From today and to 12.July this page will not be updated....
BUT check out F3J.no that I will update almost every day 
with results and gossip from World Championship F3J in Finland.

  DAY .. 27-28.July-2002
06:00h - Repaired a friends Luna flying wing that was really in no good shape. Now it is "almost" as new... and was tested with Lolo inside. Nice to see that infact a flying wing with Gunther prop and speed 400 can get nice speeds (only going down offcourse). The speed diving from above 100m actually became 104km/h with this taped wing. 

The danish team going to school ? No really they are nice guys and good pilots.

  DAY .. 27-28.July-2002
06:00h - Nordic championship F3B, Spydeberg Norway was this weekends big event. 
20 competitors, two days, almost all camping at the field, very nice food, all nice pilots and friendly wife's pretty much sums up the weekend. I didn't know the level of competition was this high in Nordic countries but the level is beginning to get really high. And best of it is that all pilots are nice guys that are socially equipped. For me this champ. was lost after some terrible distance tasks but the thermal and speed i am very happy with. In the thermal i got what i wanted. All counting task in thermal had good points and in the speed I set a new personal best with 18,81sec. There is a lot to learn just being there and keeping your eyes open and one open mind got me into a new level. For me this event was big training before WC F3J next week but still with not so good overall result I am happy in many ways. I was also helper for all the guys in my team in both thermal and many of the distance tasks. Espen Torp got a 5th place and my team (Espen Torp, Bjørn Kjellberg, Pål Vindfallet and me) got 2nd place in the team event (5 teams entered).
Check the official site with over 73 of my pictures here:
http://www.cirrus-rcfk.no/f3b/nom2002/ 
I also used the Lolo a lot and my starts is now MUCH better. It was also placed in Stefan Wahlberg's DLG and thrown to 43m on a quiet Saturday evening. Really cool. My team told me that me and Terje Martinsen were "NAK-pamper" (Something like "guys that are high in the modeling community drinking red wine and think they are big). The only problem is that Terje (leader of Norwegian Air Sports Federation) was doing the hard job this weekend (Contest director and results) and I was the last one to leave the field after cleaning it all up!!! So guys: Sorry we earned that glass of red wine more than many others.... But I had a good time with you and your jokes :-)

Next generation pilots. Two Swedes and a Danish pilot fights into the next Millenium.  The Norwegian kid was out training...

Stefan Wahlberg gives the Lolo a big kick with some DLG throwing.

My team told us we were "NAK-pamper". It should have been "NLF-pamper" because its a new name now...

   DAY .. 26.July-2002
06:00h - The sun is not there to wake us up. Still we are early up and by 11 o'clock I had over 10 starts. Total during the day was over 20 starts. way to much the day before comp. I think. But nice weather is nice to make use of :-)
Tried the Lolo in Espen Torp's X21 and he managed 277m even better than Joakim Stahl managed yesterday. All teams are now here and Team manager meeting was at 21:00.

   DAY .. 25.July-2002
11:00h - Now it is soon Nordic championship in F3B and I am almost ready. Arrived at Spydeberg already today for some practice. Arnfinn Lie and Thorbjørn Jespersen was also there and some of the Swedes came during the evening. One of the Jokers for this WC F3J (3-11.August) must be Pasi Vaisanen. It shall be fun to compete against him in the thermal and I will meet him in round 2 and 4.... watch out for details... Coolest thing today was that we tested the Lolo in both a good old Flamingo Contest and a Racemachine. Both planes was flown by Joakim Stahl and was started on the same Hollenbeck winch. Watch those heights!!! While the Flamingo zoomed of at 130/160m the Racemachine managed 165/274m in the same air. Pretty cool to see what was meant to be best and is now hopeless behind on evolution. My own Superior did not reach 274m today but the new mid-section seemed much stiffer and I had about 10 starts with it. The evening was spent with the Swedes and they are nice as always :-) Not many good photos today maybe more tomorrow... Plenty of good objects just not enough time!
 

