Day 3 was a more difficult day, it was blue and very slow at the take off, lots of pilots went down below takeoff, but few landed. Olav and I took off at the same time, I was a little to low to go in over takeoff in the thermal and flew out towards the ridge on the other side of the pass. Håkan from Sweden flew over there as well, and we got up over the ridge, but could not get high and fell down again. I spent the next 45 minutes 300 meters over a waterhole that triggered weak thermals, fighting to get back up. Håkan landed at the LZ, when he tried to glide out for a search. Finally I got away and into the plateau, but it was hard going and I only made the first TP, landing near the second after failing to find any lift over the normally reliable grass fires.

I picked a field near a village, so that Fredrik could find me more easily. When I landed all the kids in the village came running over to me. It was total chaos, everyone asking questions in Portuguese. The local village idiot was there, chatting away making gestures. I derigged in front of this audience, and relayed my coordinates to Fredrik. When they finally came to pick me up most of the kids had left, but a few still hung around, sitting on the road in front of me just watching every move I made. The Brazilians seem to have a mix of ethnic backgrounds, the kids looks ranged from dark African features, via Asian, native Indian, to blonde Europeans, and mixes of everything.

I came down with fever on day 4 and 5, spent the days in bed watching TV. (They dub The Simpsons, but not South Park)

Day 6 was an OK day, but I got away too late from the start circle. I got high and stayed high after that, but even 3200 meters was enough to cross the blue into the last TP alone (ground level is 1100 meters here), I landed next to the highway 3 km from the TP, and got picked up by Fredrik and Nils Åge before I was derigged.

The last day I flew badly and landed just outside the start circle, I did not follow my own plan, and got stuck low alone in the blue and windy conditions. Crap. The prize giving party was good though, I still have a headache 2 days after… Bethinio won, results here; http://www.jlv.com.br/brasilia/
My tracklogs are up in the logbook, the new GPSDump seems to work with 2.13b on the Compeo. The start circle function on the Compeo is still not working, but it’s not very important as we all gaggle up on the edge anyway.

All in all it’s been a very good warm up to get familiar with the area and conditions. The site is good, conditions have been good so far, and it seems very reliable. The city of Brasilia is strange, it’s no real downtown, everything is split up in small centres and areas, all Hotels are in one area. Restaurants and bars are in the shopping malls. The people are very friendly and open, but few speak English at all. I’m learning a few words in Portuguese, but it’s hard learn enough to do more than order food.

Jon Gjerde and Johnny Nilsen arrived yesterday, they got the gliders this morning and went out flying. I’m going to work a little on my stuff today, headset needs soldering, and I want to test a new batten profile. The worlds start on Sunday I think, so we have plenty of time. The plan was to go to the coast and have vacation this week, but we might stay and just relax here.

Two good days of flying here, the first day we got a 106 km task via two TP back to Brasilia. It was a little slow in the beginning, and I got stuck on the ridge low for a while. We thought there was the normal 15 minute start gate, but after landing we learned it was only two gates, at 13:15 and 13:45. Fortunately I took the last one without knowing it, while Olav got the first one and lost a lot of time. After getting up it was good flying, and we all got to goal. I flew on 2:20, Nils Åge 2:40, and Olav 2:45. Bethino won the day.

Today’s task was 122km, good clouds, but Nils Åge and I got really low after taking the first start, we were down to a few hundred meters when we spotted a few birds and got back up in a good thermal. I got low once more between the second and third TP after a long glide, but got a weak thermal very low that got us up a few hundred meters before searching around and finding a really good one. I nearly collided with Hiroshi in the turbulent top of the thermal, I could hear the wooosh of his glider passing behind me. After another long glide to take the last TP with about ten gliders behind me I turned and went diretly for some grass fires. In the thick smoke and flying ash we got up quickly, and I topped out and went on final glide, too high actually, but I could overtake 3 lower gliders. Olav was ahead but lower, we crossed the line almost at the same time. Nils Åge had 10 minutes on us.

So all in goal so far, hope we keep this habit :-) There’s about 80 pilots in the comp, many of the world teams are here and lfying in the comp to practice and tune the gliders. I would guess there’s almost 40 new Litespeeds here, with mixed feelings about how well they perform. Olav and Nils Åge’s gliders seems to be good. My old Litespeed is fine, I just need to replace the leadingedge that got a smal dent in it from the transport. I’m being outclimbed by the new S, but my glide is good.

