DAY .. 25. December - 2003
Christmas is over and there were no new planes under the tree. But happily I brought plenty of projects back home from the trip around Europe. Most important was the Majko that I have been missing after I sold the one I had. I have now prepared a new one with brushless motor and tested some LiPo cells today. Sadly they did not wotk in the cold -4 degrees on the frozen lake but I used the Hecell 1000mah instead and had some great flights today. Geir Atle took some pictures of me throwing it. It is good to have the Majko back in action ( I know ET-AIR have them in stock right now...) I also flew my X-wing and it works fine with the LiPo cells.
There were plenty of other guys on the lake today. It was a bit foggy but many of the guys had something in the air. I think I counted to 9 pilots today. Kjell Arne did try to do the most with his planes as usual. He crashed his stick into the ice and just glued the elevator on again but not the rudder. The Stick leaft the ground but was uncontrolable without the rudder! I have some video but I am not sure it will be edited. Frode Kjørli brought a "BooRay" with electro brushless and finally there is one in the club that has bought a real electric plane. The BooRay flew wery nice and seemed to have plenty of motortime.

     DAY .. 19. December - 2003
Indoor today but it was a bit boring to be alone. Were are you guys ? The time every Friday is free for all so come on. Anyhow I have now two LiPo-cells of 7,4v/1320mah so a total of 40min flying on full throttle can be done... I did not use all of them but did have to change after a while. I used the evening to be a better pilot and simulated F3F from wall to wall and trying to keep "on the slope edge" all the time. It was kind of cool to see the times for 10 laps be so different by using diff. turning styles also on a flying wing with motor.
I also got some photos on a cd today that earned a place in my diary. They are taken by Kjell Gai. Thnx Kjell.

     DAY .. 18. December - 2003
By some strange reason the temperature was +6 degrees and windy. So I went to a slope nearby and had some great time with my Pike Superior. I also used the Picolario and was amazed how big difference there are in sink/lift on a slope like this. Off course this slope is in the valley so one should expect ups and down. But with the Picolario I could immediately change position and get better lift.

     DAY .. 17. December - 2003 - 100 years of powered flight
I will do a bit of commercial here because I found a great tribute to the Wright brothers and the internet today. Google has arranged their logo today as a link for articles about 100 years of powered flight. It was so cool both the logo and the result when you press it that I choose to have it here also. Thnx to the Wright brothers for the first really working plane (even though Da Vinci was the first with a good profile for silent flight much earlier).

For the first time I have tried LiPo cells. I bought a 7,4v/1320mah Thunder power pack from Sture Smidt and was ready to go after apx 2 hours charging. My X-wing became the test plane in -5 degrees. The wing became off course much lighter and I was hoping for 20min+ of flying. After 9min my fingers were so cold that I had to stop for a coffee break... Two hours later I started flying again and with freezing cold fingers I gave up after another 11min. I had now flown 20min on one charge and after charging it showed that I had use 1100mah of the 1320mah total. I have already ordered a second pack and will use them both in my Majko electro glider when it comes out of the hobby room (I don't know when as I have both a Superior, a Brio and the Majko under production...).

     DAY .. 15. December - 2003
OK the Indoor video is ready with Christian Johansen behind my camera. Look at the 9mb .wmv video here

     DAY .. 14. December - 2003
Oh I was so in heaven again today. I have not had the winch out for some time now and it was so good to have the feeling of thermal lift again with the Pike Brio. I think there is only one thing that can bring me more joy than flat land flying and that is DS. I think I am a F3J-pilot and will always love the rising and sinking of air. Today Kjell Gai came to join me for some winter flying and he also brought home my Brio (I have a new one in the cellar). We flew for many hours on the snowy farmers field nearby (there are 30cm of snow here) and we also tested the Picolario vario. The conditions where really calm but there were big differences in the air that I could confirm with the variometer. Kjell also had his Picojet for a spin with brushless motor and Lipo cells. Kim Skåtun and Christian Johansen also showed up. Kim ran for the parachute a few times and earned himself some minutes in the air with the Brio.
BTW Thnx to Petter Østbye Hobby & Sport for the Picolario I have borrowed

     DAY .. 13. December - 2003
A little late but as many wanted to know the profile of the new Viking from VV-model I have put out a picture. The story of the profile is kind of cool if it is correct. Vaclav Vojtisek that is also a very good pilot designed the Viking with the profile of Andreas Herrig (AH-69). But he did not have the coordinates so he copied a very small profile/3D view that were in the Aufwind magazine. The prototype of the Viking (2,8kg) was flown at Wales open and the Czech championship with great result and the model is now in production. BTW after some rumours about the profile and geometric washout we had to visit Vaclav himself and ask him. He said that the profile stays the same all over the wing. We also looked at the prototype at Roman ( www.lomcovak.cz ) and the fuse is new but the V-tail is the same as Big Sting.
3D view can be found at VV-models page: http://www.f3x.cz
 

