DAY .. 30. January - 2003 
Some indoor flying today after my home club's ( VFKM.no ) yearly meeting. I flew the Drenalyn and my old V-tronic equipped with a brushless (sadly the motor broke in first flight..)

     DAY .. 26. January - 2003 
+5 degrees is welcome when you are used to the winter in Norway. It was blowing across the valley about 7-8m/s but as I soon should feel - there was more too it. Wind across the valley should mean slope-flying if I just went the apx 900m over to the other side of the ice. Well get the winch going and no ballast in.... Superb launch in the strong cross wind and downwind we went. Ok there was a bit of sloping to do but strong turbulence also. Started the way back home but.... shit the wind is REALLY strong at 250m+. Struggled for over 10 min and still not halfway home. Flicked in the speed setting and nose down. Still difficult. It all ended apx 500m out on the ice I had to go walking. I think I have NEVER landed this far out. It felt like I was back in Corfu 2000 and never learned from others mistakes.... Walking in 30cm snow collecting the model was hard but after an hour I started breathing again and loaded 1kg of lead for a second launch. This time I did NOT go far and therefore did not fly for long in the turbulent air. So guys this is a leasson in wing loading. Use lead if there is wind or turbulence....
BTW 1,25mm line is not enough...
     DAY .. 24. January - 2003 
Time for some indoor again. This time I found that my Drenalyn does not need any wheels. Just look at the video and feel the floor..... Video is in Windows mediaplayer ( 1,7mb .wmv )

     DAY .. 23. January - 2003 
Maybe its about time I start flying not only having fun with the camera.... Anyhow today there was nice weather and -13,5 degrees outside. A nice small fog were present in 3-4m height today but some thermals were caught in the sunny parts of the town. Made a few trips with the camera and extracted a few pictures for you that don't want to download the Pikelaunch video ( 13,5mb of .AVI or preview 0,9mb .wmv )

     DAY .. 22. January - 2003 
50+20cm of snow the last days so it has been much work removing the snow on our 400x40m runway (+ 200x30 and a skating circuit). But I had have had time for some small flying with the GT-wing in between. Sorry for all the different videos but that's how it is. .mov (quicktime by apple) is great for keeping the best quality - .avi is a little bit smaller and works on any pc - .wmv (Windows mediaplayer) is by far the smallest in kilobytes but only good for some closeup's.
This time I made a small .wmv of the GT-wing just because I had the camera going. Nothing special just a throw and a catch (the flying is reduced....) Download the 380kb clip here.
     DAY .. 17. January - 2003 
- 15:00 - There is a storm coming in and what better way to spend it than on a slope. The Opus (My DS-iron) and the GT-wing (My all-round EPP-model with electro) was packed and on my feet -- well see for yourself. Sadly the wind was 45 degrees on the slope and massive turbulence made it almost impossible to fly. There are only 50m walking to this slope and it is possible to fly DS here. I tried the GT-wing in DS (Dynamic-Soaring) and it is the first time I have seen a EPP-plane twist so it got wrinkled through the share-layer (The GT-wing is all covered with glassfibertape and with carbon spare...). I did not dare to try the Opus because of the turbulence. But I had a good time and it was good to feel the air (max was 20m/s wind according to the weather station at Storefjell) and +4 degrees.

- 20:45 - Time for indoor. The Drenalyn is again my primary weapon and todays question is "how big can the loop be ?". Small video for those that have Windows Mediaplayer. Incredible how small the videos are if I save them as mediaplayer (85kb .wmv)

     DAY .. 14. January - 2003
A trip to Oslo (180km) and went by 4 model shops. Sorry guys - it is only T&K that actually is interesting for me... It was strong winds today but I managed to squeeze in a flight at T&K with the Drenalyn. Petter was kind enough to give me a bed for the night and I looked at his new models. BIG scale sailplane with Up and Go (KTW) and electro F3A-model is cool.
Have you seen the new F3B.no website ? Check it out.

