Diary July month 2003

Latest: World Championship F3B: There will be some updates on F3B.no

DAY .. 31. July - 2003
Again at a farmers field near Vangsjøen me and Per Arne (my uncle) did even more testing. Today I had prepared some new cells (1700CP instead of the 1250SCRL). It looked pretty much the same but the results show that it has improved even more. I am now at 10-11m/s. Electro setup is all about getting all components to act togheter as there is not just one thing that is correct. Per Arne flew his Graphite with some new setup that I think is much better. I also took the Graphite for a spin.
To finish it all off I put the winch up and tested some more on new CG on my Superior with X-tail. I made 3 flights of 10-15min before we finished off and went home for a good dinner.

DAY .. 30. July - 2003 944,4m height
My uncle is still here and more testing on electro setup. I flew the Organic with a new proppeler (17x13). According to the Lolo I now got a tiny bit more out of the setup and have now a climb at 8-9m/s with only 6 cells (fewer cells makes good handicap in electro comp). But I am using a little bit more amps (75-80A static). I also flew Per Arne's Graphite. It draws 130A static with 10cells CP1700 (pushed) running a 18x11 prop I think it was (correct me if I am wrong). Per Arne flew his Organic but was not so lucky and cought the sun.. The sun is not kind to us sometimes!
full details can be found at the testpage.
ALSO: I was at 944,4m with the Organic today......

DAY .. 29. July - 2003
Per Arne Nilsen (my uncle) arrived today for some relaxing flying here in the mountains and good practice for the weekends electro competition (3x12min -motor time). We went to Klanten airport but there is holiday so there was large gliders in action all the time. A few km further we arrived at Storefjell and used the thermals on the slope for some slope flying. Per Arne flew his MiniEllipse electric while I flew the Organic electric. I also flew with the Lolo and measured a climb speed at 7,5-8,5m/s depending on the conditions. I used 6 cells, Hacker B50/6S, 16x13. Tonight we have tested with some larger propeller and it looks promising. We will see tomorrow.

Latest: European Championship F3J: Some pictures and results at the Sambapage

DAY .. 28. July - 2003
HEY - I got to do many things today. Guess what I did some paragliding today. And I flew both the Organic (yes it is fixed after the crash some while ago) and the Brio in great lift. At 10:00 Haåkon called me and wanted to go flying at Slettefjell. Slettefjell is a big slope 40km away and since the weather forecast said 5m/s west I was not unhappy.... When we arrived there was 5-7m/s wind and lots of thermals. But the wind was not stable so when Håkon went out with his paraglider he went almost aaaaaallllll the way down and I had to pick him up. I used the Lolo on the way up to check check it against Håkon's Variometer. It showed that Håkon had landed on 1046m and started at 1393m = 347m. My Lolo showed 341,6m so they are almost the same. For a while now I have said to Håkon that he does not dare to let me borrow his paraglider.... This morning said the wrong words and just had to let me try. But it was not safe to let me go in the strong thermals so I flew a lot of spins with my Organic and also the Brio while Håkon flew up and down in thermals. Finally the wind came down to normal level and there was little thermals left around 17:00. I locked into the gear and got some instructions before I ran like hell... After 1minute I was 55m below and had only been 2-3m above ground! Disappointing for me but maybe Moløkken (a friend of mine flying hang glider) was right when he said that this is not a plane and is only stupid. But I was determined to get into the air and have some more air under my feet so we sat down and waited for the right conditions. After just a few minutes it was better and I ran again like hell. This time the conditions were much better and I went high in the air and out into the valley. After 5 minutes and 51 seconds I landed on a road halfway down the slope and had flown 375m downhill. Was it a kick ? No it was not but it was pretty cool and when you leave the near ground (20-30m) and set for the sky there is a rush of adrenalin. I guess at the most I was apx 100m above ground making small turns and weight shifting. Just before the landing I made a turn and headed for the road. I landed spot on but was pulled a few meters to the side of the road. You can say I am pretty happy about my first flight. Will I have more ? Well we will see.

DAY .. 27. July - 2003
Nice weather (that is lots of wind and no rain :-) so I went to Storefjell for some slopeflying. I really need to practice on the F3F-thing as I want to attend this years nationals in F3F. The Brio was thrown out with 800g of lead and I had a good time with also some DS in the back. Strange place this. The DS works in any condition but I never seem to get those superb DS-conditions. I also dialed in the CG for slopeflying after several flights. Anyhow after apx 30min of flying it was enough and I went home for dinner.