Quick update before dinner – I´ve flown 3 days now, good conditions every day. Today I landed in goal in the center of Brasilia, quite a sight to do the final glide over skyscrapers and highways. In the centre of the city is a large square park, where we have landing space. It is still a little too few landings before the main landing, so I think my final glides will be conservative. The last two days we´ve had cloudbase at around 3000 meters, while the land here is at 1000 meters above sea level.

The weather is perfect, not too warm, between 25 and 30 degrees, and cool nights. Olav and Nils Aage arrived yesterday, but they have no gliders yet. We hope the truck with all Moyes gliders arrive tonight from Sao Paulo.

More rain. Last day today, cancelled.

Weather’s been crap with 2 good days out of 8. The week before the comp was perfect, heard that one before?

On the last task Robin chrashed on landing near Otta, we do not know the details as he broke his jaw in two places and was scheduled for an operation yesterday. No other serious injuries as we know. His glider had some damage, but nothing that can’t be fixed. It’s very uncertain if he’ll recover enough to fly the worlds though.

Tonight I’ll short pack my glider, and head back to Oslo. Tomorrow morning Fredrik and I drive to Copenhagen and fly to Sao Paulo, and from there to Brasilia to fly the Brasilian nationals and the World championships with the rest of the team after that. I hope to be able to update these pages with news during our stay in Brasil

Rain.

Yesterday we finally got some reasonable good weather, with some sun and light winds. We set a one way task to goal at Frya. I took off early, and waited in cloudbase to take a little later start time as some pilots started on course. I watched them glide for a long time, and disappear over the edge at Lalm, never to be seen again. I decided to take another course over Otta, and glided from 2300 meters above Gråhøe over all the triggerpoints, and ended up low in the infamous Nord Sel, where I finaly found some weak lift and gained a few hundred meters together with Erik Vermas. It soon fell apart, and I glided out to land south of Otta. Why o why did I not go to Lalm and get up with the others, everyone who went that way got to goal. I lost 400 points and fell down to 4. place with slim chances of catching up. Tor Erik won the day again, and now have a strong lead.

Today we were optimistic, and set a task to Kvam and back from Salknappen, but suprisingly strong winds and overcast sky made it hard. Noone got any good flying, and the longest flight was Nils Åges 20 km to Otta. Tor Erik and I talked on the radio and tried to cooperate to get back up, but it was simply too windy and overcast. I landed in Nord Sel after 17 km, going back to the small patch of sun instead of gliding out to Otta, thus losing 10 points and fell down to 5. place.

Forecast is basicly crap for tomorow, with a slight chance of improvment Saturday.

Rain, overdevelopment, more rain, canceled at 12:00 today. Unstable forecast.

The first day of the Norwegian Nationals was canned, we got overdevelopment and rain after setting up at Salknappen.

Yesterday we got perfect conditions with cloudbase above 2000 meters and weak winds. The task was set to be a 82.8km out and retur, Vole – Kvam – Otta – Vågå centre – Vågå landing. It was slow going in the beginning, I found a nice 4 m/s termal over “bekken” after takeoff, and took the 13:30 startgate with Nils Åge and Erik Vermaas. We glided towards Vågåruste, I stopped and took a weak thermal after a few km, Nils åge went on and gotstuck low in Vågåruste. Erik and I got to cloudbase after a while, and we stopped a few more times before gliding over to Heidal, where Erik got stuck low below me. I stayed high and followed the clouds until the first TP at kvam where the air was dead. I searched around for lift in the whole area, wasting 800 meters before I took the TP and found some weak lift in the shade below Torgeirkampen. I met the gaggle getting back up, and got kicked around in a violent thermal near Otta. I saw Robin coming back low over Torgeirkampen after the TP, but I was still far ahead of him.

After taking the TP over Otta i got back up to 2000 meters above Ottaplatået, and went on glide 19 km out from the last TP, my Galileo told me I would have plenty of height, but I suspected headwind, and also had to calculate in the 3 km final glide from Vågå center to goal. I got a reasonable glide in weak headwind, but decided to stop and tank up some safety altitude behind Lalm, from there in it was a fast glide. I knew Tor Erik was maybe 15 minutes behind, but with with a later start time as well. I was first in goal, Tor Erik second, he had a minute faster time, but I won the day on departure and arrival points. Johnny was third, Olav, Robin, and Nils Åge next. A total of 10 pilots made goal, with the rest spread out nicely – a perfect day scoring wise.
Results at http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=408

Sadly the weather forecast was dead on today, overcast and rain. Tomorrow might be nice though.