   DAY .. 23.July-2002
11:00h - Poor weather outside but there should be nice weather for this weekends Nordic F3B championship. I have also received a new midsection for my Pike Superior with UMS spar (all Superiors now come with UMS carbon) and extra ballast chamber. This means that I can have 1550g of lead and that is needed when the conditions is right... Have also received the new Excel-sheet for Lolo with average speed as a new and fancy curve. Kind of cool to see that the speed is rather low after dipping the nose for more than 100m (only 2650g total weight of Superior at the test). Doing the same test on the slope made over the double speed but it is all about descending meters and weight of model..
   DAY .. 21.July-2002
11:00h - Today my diary will be dedicated to a nice sound!! I think in the future I need to record sound because: A huge petrol engine with gear and a huge propeller - combined with a exhaust pipe that is just like the original on a Spitfire! Now we are talking cool sound. To those of you that fancy thermal you can read results and see pictures from Eurotour F3J, Martin OR Look at how good advertising is done. Begin at THIS LINK and finish off with THIS VIDEO. This is really chilling down the back for soaring-people.


   DAY .. 20.July-2002
11:00h - Neighbor town Gol have their yearly festival and off course with their own model show. This is the 5th time I was there and its always 20-30 pilots having a full weekend of fun. This time Rune Nessen even flew his helicopter outside the local model shop (Leikvold dogfighters) at main street Gol. Kids: do not do this back home..... :-) My son was also with me this time so after a while we had to go back home. 5 year old kids gets tired of planes and talk. Wonder why ?... My VIP 400 got two flights before we went home. If the weather is nice we might go tomorrow also.  

   DAY .. 19.July-2002
13:30h - 2 hours of training gave 8 starts on Klanten airfield with Superior and winch. The main clue today was start settings and flying on track in the speed. The Lolo was used all the time and a mobile "office" was in the back of my car... Really cool to see the different heights with different start flap and hook position. Actually the difference can be as big as 50m!!
   DAY .. 18.July-2002
12:00h - Today we wanted to check out Hafjell because email from friends indicated that it was more wind here at these conditions. 2 hours later we entered the slope only to find a sunny and quiet slope!! I flew the Mini-ellipse of Per Arne a few minutes before I grabbed Per Arne's big ASW 28 (all glass 4m). Claiming we needed some photos my feet went full speed ahead and let the ASW go for the thermals. 10 minutes later and a few small thermals the plane was safely set 122m below the slope on a farmers field. The plane was left there until later on the day but was all fine and not a scratch. BTW the CG was apx 80mm and should be moved a even further back. It flew nice but needed a bit up-rudder. The weight of the model was 5480g and on 4m this is really light for a model like this. The model is sold by Østbye Hobby & Sport and is a real beauty with preinstalled landing gear and is so stiff that it can probably be flown DS with.... The wind picked up a bit but mostly it was thermal activity. Just after that long trip Tom Hansen arrived and we had a nice day until we had to go home. I also flew my Wizard and got to test Tom's planes a Vector wing and another one that I don't remember the name of. See also the 15 other pictures from today at Eurofoto

     DAY .. 17.July-2002
12:00h - Slettefjell was the place to try out today. The wind was a little west but again not enough for some real soaring. Per Arne (my uncle) gave the X-wing a spin while my Superior got two long flights with thermals down in the valley. This slope is REALLY BIG. 1315m at the top and down to the bottom (at 450m above sea-level) there is almost 850m difference !! I didn't belive it before I checked the map. I estimated being 200m down the slope at on of my "thermal-hunting-trips" out into the valley. The slope side faces almost exactly south with a touch of west and you can land 2-300m down the slope if the conditions is hard on you.
     DAY .. 16.July-2002
19:00h - It is evening again and my uncle is here to test a new 4m all glass ASW 28. Sadly there is no wind so we were forced to do some electric and winch on Klanten Airfield. I flew the Superior with full ballast and have now tested new hook position and flap. I really need a good start with full ballast since I have ordered even more space for ballast in my new midsection.... Strange how much one can change and still have good starts. One go can go slow up or one can go fast. But anyhow the tension seems very good. I am really looking forward to Nordic champ. F3B on Spydeberg next weekend.

Want to see some cool videos ?
Inge Balswick a member of F3J.no took these great shots during one of our F3J practice days.
 

