DAY .. 30.June 2009 - Xplorer
Another day up in the mountain. Unpacked the box from the weekends flying and discovered fuses were damaged :(
Fix the worst of it and flew my Xplorer as the Perfect needed more care. The ballast shown is from Graham Wicks in UK. Link HERE.

DAY .. 26.June 2009 - UK Eurotour Interglide
Arriving late Thursday in Stansted with the airline Ryanair was ok. Ryanair actually takes my box as long as you tick of for sports equipment. They do charge you a little but the box can be as big as you want and up to 32kg!!! Drinks cost and food too but that is ok because Sydney Lensson picked me up and treated me with food in Brenda's kitchen late in the night. Next morning we got a large and good breakfast by Brenda (Sydney's better half) and we drove of too the flying field a couple of hours north. Helped out putting up some tents and thought I would get some flights in when I discovered I had forgotten my precious elevators for both the Perfect ET and the Xplorer 3800... How stupid can one be. Well Sweden is rather close since Lennart Arvidsson came for this competition and he actually had a spare one.. and then Nick Kidd came with a elevator for the Xplorer. It was the small one but after a couple of testflights I found them to work just as well or maybe better? Anyhow I also got an elevator from the dealer here Austin Guerrier so I was ready for action in no time. Pheeew ;) In the evening we went for a pub dinner. Not the best pub we could find but the beer was good and when I got my second steak in the end it was wonderful. Maybe Sydney's alternative or a double barbeque next year? Me and Sydney tucked into bed before midnight I think. Luckily...

More pictures HERE

27-28.june - UK Interglide
First competition day. We were 39 pilots eager to get going but the fog seemed to lay as a clamp over us until poof it was gone and the blue sky showed up. Only 38 pilots but this means lots of rounds and the wonderful 5min between each slot. We did not take lunch but finished of fairly early after 4 rounds because the wind turned around on us. The organization is not large but they used what they had of volunteers for the right jobs at least how I see it. The field is not big enough for launching both directions but their equipment with ropes for corridor, horns and a tent is easy to move if needed. I would like to see MP3 files used next year instead of computer that sometimes "burps" and hopefully the large piles of cowshit could be not that fresh... but I will survive anyhow ;)

Conditions were humid and very warm all weekend. Thermals just disappeared and launches were bad because of the hot humid air. Most rounds could be flown out fairly easily but it could also be very difficult at times. We did have a thunder storm on Saturday evening just after the barbeque but it was dry again the next morning. As last year a local chef and pilot arranged the barbeque and it was great. Actually Lennart and his wife said it was the best on a Eurotour this year and they have been to 4 already. Thumbs up for that.
My team consisted of 5 different nationalities (all in all I counted 7 nations) and we did fairly well. We did not at all have the best launches but managed to spot and work it out that way instead. We had a great time with lots of smiles and Lennart's wife made us lunch while we did our turns on the stake end. Thank you! I also did some running this time and I am glad I could help the team but did suffer from it on Sunday.