Just got words from the Czech team (through the translator Jane at Samba back in Czech.... :-)
Congratulation to all the winners of medals and to all helpers of the teams that probably also have earned a medal!
I would so incredibly much have been there! I miss you all!!!! Regards Jojo

DAY .. 24. July - 2003 F3B training
Gjermund Westad called the other day and said there was going to be some F3B-practice at Spydeberg today. These kind of training is highly appreciated by me because I rarely get this kind of practice (I live very alone up here...). So I went to Spydeberg and had some excellent flying and got a new personal best in the speed at 17,68seconds (4 legs of 150m speed). For a while I thought it was the best speed of the day but then Widar Holmedal made a 17,16sec. Totally I had 16 flights and an average of 19,97sec. The conditions was 3-8m/s wind and sunny weather. The full results can be seen at the results page. Now also with Lolo logging on some flights.
Today I flew the Brio with X-tail and a CG on apx.115mm. The last 4 speeds I altered it to 122mm and it seemed faster but the turns were a bit to tight (too much elevator) so it slowed a bit down out of the turns. With the CG at 122mm my Brio now weighs 1930g and I flew all the flights with 750g of lead.
In the evening me and Alf Erik Ross had a barbeque. First meal was Avocado, Tzasiki and fried potato and for main dish I had a nice read piece of meat. For desert we had beer... :-) After that great meal I just had to make a video. The Pike Brio was equipped with my camera and a flash light was taped to the wing (it was VERY dark outside!). The result can be seen on the video (3,17mb) when it arrives on the server (can take a day or two as I have no room for all these videos).

BTW Have you seen the results from European Championship F3J ? They are popping in every day at this site. The Germans also have some info and say something about them testing 75m start (I am not good in German language). BUT HEY I did that last WC while Mr. Pimenof and the jury watched during both the pre-event and the World Championship.

DAY .. 23. July - 2003
I was going to take it really slow today and I did. But sunshine and a son (6 year old Fredrik) in good mood made me stop at a local slope. The bungee came out together with the Brio. There was almost no wind at all but thermals past all the time. With the bungee I normally get 30-40m (only 10m bungee and 20m line) and that is enough to catch a thermal on small places. My son got my camera and took a whole lot of good pictures. Crazy how those small kids learn. After 1min instructions he zoom in/out, worked the jog dial to see the result and did not drop it....
Totally (according to my Lolo) I spent over an hour in the air and was on 347m at the most. I also tested a lot on the CG and had some interesting results! Tomorrow I will go to Spydeberg for some real F3B training. The supertech gear of Westad/Kjellberg will be there so I hope to get a new personal best. Hopefully I have repaired the Brio so that I can give full power on the winch. Anyhow I have made new joiners and I think the new spar is good enough (it was strong enough for high velocity turns today).
BTW Those eggs you see are "tractor eggs" from the local farmer :-)

DAY .. 22. July - 2003
The summer is long and I think I live at one special place. There are over 100km to the nearest friend that loves sailplanes as much as I do. But still yesterday Jean Luc from France showed up (this time with family) and today Knut Vidar Moløkken came for some slope flying. It is good to have such friends and that they appreciate some mountain flying. Today me and Knut Vidar first went to Storefjell and had nice conditions with 6-10m/s wind and ok DS'ing. Strangely I thought that so much wind here would be superb DS but it was "only" ok. Maybe it was because the wind was a bit offset to the slope. I flew the Brio and had a spectacular landing that we have on tape (see photos from video and push for video 3,6mb. Video by Knut Vidar Moløkken). I was going to catch it in the hand but the elevator a funny stone and the wind gave me a surprise. Knut Vidar flew his Mini Ellipse up/down/over/between/etc.... After the wind changed about 90 degrees we gave up and went to another slope. But.. on the way my son got a little carsick and we decided to go home. Then Knut Vidar said: "don't you have some local slopes in the valley ?". Off course how stupid of me. I was thinking so much of the mountains that I had not thought about all my local slopes. We ended up at Karihus at very good conditions (actually much better than Storefjell) and did not finish before the wind died at about 18:00.

DAY .. 20. July - 2003
FINALLY my Brio is repaired or at least so good that it can be flown again. One tip has now new some of the spar and the fuse is almost ready. Today I used the X-tail fuse instead of the V-tail. It is so lovely to kick the rudder and something happens immediately. The model seems to be just the same as before. I have a small crack in one joiner so I hope to get a new one soon before I take it on the winch. I was at Storefjell "again" and had a nice time in ok conditions.

DAY .. 16. July - 2003
On Storefjell there was 0-4m/s wind and my Spacewolf went for a spin. Not super conditions but thermals made it possible to do soe light DS in the back and thermalling in the front.