     DAY .. 12. December - 2003
Should have been out flying today but the wind was not right for the place I went.
I checked my mobile bill today and just as last time I went for a trip in Europe it was expensive... I used the mobile phone for 79Euro on the tour and 67 of them was from updating my diary... The problem is Slovakia as I know it was only 5-6minutes on the internet there! (.txt doc)
But in the evening I went for some indoor flying. I even got company from Kim Skåtun that live in Bergen but are here with some friends. He stayed the night at Christian Johansen's house so he also joined us for some flying. My X-wing were used and the walls are not soft.. :-) Some video were made with Christian Johansen behind my camera. Look at the 9mb .wmv video here

Back to Slovakia at least in my mind. Karol Mrva the maker of the Majko has a great accommodation if one would like to go skiing, slope flying or Paragliding in the great mountains. Please visit his website if you are thinking of going for a vacation. Slovakia is very cheap and the house of Karol is also a cheap place to stay. BTW There are slopes and possibilities just 500m away.... http://www.kmrva.szm.sk

     DAY .. 6. December - 2003
I was planning to stop on the way and what a great stop. At a "secret place" near Oslo/Drammen I knew about a place that might be good for DS (Dynamic Soaring). I had been here almost 20 years ago for slope soaring but was eager to see if the place were good for DS also. The place is an old sandmill and is a bit dangerous. But if you are a bit careful on were you are standing then it is no problem. On the way here I could see a couple of planes in the air but I did not see the pilots when I finally got on the top. I prepared my Opus and the wind was apx 5-7m/s from the north when I threw it out. The lift was great and could bring me to a 2-300m above the slope (on the map the slope looks like its 85m heigh above the sea). Then back in the sandmill to see if there were some DS effect. IT WAS. After 30min of flying and a broken aileron servo I would say that this is Norway's "Parker Mountain mini". It is heigh and the air is pretty smooth. I would reckon my speeds today at apx 130-150mph at its most. The wind went down to only 2-3ms but still there were enough effect to have good speeds here. For those of you that just "have to" see every DS-video on the internet I have made a small one for you HERE (2mb .wmv)

     DAY .. 5. December - 2003
Ebalta epoxy is a big company that deliveres the most important thing for us model pilots - Epoxy. Detlef Hilgendorf is now setting up a big storage place for the Ebalta products (Ebalta Nord) and this might be good for us modellers. Some of the normal producers have had some problems with their resins and on this trip we have learned that the mould epoxy has not been good lately. Now we have bought some mould epoxy from Ebalta as they might be better.
Outside Kiel we met again with Viktor Drezniek for some food and he wanted to see my Pike Superior. We went further to John Rasmussen in Denmark that made a good and big dinner for us. John has the moulds for Trinitus and projects a bigger 6m scalemodel that might just be for sale (all moulded).
Late evening we met up with Benthe and Kaj from Rotordisc'en (very good helicopter shop in Denmark) before the ferry from Hirtshals went to Norway.

     DAY .. 4. December - 2003
Full speed ahead and the first we visited today was Hollein. This is a big modelling shop and well worth the visit. One can go bananas here but I think we managed to keep the Visa card mostly in the pocket. But Espen took a nice shot of the "hangar" from the air and Stefan Hollein paid for the lunch. After plenty of hours later we delivered a Compact in Fulda (Teo Libeck) and we ended up with Detlef Hilgendorf aus Hildesheim that is a dealer for Ebalta epoxy.

     DAY .. 3. December - 2003
Early up and while Jaro was heading for some meeting Espen took out his helicopter for a overview shot of Jaro's new house (Espen has a company named www.Birdy.no ). Jaro might not be the biggest producer anymore (Elita is doing OK but they have capacity for more I think) but he have made some money during the years and have rebuilt a very nice house. Today we met Brano Legersky and Rudolf Masni in Bratislava. They had interresting things to say and we had early lunch with them. After that we headed back again to meet up with the producer of Factor blades for helicopters. We did not think he had any blades ready but we found that he had. Espen brought some of these home and they should be great for 3D flying as they are much stiffer than any other blades on the market. We ended up late in Austria and got to answer some emails on a machine there. When one is out of internet it feels like old time....