Well well.. I lost some points in two rounds. One when I hooked the line in Sunday morning (been years since I have done that) and one where I bounced of the hard ground to a 91p landing. After 6 rounds I was in first place with 10?points lost and I was sure to be in first after prelim but some mixup of scores might have shifted things a bit. After a 30min or so break we had the finals in very calm air. The clouds came in and even gave us a few drops of rain during the finals so high launches and smooth flying in the sparce thermals was the key although first final started with a slight headwind. The thermals were there and 4 went left and 2 right in the first final. The left thermal gave slightly more so Adrian Lee and Peter Allen got away with a full time while the rest scraped for 10 to 13min or so. Second final I slipped with a leg not responding after a hard weekend of running (I get bad feeling in the leg sometimes from my bad back) and had to release the model half a second or so before the tone. Left me relaunching and a minute lost but I did get away on my own far out to the right and winning the second final with a good margin. I was sure to have gotten the win because I thought we were doing 2 final rounds but no.. One more please.. Third final I felt a thermal in the launch right over my head but was not right. A couple got away on the left side and again Adrian Lee got it with slow and smooth flying with his Graphite fuse and Supra wing. I flew my medium weight Pike Perfect in the first final but used the Xplorer 3800 (with borrowed small elevator) in round 2 and 3 of the finals. It worked out nice for me with Perfect ET in active air and big Xplorer in the very calm air so it was only me and my thumbs that did not give me the win. I ended up in second with Peter Allen in third flying the new Tragi. Albert Kort flying Onyx got 4th and Austin Guerrier 5th with his Xplorer. Lennart Arvidsson got 6th place with his Pike Perfect ET after a 100p penalty for catching/landing in the corridor on a relaunch (well spotted by the line judge). Finals gave us a tricky end to the competition and a great way to end it. Price giving was on field and with champagne and gifts for the finalists and some for the volunteers. Jury (that I was a part of) had nothing to do at all and we only had one reflight group because of midairs. Some broken models but the distance between each pilot was 20meters and that is something to follow if one has space for it and not too many pilots. Good call.
Last evening was spent home with Sydney and Brenda were we opened a bottle of champagne as we were happy with second place. Sydney flew very well on saturday but sunday could have been better. Less whiskey Sydney? Anyhow thanks for spotting and thanks to the rest of my team and all the others on the field that made it a smiling weekend. All in all I think it was a very successful event that they can be proud of. I will certainly come next year also if my friend Sydney Lensson picks me up (and he says he will). Hopefully I can bring my son also along.
Here is a funny saying I got from T.M. : I got to be "first of the loosers instead og first above the loosers"....
Hilsen (Regards) Jojo
Results are HERE - Interglide website - Nick Kids photos

DAY .. 21.June 2009 - Fløten, Xplorer 3800 versus Pike Perfect ET
I visited the doctor on Monday and discussed throwing airplanes. She agreed that I should not at all throw DLG style or two hand F3J/B but keep throwing one hand style. This because I then kept the back straight. But throwing only the model yesterday and today was not good for the back. On the other hand one does not need super altitude as long as the thermals are good... ;)

Today I flew partly Perfect ET and partly Xplorer. The Perfect ET I brought today is a bit heavier (2200g) and therefore was not so easy to compare to my very light Xplorer 3800 full carbon (1960g) on this low circling stuff. Would be better to bring my Perfect SL and put on the ET tips.
Both is so large in wingspan that the rudder could be bigger for low and tight circling. The rudder on the Perfect had fairly good effect all the way up to full throw and was too much but did not loose its effect. The rudder on the Xplorer had good effect but I needed to ease up on it as soon as the turn had been initiated. Otherwise the tail would work as an airbrake and the tail stop flying.
Beware that I flew both models with small joiners (equal dihedral on both) AND in high altitude terrain. Using more dihedral might help in this tight circles flying. What did help was to get the CG slightly forward (think that means about 110mm on both models from 112mm). On the Xplorer 3800 it helped a bit to have slightly less thermal camber on the tips.
I ended up flying both models with up too 4-5mm thermal camber in todays conditions. Normally I find less than this to work better.
What I am saying is that every day is a new day of settings. This has to do with a lot of factors. humidity, thermals, elevation.
But what we want to find is settings that work fairly well in all conditions and know what to tweak for certain special days...
As a conclusion of todays models flown:
I would say that the rudder stability medal goes to the Perfect ET. But the tightest circle when initiated is the Xplorer 3800.
Off too UK Eurotour tomorrow. Maybe I can do some updates during the weekend if I find some internet...

DAY .. 21.June 2009 - Fløten, Xplorer 3800
25C and just a breeze of thermals. Though suddenly there were some strong and small mini thermals that sounds and kind of look like dustdevils without the dust. Winch was not needed as a good throw and some spotting was enough to get up most of the time. Some great photos too taken by timer ;)

DAY .. 21.June 2009 - Fløten, Perfect
Been working a bit on a few photo missions but today it was time to get some practice in. 90m to turnaround and only short launches. Goal is to get atleast 200 practice landings before Nordic Championship. Got about 20 of them today but the wind was not favourable so had to walk all the way to collect chute each time. Not far but 3,6km in just a short time... Flew my Pike Perfect ET.