DAY .. 15. July - 2003
Finally the wind came on the slope (or at least powerful thermals) so we had a super day at Storefjell (1148 meter above sealevel). We had some high altitude speeds, slow DS and a warm lovely day. I think Rolf Inge is a bit hooked to thermalling now :-)

DAY .. 14. July - 2003
Today me and Rolf Inge went Storefjell for some slope flying but the wind was not something to write home about. So we went down to Klanten and some winch flying instead. We had a good time and went zooming around with one thermal after another. Rolf Inge flew his Pike WR while I used the Spacewolf.

DAY .. 13. July - 2003 Evening
With visitors from Haugesund (west coast of Norway) we had to have our annual paper flying competition. Last time Rolf Inge won so I had worked my tactics and was ready for rematch. The only obstacle was the judges that was our wife's. They had a different approach this year and set new rules for us. The tasks were: 1) Best model 2) Length of throw 3) Style of throw 4) Precision in throw at fireplace 5) Best crash!
The big differences came first in the precision and crash. In precision I found the fireplace while Rolf Inge could not make the flames at all (5 meters and hit the fire so the plane burns). In the crash I torched my plane and was confident to win. But.... Rolf Inge showed his best and displayed a superb show with jumping on the plane and simultaing that he did not reach the fireplace... But when the points were given I was the winner.
Here are the points: Jo 77p, Rolf Inge 68p

DAY .. 13. July - 2003
Valdresfestival is a yearly event that the local club gets to show of in. We gather all the seaplanes we can find and fly for a few hours with candy drops, helicopter, etc. The kids off course like it very much and we had a good time all of us. I flew the Osprey from Østbye Hobby & Sport and it works well. With two batteries I flew 17 minutes...
Some pictures can be found at this link

DAY .. 12. July - 2003 F3B cup, Løten
F3B cup in the middle of the summer is normally not a success and with only 4-5 weeks preparation time it had to be just 8 competitors. Anyhow those 8 were there and ready for some real action. I had prepared the starting lists the day before and the decision was made not to do the distance task (we were just not enough people..). Rolf Inge Waaga was here with his family so we went early Saturday morning and were there just under two hours later.

The event was organized by Knut Vidar Moløkken and with Bjørn Kjellberg as CD it went pretty smooth when we just got started. 3 thermal and 3 speeds later we had a winner with the CD Bjørn Kjellberg... Or did we ? No I had to help a little bit on the computer and managed to forget the landings in round two.... The difference between Widar Holmedal and Bjørn Kjellberg was so small that first Widar was announced as a winner. Anyhow they both flew well during the whole event. A big surprise this time was Egil Roland that in his first F3B event came third and did a first speed of 21,99s. Congratulations to you.
Myself --- well after two thermal rounds I lead the event by a big margin and did only need to fly some ok speeds. First speed my Brio acted kind of strange so after the landing I checked that the lead was in place and that the tail was still ok. I also ruined another of those thin servos (one burned up during Nordic championship) but it was only one teeth in the gear so I still managed to get a 1000p in thermal round 1. Sadly I did not check the V-tail servos so in second speed, leg 3 I had to give more and more elevator. It had to get wrong and my Brio hit the ground at pretty high speed. One tip had a broken spar and the fuse was broken in 5 places. It is actually repaired now and has flown again (more on that later). One thing I need to learn now is: I HAVE TO CHECK THE PLANE THOROUGHLY AFTER EACH FLIGHT!!!! Now I have lost two competitions mainly to bad preparation. Not acceptable of me.
Results can be seen at Løten MFK and a newspaper article can be seen at this link. Vingen with Egil Roland also have some words and pictures.

DAY .. 10. July - 2003
This weekend there is both F3B cup and seaplane at the local festival. So I just had to first go to the lake and test the seaplane. The Osprey from Østbye Hobby & Sport was great with a Hacker B20 and 8x Hecell NiMh. 8 min flying time and only 20m takeoff is nice.
After the seaplane test I went to Klanten airfield (810m above sea level). My mission was to test a theory that the CG on the Superior might be at 125mm (it is normally at 105mm but with X-tail the incidence can be altered). The test showed that it was no problem to fly but the sinking rate between the thermals was terrible. I flew 6 flights - 3 of them with CG125mm. So I am back at 105mm. But it was interesting to see that the plane was still ok to fly and that the response on the elevator was good (needed apx 50% dual rate). Yaw and roll was almost as before but pitch was kind of "unstable". Maybe I will test a bit more later.

