The sailplane pilot who got to 10700m asl reported wrong height, he actually made it to 11370m asl according to his barograph. Without a real pressure O2 system, that’s wild!

Nils Åge Henden is reporting from Vågå;
It’s been good flying conditions in Vågå the last week, good for hanggliders last weekend, and the sailplanes have had really good conditions since Tuesday. Over 40 sailplanes have been flying wave conditions, and Thursday produced a new nordic record of 10250m height gain. (10700m asl). 34 pilots made it over 7350m. Today was nice for hanggliding with thermals up to 1,5 average and 5-6 peak, made it to 1750m. Nice but cold!

I’ve spent the easter in Oslo, my glider have still not arrived from Moyes. Today I drove for Fritz, and he got a sled ride from Ringerudkollen. The guys in Bassano and France seems to have had nice weather with good flying conditions.

The mailinglist and web-pages have been unavailable for a few days, due to VeriSign’s slow processing of changes in the domain system. Sorry for this, everything should be up again now.

It was a great day at Sundvollen last Sunday, Fredrik and I drove there, Fredrik soared for about one hour, and I borrowed his LaMouette Racer for a sled ride at the end of the day. Good to be in the air again, but it was a little colder than last time i was in the air over Bright in Australia.

My glider is very delayed from Moyes, they have spent more than one month, and not been able to get the final repairs on the sail done. If I don’t get it here by next Thursday I cannot go to Italy in the easter.

I’ve added the last set of images from Australia to the album.

Looks like good conditions for flying at Sundvollen tomorrow, I’ll be driving since my glider have not arrived yet.

I’ve added some images to the album, only Bogong cup so far.

Also check out Moyes safety notice on side wires, it’s been a hot topic lately. Check yours before next flight!

Oslo, Norway
I’m back home, it’s snowing, and I’m jetlagged.

I’ll try and get some images and video online this weekend.

Sydney, NSW, Australia
Not much to write about, I’ve not been flying at all since I’ve been sick, got up on the hill the last day, but conditions was crappy and I was not 100% well so I chose not to fly.

I’m going back to Oslo tomorrow afternoon, I drove with Mike, Ron and Josê back from Mt. Beauty today. The plan tomorrow is a swim and breakfast at Cogee Beach, deliver my glider at the factory, and then get on the plane.

Check out the Oz report for full results and reports on the comps.

Mt. Beauty, Victoria, Australia
First day of the Bogong cup yesterday, about 70 people registered for the comp. We have had really good conditions the last days, with cloudbase at over 3000 meters and no winds. We went to Mt. Emu to take off for the first day. I was number 32 to take off and got out in a bad cycle with about 15 other pilots. We scratched over the trees for about 10 minutes before I flew a little further out to a smaller hill where Alberto was maintaning. After few minutes searching I found a good thermal that finally took us up to take-off height again. By then I felt really ill in the rough thermals, and had to give up and just glide out. I hoped gliding straigh for a while would help, but as soon as I tried to thermal again i became dizzy. I missed one upright on landing and smacked in rather unelegantly, with a slightly bent upright and scratched knees as result.

Today it’s raining, and we have a rest day, fine with me, but bad for the others. I’ll try to fly again tomorrow if it’s flyable.

Bright, Victoria, Australia
I’ve gone to the Bogong cup, great conditions here today, but my harness zipper failed at the top of the chest and I did not want to fly with it open for a long time for risk of damaging it even more. I took off from Mystic, and thermalled up when the zipper failed. I then flew over to the airstrip and landed to rig down in the shade of the hangar. Nice to be able to footlaunch again.

According to the doctors I have a very slow pulsrate for some unknown reason, below 45 beats pr. minute at times, and that’s what make me feel ill. It’s not dangerous and I will try to fly the comp.

Hay, NSW, Australia
This will probably be the last update for a while. I have not been feeling very good during my stay here, not beeing able to fly a couple of days. I went to the hospital here in Hay, the doctor say I have symptoms of heart arrythmia. I might black out while flying, and that is too much of a risk. I’ll have to get to a larger hospital next week where they can diagnose and possibly treat it.

I will not be flying the rest of the comp in Hay, and I might not make it to the Bogong cup either.