DAY .. 13-14.June 2009 - Geiranger and Høgli
Me and my son went to Høgli past Geiranger to make one single photo for a customer... Photos HERE
We also flew some DS in Beitostølen in a "pitstop" and had a late night by a nice lake.

DAY .. 13.June 2009 - Seaplane
Before we went to Geiranger there was a seaplane event in our local club. Fredrik flew his new wing that he got from the last F3J competition (he was best junior and nr.7 of 24 pilots).
Lots of pictures from the event HERE

DAY .. 9.June 2009 - Volbu - local airfield
We had a local school class and they got to fly simulator inside and 3 different airplanes outside. I flew Fredrik's EPP floater and also took a photo of the guys (and one girl). See all the pictures HERE

DAY .. 8.June 2009 - Podhorany Eurotour F3J
Going home and was taking some parts for junior and some senior team members. Took my big box and before check-in I took out the towing lines and put it in my hand luggage. Still I needed to pay 2550CZK (about 100EUR) for 4kg overweight and when I reached security they did not like my lines and almost took them from me. Luckily I managed to convince them that the reels were not dangerous so I only lost the lines itself. Ok a good reason for changing lines for next competition. So for anybody travelling. DO pay for the luggage in advance and think thorough on what you bring thru airport security. Next is customs at Oslo airport... (it went ok)

Coming home I found some fantastic pictures in my mailbox from Milos. Here is Jojo's Xplorer coming home after a "give it all" flying and landing far out. And in the background the speaker calls for a new flight. I must say it was a weekend with lots of fun and hard work for all. Yes I will be in Czech Republic again when next competition will be held.

 
Jan Kohout and Vlastimil Vostrel runs for Jaroslav Vostrel

First final launch

Landing Jaroslav

Left: Junior podium. Right: Senior first 5 places from right to left.

Sunday 11:00:
We woke up to a bit of rain but the sun took over and it is fairly warm conditions with some high winds though turbulent conditions since there is a slope/big drop in front of this wind direction. It is kind of like flying in Denmark but with more turbulence and some thermals coming thru. Today we had good information from the organizers and with clear English language they show that they know how to do this. Pilots that needed got their extra minutes and they paused when the big planes were taking off. Super. My own flying is not good and I am trying to figure out why and how the mind plays these games. It is very interesting and part of the game to figure out or maybe not. One has to be both relaxed and yet observant and be able to take quick and complex decisions. The final places is still wide open since it also today is a lot of pilots flying just 5min. Interesting to listen to landings since our tent is less than 15m from landing mark number 1 and wind direction so they fly just above us... You can hear the servos twitter a lot of nervous pilots. Now we can see pilots trying to fly the slope about 1km in front but it is very difficult. On launch spot 1 they can go out to the side and get some better launches. Looking out even Philip Kolb lost 100m in less than one minute trying to fly in the front. Not a pretty sight. Some say it is lottery and partly one can agree. One still needs to look for the next round.

Left: Junior Vostrel that wants to fly World Champs next year. Right: Parachute Soarist? It came  down over my head.

Saturday:
Ok first of all - yes I did not fly well today. Bad karma or something. I dont know. But first round started with having little time to prepare and 30sec before launch my model was not working. Rebinded the receiver with the transmitter and all servos were working so it went up. BUT the elevator was the wrong way... Normally I pull slightly elevator just as the model have settled in the air. This time it went down and immediately my mind said "oh no" this elevator is going the wrong way. No wonder the receiver did not want to work on the first attempt. Why this happened I dont know. But maybe I have used this memory to check out something. But it did work on Monday just 5 days ago on the competition. Well anyhow that little stupid thing ended in a bad start of the day and it continued. I flew with full ballast in both Perfect ET and Xplorer 3800. In the 3rd round I landed about 1km out with the Xplorer in the wind... I tried to be not so thick headed when I relaunched my Perfect ET. Have no idea about scores totally yet and in almost all rounds there were pilots relaunching and many rounds was won this way. Think it was stupid to fly such a large model in those conditions (the wind was coming over a hill and made it impossible to fly long in front. Maybe it is very good to have some problems after a good start of the season. I talked to Philip about this and he also needed to get down to real life after a good start (he also lost some points in two rounds..).