Leave our lines alone!!! 2,1mb

One of my Superior launches with no runners and 150m line!! 1,1mb

SAL launch of JW-wing!! 1,7mb

     DAY .. 15.July-2002
14:30h - This was the day with show flying at the Valdresfestival. The local club have 1 hour each year to show of some flying with planes by the waterside. New this year was that two of the members wanted to get a sailplane up from the ground. Our 20x10m and waterside was all we had, but damn the Gentle lady rised into the air after a 2,8m Telemaster taking off from the water. It was a cool sight and we even managed two trips with even just touching the water on its way up!! We also got to video tape the festival from the air and downloading images from a videolink.
I took over 95mb of pictures today. Some of them you can find in my album at Eurofoto

     DAY .. 13.July-2002
11:00h - I arrived at Gaalaas airport near Hamar and already our junior A. Westby had arrived and was ready for some serious practice. F3A-noisy-motor-engine-killer-F3J-pilot Pål Westerhaug was already there and was in the sky with some nasty noises coming from his big clumsy but nice flying F3A machine. Other Løten members also arrived and flew other noisy stuff. We were a total of 5 pilots flying F3J-models and the Lolo logger was used all day long. The main clue today was to figure out  if it was possible to use 2 man direct in very little wind. This is classified as usual! The weather was perfect. Sun and way over 20 degrees meant that water was the main thing to consume a lot of today. I flew all me three WC-models. 2x Pike Superior and 1x Pike Plus SL was all checked and double checked. I adjusted a little bit on the CG of the Plus because of changed receiver but now ok. Junior Alexander W. also got his Select DLG today. This model is sponsored by ET-AIR and all the juniors of F3J.no is sponsored with this model. The model is actually very cheap and durable for some serious for DLG throwing. So if you need a small thermal model to go thermalling everywhere this is the model to buy.

     DAY .. 12.July-2002
10:00h - Hafjell is the next step in evolution or what ? Anyhow this slope place is one of the main slopes used in my region of Norway. For many years this was the place to be. Here I met Widar Holmedal an my uncle Per Arne Nilsen. The wind was stable at 8m/s with thermal activity and it was sunny with some clouds. I had forgotten my Wizard back home so I used my Superior and the JW-wing even though I had been thinking about not using the Superior on a slope before after WC.... The JW-wing was ok on this inland slope with 8m/s falling to 4-5m/s during the day. Off course the JW-wing is mainly a DS-wing and a regular wing would be better for this type of sloping. I even tried to walk on the north side and throwing it on the backside of the slope but no luck. There is no way one can throw a JW into the DS.... Over to the Superior which I used for over 1 hour this day. It is clearly not the fastest slope model around but it can carry very much ballast and still have a good grip on the air. This means that I can make more use of the thermal activity and rule the sky more than I would do with a smaller model. For picking up thermals on the far side of the valley this model is perfect. On Hafjell the landing area is 5-6m down and on the backside of the slope and with the right wind it should work with DS here. Guess what I did?! Just a few meters over the ground - around some trees and around we go. Not fast but still DS on Hafjell. The effect was there and I could DS as long as I wanted but off course in the spectacular speed that I am used to. We all went down for some dinner and I checked in at Pellestova Hotel (255Nkr for a night). After dinner we downloaded the data from the Lolo logger and checked the logger for speed summit over day.
21:00h - we went to the small Hotel-slope that is only 40m from the Hotel and there I flew the Organic and even here I flew some DS behind the Hotel. Finally a tree jumped up and grabbed my Organic 2m. The damage was small but it needs to be back home. All in all a great day.
 
     DAY .. 11.July-2002
13:00h - Went to Spydeberg to do some competition training and testing of equipment before WC F3J in Finland. It was blowing really hard about 8m/s on ground level and much more in the air. The rules in F3J says 12m/s before the competition stops. This means that the lines must withstand 12m/s wind and even more in the air without braking. One of our sponsors (T&K Seilflysport) had even brought a 1,6mmm line that we tried. Since it was blowing this hard we did not need any runners but just attached the 150m line to the ground. We stretched the line and threw the model away just on the tension. Even without runners we didn't get one single start without braking the line. We tried 1,6mm, 1,25 EMC-vega, 1,22 Pentagon, 1,2mm Graupner and none of them could withstand the tension of my Superior. It was a very good observation to see as we need to know how strong lines we need in strong wind. I think we have a solution but this is strictly classified.. Later in the evening the wind came down to 4-5m/s and we finished of with some F3B-starts tuning in Inge's E2. As you can see on the pictures we used a lot of lines and it became a nice football training into the night......
 

