oppgavetid: 1:15:50
Gennomsnittshastighet: 39,5 km/t
Antall TP: 2
Informasjon:
http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=59522
Die spammers
I’ve been getting a huge amount of comment spam, it’s the normal porn, free viagra and online poker sites, but the spammers leave comments on my articles instead of email. May they all burn in hell. I’ve added some scripts to WordPress to reject most of it, and also disabled comments on posts that are more than 45 days old. Also posts with more than 2 links have to be approved by me first. Thanks to Mark for the scripts
Please use comment on my posts, but if you use words like V1AGRA or FREE MONEY!! it might not appear at once ;-)
No updates
Not much flying going on here lately, the weather have been the usual wet and windy for the season, and I’ve not been involved with the beginner course so far. I’ve also sold my Litespeed S, the new owner have had a few flights with it and seemed to be very happy with the glider.
We will send a full team to the Worlds in Australia, it will be Nils Åge, Olav, Robin, Johnny, Jon and I. Most of us will travel on Christmas day from Oslo. The plan is to pick up cars and gliders, and then travel directly to Denniliquin. Some of us will fly in the Oz Open comp in Denniliquin to warm up for the worlds.