Day 2 at Ringerud turned out to be great, we got off earlier then yesterday and got on course quickly. Olav really went for it, and started final glide at least 150 meters too low. I was a little higher at the last TP but did not want to risk it. He landed in tall trees between TP and goal. Broken leading-edge tube, torn sail, and broken speedbar. Olav did win though, by 4 points. I got second place, and Ingar third.

The images from Bassano are finally uploaded to the picture gallery, check it out. I might even write a story later.

The results from the Meet are online at http://www.raasm.com/volo/classifiche/index_eng.htm

The weather at Ringerudkollen today was good and unstable, but it overdeveloped too soon. We got off around 13:00 but only Sverre Bjølgerud and me got up and on course. I landed near the second TP, and Sverre a few km further. The lift I found was quite good and I got to cloudbase after start, hopefully it’s better tomorrow.

Results from last weekends comp can be found at http://roal.no/~hedemarken-hg/ncresult.html

The weather was better this weekend, so the Frya Cup 2000 was arranged again. Saturday it was strong wind in the north but good conditions from Ringebu. The task was free distance, and Arnfinn Markeng flew around 80 km to Brummundal to win the day. I got to Lillehammer, and landed next to Johannes Moger on a shared 5. place.

On Sunday we started in Heidal, the task was to Frya take-off, back to Vinstra, and goal on Frya. The wind picked up around 13:00, and it was difficult to get up after take-off. I started quite late, and flew with Tor-Erik for a while. It was quite easy to get to Frya with the strong tailwind, but going back to Vinstra was worse. I had to land near Harpefoss a few km from the TP. Nils-Åge was the only one who took the second TP, but he had to land near there as well.

Good flying in blue and windy conditions this weekend, Robin Nilsen won, Arnfinn Markeng on second, I got third pace. I’ll post a link to the full results when they are up on the web.

This server have been down due to some network changes that took longer than planned, sorry to those of you that did not get contact with it.

On saturday we flew from Frya again, it was quite strong southerly wind in the valley and ridge soaring over Frya. High pressure made it difficult to get high, but Robin and I went XC. I only got 14 km to Vinstra, and Robin flew a few km further north.

Sunday arrived in Vågå with wave clouds and some cumulus. We took off but the wave conditions were too strong, so everyone flew down.

GSP SA ends, way cool! Check out this chart of the improved accuracy of the GPS.

Good weather forecast for the weekend, I’ll be off for some XC flying.

From Bassano to Frya.
The 4. day in Bassano was gray, and most pilots including me landed near turnpoint 1, Gerolf somehow made goal and won the meet. The finals were cancelled due to bad conditions.

We had to wait until Thursday night for the car to be fixed, just as well as I got sick and spent two days in bed. Arriving back home in Oslo I had the time to throw some new clothes in the bag, charge the radio and GPS batteries, and sleep a few hours before driving to Frya for the first competition in Norway this season.

On Saturday it was totally blue and dead stable conditions, no one got up. 29 pilots had singned up for the comp, and there were more pilots than I’ve ever seen on Frya.
Sunday looked similar but with some cloud development. A thunderstorm arrived and passed north of us. We took off and I got up and started on the task to Otta and back, but the das was cancelled due to heavy rain on course. No flying today with low clouds and rain.

There will be a new comp at Frya in two weeks, we’ll hope for better conditions then.

Bassano, Comp day 1-3
Finally the weather demons have left Bassano. The first day was great, good clouds and sun. It overdeveloped early, but the rain went into the Alps and did not affect us. The task was from Bassano to Vittorio Veneto and back to goal at RAASM, 96 km total length. I made it, so did lots of other pilots, I flew way too slow and did not get any time points.

Second day arrived with higher pressure, inversion at 1600 m, and quite blue conditions. The task was from Mt. Cesen to Avaiano and back to RAASM, a total of 118 km. It was difficult, with blue and turbulent lee thermals. I had to land near the turnpoint after loosing all my altitude flying the wrong route over from Vittorio Veneto over the mountain. The GPS fell out and I lost track of the direction to the turnpoint, Erik also landed nearby. Johnny came to pick us up, but the car got hit by a girl on a scooter and the steering broke. We had to wait for Nils-Åge to come from Bassano, so we did not get to bed until 2:30. The weather demons now have wheels.

Today was good, still high pressure and blue conditions. The task was Mt. Cesen to Vittorio, Masrostika, and to goal. 88 km. I got off early and flew fast and good to the turnpoint, but I made a mistake gliding towards a gaggle of pilots and came in 15 meters too low to catch the thermal they were climbing in. I spent the next hour getting kicked around low in lee thermals. Had to land on the turnpoint in Vittorio, only 22 km out. Not many points for that flight.

We dont’s have the combined results but Gerolf Heinrichs is probably leading Class I, and Kristoph Kratzner Class II. Tomorrow is the last day before the final on Monday where only the 30 best pilots fly. I’ll get some time to check out he fair then.

Sorry but no pictures as this is updated by GSM. The Italian GSM network here is unstable at its best, and unusable most of the time, only SMS messages get through with some reliability. I’ll upload the pictures when I get back home.

Bassano, day 1 to 4.

Driving from Oslo, we arrived Friday night in pouring rain. Saturday was a little better, and we got off for a extended sled ride between the showers. Pål had a hard landing, and broke his upper arm for the third time. Really bad luck as it was not a really hard landing, the glider was OK. He got on a plane home today.

The weather demons are here, Saturday night we had some spectacular thunderstorms passing over us, as we drove to the hospital to pick up Pål. Sunday was gray but quite flyable, low cludbase at 1000 meters and weak lift made it hard to go far. Nils-Åge flew to the Observartory and barely made it back to the main LZ. I flew around locally for 45 minutes, before I fell through and had to land.

Monday started with rain, but it cleared up and we got some sun. It overdeveloped soon though, we all flew around over start and along the ridge for a while until it died out completely. I’ve used the days to adjust the CSX a little, it was difficult to fly with the new harness.

Today was really gray, nobody got high, but it was soarable. The forecast for Tomorrow and the weekend is better.

We have flown 3-5 hours each, 0 km XC.

We’re off to Italy and Bassano to fly the competition. I’ll try to find a internet connection so that I can update these pages with the latest results and news.

Happy Easter everyone!