     DAY .. 13. January - 2003 
Have you ever seen a winch start from the plane ?? 
Well here you have your chance. I have made a short video of the launch and some flying. It should be well worth the download. It is 13,5mb of .AVI so every pc should be able to play it. The plane is my Pike Superior equipped with my Olympus 730uz that makes 320x240 small videos. Enjoy :-)
The idea to the video I got from Pål Vindfallet that also have tested this with a video camera on top. Thnx Påler'n
BTW Do you have Windows Mediaplayer ? Download preview (0,9mb .wmv)

     DAY .. 13. January - 2003 
Do you want me to win a photo contest ? Vote for me on Haugalands photo contest.

     DAY .. 11. January - 2003
Strong winds down from the mountain but only -2 so a few small trips to the ice for some electro flying. The GT-wing had a few spins and the Drenalyn going backwards in the strong wind...
     DAY .. 10. January - 2003 
 - 13:00 - Oh I just love that new Drenalyn. With new speed 300 it hovers and is cool. On the ice and made a few spins.
 - 20:45 - First time this winter indoor. 4 guys had a lot of fun. Me with Drenalyn and the others with X-wing.
Be sure to check out the videos (7,5 and 7,1mb of quicktime)

     DAY .. 9. January - 2003
Again some small electric flying with the Osprey from Østbye Hobby & Sport and some Drenalyn flying. The Drenalyn was tested with NiMh cells today and it was too cold. NiMh is not any good in the cold. After a few minutes in the air it started with half power so it was time to land. I recharged and wanted another go with warm cells but hey there was no action !! I thought the controller had been broken of snow or something so I rushed to the phone and ordered a new one and also a speed 300 (much better motor than the 280). When I got home I could see for myself that it was only bad soldering of the motor.....

 - 20:00 - All dark but the guys wanted to see the Drenalyn in action. I attached some lights (10w/12v normal carbulb's) and gave it a spin. With the 280 motor it does not hover but it is cool. Tomorrow I will hopefully get the new 300 and be ready for tomorrow's indoor session. All pictures in the night by Geir Atle Kjørli




     DAY .. 8. January - 2003 
-18 but calm and possible to fly. At least when a new machine is ready... :-) 
The Drenalyn is a Depron "thing" with speed 280 5:1 gear and 8x500AR. It flyes actually ok and when I get my hands on a speed 300 it should also hover. Petter Blindheim brought one in the Christmas and I just had to make one. Video of Petter hovering can be found HERE (11mb quicktime). His is a bit smaller because I found 6mm depron instead of 3mm. It is possible to make in three sizes. You can find drawings at THIS PAGE. 
I also had a spin with the Osprey before I went home.
     DAY .. 7. January - 2003 
The weather report said around zero but it was -12 today. The winch was packed and ready to go but this is no fun in -12. The Organic was charged and I had a good time.

     DAY .. 5. January - 2003 
-17 but the Osprey had to get airborne. The speed controller was set to not autocut on low voltage and up we went. Plenty of power for about 40degrees climb and a few loops and rolls. It was 3-5m/s wind so rather cold those few minutes. The model handles well so no need for any more work on it except a bigger battery (10x500AR replaced by Sanyo 1400AE)
     DAY .. 3. January - 2003 
It was -26 outside but just had to test the Osprey with Hacker B20-18 and 10 cells. Plenty of power but the controller needs to be programmed to take away the auto-cut. It is so cold that the voltage when you have just charged and plugged in - and the voltage drop when drawing 20A of the 10x500AR cells is too much for the auto-cut. It cuts the power to the motor because it thinks the pack is empty. Anyhow I guess -26 is really not the best temperature to go flying electronic controlled models.....
     DAY .. 2. January - 2003 
Just a quick trip to the ice and a few spins with the GT wing. To cold for any winch flying.

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 - Started editing...

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