     DAY .. 7.July-2002
21:00h - Finally I got to test the Lolo in a sailplane.... The time was 21:00 but when we need to do something we do it! Klanten airfield with its 800m was again used and the winch was set up. The wind was from 0-2m/s at almost 90 degrees from the side. It had just rained so there was not any thermals that mattered too much. On the winch I had thick Japan 60-line and this was perfect for testing. This line is stiff and does not give any extra line-tension when the wind is so little. Normally I would have changed the line to 40 or even down to EMC-vega 0,97 but I didn't want the extra help in tension. This was a test of just that - line tension all the way up.
1. First start was with my normal flap-setting on apx 15mm start-flap. This gives me plenty of line-tension and a good zoom. As always with wind form the side I go out to the side. The result was a height of 229m with 152/144 in the zoom. This was a start that I was pleased with and just as expected.
2. Now I changed the flap-setting to 7mm and did just the same. Went a little more easy on the way out to the wind and lost a lot of tension i think. A bit smaller zoom 145/139m and I could feel that the punch was not there as much as the first launch. Max altitude was this time at 203m.
3. Same setting and same technique but this time when going out for the wind I did just as the first launch way out and up into the wind. This time the tension was there and with a zoom at 150/141 I got 211m (still 18m below start 1)
Next two starts was almost the same as 2 and 3...
6. This start i tested straight up even with the crosswind at 90 degrees. This should be normal since there was almost no wind at ground level. This means that its easy to be fooled. Why ? Just look at the dotted line at start 6. Zoom 120/115 and total hight at 160m is nothing to writw home about....
Conclusion after 6 starts with logger and two extra starts with ballast: I need big flap in the start to build tension when there is crosswind but 7mm is enough to build tension on the way up.
BTW I am sure that one needs many more starts to be sure of anything.....

12:00h - Volbu is the local airfield to be on if you are a member of Valdres Flyklubb Modell. This weekend a lot of members found that tents and barbeque was the thing to do. I was only there on sunday but sure would have liked the whole weekend i think. We also tested fuel against electro. My VIP 400 with Brushless engine was tested against a Wonder with OS 25FX. They broke even in the test with Lolo altitude logger. Next test is hopefully with a sailplane....
Read the whole report HERE
(only Nor. txt but cool pictures)
 

     DAY .. 4.July-2002
More DS and no limits... Today it was 8-10m/s wind and both the Compact and the JW was used a lot. 1hour and 30min on the Compact and 30min on the JW before I went home to dinner. The weather was excellent and I had way to much clothes. Tried to alter the CG of the JW but it still needs to be at 2" to fly well.

Januar 2002 - Det er kaldt, vinter, elektroflyging, men også plutselig varmegrader og årets første 12min termikktur. Fikk endelig slept i gang Mini-phønix'n og har testet en ny X-wing fra Flying wings i Stavanger.
Februar 2002 - Begynner å komme meg etter ryggoperasjonen og heldigvis..! kom den nå når det ikke er flysesong. Det viktigste som skjedde i Februar var opprettelsen av flere domenenavn: F3J.no (landslaget F3J) og VFKM.no (Valdres Flyklubb Modell). Klubben fikk seg også ny Skanner.
Mars 2002 - Dette ble en skikkelig modellflymåned!! Nye NM-regler på danskebåten, test av Diablotin for MI, Fagernes Flyshow, Årsmøte NAK, slepetreff Starmoen og Krystall Cup på Jevnaker (3'de plass). Endelig har også vinsjen kommet seg ut av dvalen igjen. Fremdeles ikke helt god i ryggen, så jeg må hjelp til de tyngste løftene med vinsjen.
April - Over to English writing and nobody has complained yet (and almost nobody has said anything at all about it). This month has finally brought slope flying and some DS again. I have also brought home a second place in 3x12min electro competition with the Organic electro.
May - Ah finally spring was in the air and both DS and two major competitions both in Sweden. In Yellow Eagle trophy I managed to get to the finals and in Ørebro my receiver went crazy but had a good time flying the Organic. Cool. Finally the Superior arrived and that were interesting.
June - A new wonderful month with lots of flying. F3B, F3J-cup, new JW-wing, extra Superior and more real DS - DYNAMIC SOARING or as Espen says: "No limits, just DS! It will change your life!"
July - JW-wing, Goldagan, training for WC F3J and Nordic Championship F3B was the main issues. At the end of the month i went for WC (world championship F3J thermal soaring in Finland)

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