DAY .. 9. July - 2003
Just had to assemble the Pike Superior and have a flight at a local slope today. Just a small flight because the wind was 70-80 degrees on.

OK time look back at Nordic Championship f3J in Sweden. Roll down to 3.July or maybe check these links:
Full results: http://www.f3j.no/2003/nordic/resultat.jpg
Picture album by me: Eurofoto
Inge Balswick med MMS-oppdateringer (Nor. txt.)
F3J.dk have some pictures (Danish txt).
Newspapers: Laagendalsposten | Hadeland Blad | Ringerike Blad (Nor. txt.)

DAY .. 7. July - 2003 On the way back
On the way back me and Aril found that driving into the late night was a bit to much after a long weekend. So we stopped at Spydeberg (the model field of Cirrus). Out of the car came Aril's plane that did not work correctly during the weekend because of unknown reasons. We set up the bungee and had a few flights when the phone went buzzing. It was Inge that were driving round and round in a roundabout after he had driven Arnfinn Lie home. He had a feeling that we had stopped at Spydeberg and he was right. We said that Tax-free goods were poring out of the car and that he was welcome to stay.. 15 min later he was there and we had a good time until very late in the night.
Early next morning we woke up at 09:00 and guess what: Aril was already in the air. That man just cant leave the plane alone. OK so we also had a few flights with my plane before we left at 12:00.
BTW We stopped for gas at "Ramstadgrillen" in Mysen and spotted a slope. Not many slopes in this area so if you live in those parts be sure to check it.

DAY .. 6. July - 2003 Final day with round 6 and finals
6th and last round of the preliminary was to be done early today. I was sure to make the finals if I just flew a normal round so I positioned myself after the start on a safe distance from all others. I found a thermal I followed behind some trees until I had to get back to control the others (the thermal was also to far behind the trees to be seen). I landed 13 seconds before the last one in that round and was safely in the finals.
We did not finish the last round before late in the day because the organizer had problems with the timer gear. But finally we were ready for the finals. 9 pilots of 38 were ready for 4 fly off rounds and no throw out (we decided no throw out in the finals during TM meeting Friday). All pilots got help and I got the super Finnish guys to run my planes to the sky. Thanks guys you were priceless!
- First final was in backwind and only a few planes on one side of the field got air to start high. The runners complained of poor starts but we all except one pilot finished with full working time and I got a 1000p. Henrik Karhussari lost a few points due to a flying time not being started before apx 10 seconds later but was still there.

- Second final started and now I had increased my start flap and was way up in the sky with only 5 sec on the line. I missed the landing a bit but got a 999,39p and no problem. My team mate Erik Morgan Villadsen had a line break but were super fast up again with his Giga 2000. This line break made him loose the championship even though he only lost 57 points on it.
- Third final started and I got a good start. I had spotted a thermal passing by just 3-4minutes ago and Inge beside also spotted it. He asked me if we both could make it but I said "no just maybe". I guess you know what I did.... My Superior went fast backwards but strangely fast and sinking a lot. I found the thermal but did not manage to get up on it. I flew home and the plane did not correspond as I wanted. After the landing my helper (Tor Midtlund) spotted that my flap horn had been broken. It was not in the landing as it was silky smooth so it had to be in the landing in round two. Shit I usually checks these things. Well I picked up my Brio and launched sadly a little late. Only two pilots had managed to get a thermal this round and my relaunch was a little late because of the change of model. Inge that did listen no my "no just maybe" had gone the opposite way and came in really early for a relaunch. That was a "good" decision and his early relaunch earned him a 3rd place overall. There were also one accident that could have been sad for cars and people. One of the pilots forgot to turn on his plane before launch and his plane went straight to the cars until it suddenly turned and hit the ground on the field pretty hard. Always check your servos and linkages before start. I should have also.....

- 4th final was just cruising and 8 of 9 pilots got full working time. For me and many others the first places was all gone but two pilots were battling for first and second. My team mate Erik Morgan Villadsen (NOR) with spotter Aril Røsvik had lost 57 points in round 2 but if Henrik Karhussari (SWE) lost a few points like he did in round one he could have a chance.

After the points were counted Henrik Karhussari, SWE was the winner with his Racemachine. Erik Morgan Villadsen, NOR was second and Inge Balswick, NOR came third. Myself ? Well if we do not take into account the third round ..... it will be 997 points... but with the third round I rumbled down to 7th place. I was not happy but after a few weeks I realise that I should be as this was a big championship with some of the worlds best pilots.
AND my team got Silver medal in the team competition. That is good when there were 10 teams in this championship! My team also got the second place with Erik M. Villadsen and two pilots in the fly-off. I also think I was the last finalist into bed Saturday.... :-)

Anyhow a big then to the organizers that was extremely well prepared and knew the rules and how to use them. It was also a fantastic social event and a think all pilots would love to come again to Herrljunga for some F3J flying. Thanks again!