     DAY .. 2. December - 2003
Not so early up today and we got a great breakfast from Karol Mrva. After breakfast we went outside and did some flying on a local fields just 2 meters from the house. Espen did some helicopter photos of the house while me and Karol flew some Majko electro model. After filling the car with Majko's we headed for Marion Maslo again to finish of some business and take some pictures of RaceM (big RaceMachine).
Then we went to one of Espen's most important partners namely Milan Janek that produces Compact's and also organizes and makes parts for RaceMachine. Milan is one of the guys that really know how to make good quality models and are very good at construction models and new solutions. Milan has made many of the good design's thru the years and as a friend of Jaro Muller also helped with design of parts for the Ellipse and Elita. After some hours of meeting discussing progress in RaceM, Compact and so on we left for a few more miles before it became dark. BTW there have been a long waiting time for Compact's as they became very popular. Now it seems that the production has become higher but still one model came back from a customer and was for sale. If you need one straight away then contact www.ET-AIR.com . Picture of the model (strong carbon version). I think it will be available just a short while before someone grabs it....
Did you think the day was ended - oh no.... We are stopping by a lot of friends and one of them are Jaro Muller - the producer of Ellipse and Elita models. I say models because now we will soon see also the Elita BJ. I have 3D view for you right HERE :-) It looks very interesting but the profile I can say nothing about as it is made for this model. Beware that the Elita BJ will NOT be with "wave technology". We also got to hear about that X-tail is soon ready for the Elita. At our trip in February we could see the tail as it was made ready for Ellipse 4. The tail is perfect quality as always with Jaro parts. For dinner we went to the always famous Tosca's that makes the best food in Slovakia (at least that I know of). During the dinner Espen mentioned my CG altering with all moving elevator and I had to tell Jaro the theory about my rearwards CG. To my surprise Jaro understood most of my theory right away and thought it was pretty interesting. Jaro might be the first (or at least one of the few) pilot that have not rejected the theory right away.
Right now I sit in Jaro's workshop/office were a bed is ready for me to tuck into soon. Tomorrow we will meet some F3F friends in Bratislava and hopefully go for Wallerstein.

     DAY .. 1. December - 2003
Today we left from Samba and stopped for just a brief moment at producer of Sting and Viking model(s). We looked at mostly the new Viking since the first models is now coming out of the moulds. The producer himself is a very good pilot (the best CZ pilot this year) and has managed to already win some F3F-events with it. This is off course good commercial for him and there are 40 models in order he said.
The trip went further to Pavel Sramek that makes the Opus (also sold by www.ET-AIR.com ). This model recently got the new DS record of 232mph but that was not why we were here. Espen brought some new moulds for a new F3F/DS-plane that he wants to produce. It is called "Taifun Super Sport" and has a HQ-section that should be pretty fast. The model is pretty special and it should be really fun to see the finished result on the slope.
After Sramek we went further to Accacia producer Marian Maslo. He showed us some new projects (a just over 2m electro model and some other stuff one can not talk about). He also showed us the making of mould for Accacia 2 3M V-tail (it has only been with X-tail untill now). But we were not here for Accacia since Marian have been making wings for RaceMachine (also www.ET-AIR.com ) that are now possible to order. The RaceMachine built here is mostly for F3F but also some F3B off course. New is that in some time there will be a RaceM. This one is a bigger RaceMachine for F3B. the positive moulds were ready and Marion is now starting on the moulds for production. So as you understand this famous model will now finally be available for the public and not only a few selected pilots.
In the late evening (after been drinking 12% beer at Marion's house) we went to the producer of Majko (still also www.ET-AIR.com ) and had a night cap. The producer Karol Mrva is a very nice guy with also big apartment that one can rent cheap. This area has many ski slopes, slopes for F3F/DS and big possibilities for paragliding (one worker at Karol's is paraglider). So if one wants a super holiday one should contact Karol by email or phone (I will supply contact when I get home).

January - Not extremely much flying this month but many flights with many planes. Biggest of the month was the new video "Pike-launch". It should be well worth the download of 13,5mb
February - What a trip we had. 10 days in Europe visiting many of the finest developers. Learned incredibly much.
March - Back from the trip and tested the new X-tail for Superior. Came third in the first event with 24 comp. Majko was cool and Fagernes Flyshow was a spectacular event with over 100 pilots.
April - Great month and the spring is coming. Pike Mini with Superior tips is great - Great DS in Haugesund - and first session this year on my local DS-slope. 
May - Wow what a month. Jean was here - speed training - Yellow Eagle Trophy - Spacewolf and most important my new Pike Brio. I think I am ready for the summer now!
June - Jihaa! I got to be National champion F3J for the second time. I was also practising a lot with my new Brio and went to Ørebro Open (Eurotour F3B). I also became Club Champion in the club Cirrus.
July - Got gold medal in the Team and 7th overall in Nordic Championship. Crashed my Brio in F3B and had plenty of friends stopping by for longer and shorter time. New personal best of 17,68s in speed F3B and my first flight with Paraglider. Also pretty irritating that I am not at EC F3J....
August - 3x12 electro (1st), LSF at Vingen (1st), F3J at Nome (1st) and Hollandglide F3J (did not win..). But a great month with lots of flying and lots of good feedback from Hollandglide.
September - This month I was into some more "speedy" flying. Nationals in F3F, F3B and Scaleplanes (slope distance). But also the last F3J-cup this year. F3F was ok but can be better. F3B was great with 4th place and 2nd overall in the league. Scale sailplanes Nationals was good with 2nd place (silver). In the last F3J I came 2nd behind a Swede and by that I have won the National league for the second year in a row. Last I have also tested a Pike Superior X-fuse with electric motor.
Oktober - More testing of electro fuselage and it shows that even 6 cells can work in a F3X-machine. Also this is the end of the season for competitions and only fun left.. Seaplanes and DS (Dynamic Soaring) the rest of the month for me.
November - Last DS of the year in Haugesund and me and Espen again went on a trip in Eastern Europe.
December - Trip around East Europe and great as usual. Found a new great DS-slope near Drammen and flying in cold Norway around Christmas.

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