DAY .. 5. July - 2003 First preliminary rounds
Wonderful weather and I was so ready for the Nordic Championship. I was too ready I think. My first flight was in the first flight of the day and there was no problem.... until I landed! I knew that it would be hard to be in the finals this championship and my plan was to fly like it was World championship with short starts when possible and late landings. First flight I had a 6-7sec start and I was dialling in the landing after the beeps on my radio.

5 beeps can be heard on my radio and after three beeps I pushed down elevator. My timekeeper pressed both buttons on the clocks when he heard the "thump" and the working time stopped at 9:59,88 and the flying time at 9:52,57. I was happy until I heard what the officials said... "Sorry you landed after the working time!". What ???? No way I said. It had to be something wrong with the timer equipment I thought. The timer equipment were controlled by a computer and not by a PLS as it should be. We know that a computer clock makes mistakes from time to time. The finnish guys also said that the equipment used last WC F3J in Finland made errors on 0,5-1seconds once in a while. The Norwegian F3B equipment is made by PLS because we know for sure that the computer makes mistakes. For a few minutes I could not believe my ears but calmed and had to except the decision. Well now I had to change the plans and land even one/two seconds before the rest of the championship.

The day progressed with plenty of thermals in some rounds and very bad in other rounds. We finished after five rounds and all my rounds were good (except round 1). The list showed that there were plenty of guys having bad flights and with one round tomorrow with ok points for me I was well into the finals. So the night was good with some beer and a drink. The banquet was superb with excellent food and over 60 people showing up too sing along on the songs written by P-O.Edberg. It was a fantastic atmosphere before we returned to the hotel after midnight.

DAY .. 4. July - 2003 Practice day and TM meeting
Early up and the day was to be used as a practice day before the championship. My time was ready for action but after a few flights on a bungee we went to the local town centre and filled up the car with "tax-free" goods (Sweden is almost half price on some interesting stuff..
We used the rest of the day testing launching technique on 150m line. The wind was steady on with 3-4m/s most of the time so we only needed to hammer the end of the line down and pre-tension the line. No runners needed and only 30m to collect the line :-)
Late in the day there were sadly an accident with Swedish Conny Anderson's model (a Pike Superior he had just bought). His model came straight down from 30m but luckily the model is pretty strong. He got a small crack in the fuse, a broken digital servo and a Rx had to be replaced. Looking at it afterwards it might seem that some of the pilots arriving at the parking lot might have been testing their gear.... Conny was using channel 62 and had the frequency clip that was just after collected by a pilot.
At 21:00 the Team Manager meeting started. Kent and Jonas had prepared themselves really well and convinced us that the organizers was really up to this event. Kent has become a very good CD and knows almost all rules in and out. Main discussion today was the new rules concerning reflights (amends at January 2004) and if there were to be discard round in the fly-offs. The reflights and the discard rules were both taken into account and all TM was happy with the decisions.
Most of the arriving pilots (there were 38 pilots in this championship) stayed at the field in caravans, tents or in the "Bygdegård". Me and Aril called it a day and went to the local fancy hotel with showers, nice beds, etc....

DAY .. 3. July - 2003 Travelling to Nordic Championship F3J
Ok my adrenalin is pumping high and I am on the road again. The Nordic champ. F3J is next stop but first I have to pick up Aril Røsvik on the Airport. I had time over since I went early to my physiotherapy. I found that the best way to use the time was to find a small field and bungee a bit. I drove around for an hour without finding anything before I spotted the some small slopes just near the airport. Did I say small ? Well 10m might not be big but when shaped by machines like this it makes some perfect DS-slopes just a few kilometres from the airport (Just behind McDonalds at Gardermoen). I was keen to get out my Brio but found that a GT-wing (EPP with electro) was a better choice given the championship this weekend. The wind was steady on at 5-8m/s and I had a good time for about 30min before I packed and picked up Aril.
6 Hours later we arrived at Herrljunga in Sweden and was welcomed by Rolf Erik and the many of the pilots. The weather was not good and the last day it had been raining 54mm of rain. But hey was we to fly today ? Yes off course. After some beers and a little darkness it was again time for the GT-wing. The rain pored down but we threw it into the sky. It did not fly for long... After 10m it started glitching and down it went with some exciting smoke coming up. Hmm I guess the controller did not like the rain....