Well anyhow I am now in Czech Republic 2 hours outside Prague in Podhorany. 110 pilots are entered for this competition and we managed 3 1/2 round before the rain stopped us. There has been some small bad things to sort out and many good things. I wrote a lot here before dinner and before a quick shower. Maybe I will paste it again later when I have come down to earth. And after arriving at the field again for dinner it was just topped off that the dinner was finished. What i heard in the briefing with bad english as NINE was actually NINEteen.... Bud I got the party with live music and most gathered in the heated tent with beers and music not louder than you could have a conversation (excellent). Managed to sneak away like last night fairly early. Good night.

 First the bad: They have a new sound system and in the morning they only give you 3 beeps and the round starts. Sound system is also very bad and you can not hear what is said just 50m away. I think there is too much bass in the microphone. But I did not dare to say anything... After some discussion that was really a cry for help they decided they could give us a 10sec warning. We have now discussed a lot in the pits and many agree that this is not the only Eurotour with sound/timing problems. We need a system that is equal all over and is proven easy and working with clear english voice. After talking to many teams including the Eurotour "directors" Philip Kolb and Stefan Eder we decide to send in a proposition to use MP3 files that can be downloaded on the Eurotour site. This proposition is to the Eurotour organizers and not CIAM rules. But maybe it can act like testing and guideline (although MP3 has proven in many countries for several years and continental champs). This way we can get this thing going right away. Then all competitions have the same lovely voice of a wonderful smiling girl ;) or something... It is cheap (10EUR for MP3 player and then 4-10 simple speakerhorns linked). Maybe we should also make a list of things that needs to be done for a Eurotour scores to be approved. Also the stake end was not marked. Maybe not needed but with only 3min preparation time between each round the workload is high on competitors. Sometimes you need more time but you will not be granted more time unless you protest. Language problems have been an issue today. Sometimes they think different than what you have said. Later in the day they stopped because of rain but wanted to start each time the weather was ok. That is fine but when you suddenly stop because some weather man said it will rain for 1 hour then I question them. Especially since this information was not passed on too the competitors that was waiting for a new preparation time. It is not so that the weather is depending on what some guy in an office says. It did rain slightly after we had stopped the last time with some breaks for up to 15min with flyable conditions and then rained for 1h 45min before the sun came upon us. But they had already stopped for the day. So they were partly right. I remember in a big championship they said we will not fly before lunch the next day because of weather. It did not rain... Last there was almost a big crash when a 2 motor big plane flew right over us and several other big planes did have to change course. So many pilots not reading Notam in the morning at the airport?.... What I am saying is that when a competitor tries to say something please listen. It might be that the competitor is trying to help the organisation doing things better. Otherwise he would not have approached the organisation.

So what is nice? All of it. Big tent with food and drinks for nice prices. Transmitter impound that was strict (though not needed for 2.4 transmitters anymore according to rules and on other eurotour's we mostly use antenna impound for 35mhz). The field was layed out nice and cut for us so we can launch in two directions. I hear they will try to get more space between each pilot in the finals also (it was too short last year with big crashes). Accommodation is very cheap and camping is free on site with showers and toilets provided. This is 10 years anniversary for this competition so entering was only 10EUR. Lets hope they continue or atleast a large competition in Czech near Prague airport (easier for us that needs to arrive by plane).

DAY .. 1.June 2009 - F3J Norwegian Cup
A record in new time 24 pilots and 5 teams. High pressure and hot so very difficult conditions at Spydeberg were we had this weekends competition. The contest director and club had done a great job promoting and they even had prices to give out for juniors and special pilots. Only 4 rounds preliminary rounds and two finals because this is a 1 day event. It takes time and we did have one reflight group because of a crash between father and son. But in nice calm pace we finished long before people really needed to go home and we had a good lunch break midday. The way this club does it works well and although there is room for improvement in getting started and logistics we have a nice community with lots of happy pilots nowadays. Luckily also the farmer plays on our team so that we could have as many teams and starting positions we wanted (we had 5 and 6 in finals). Since we use winches the only thing stopping us to have even more teams is enough winches and that we want a good mix of advanced pilots and newcomers in each team. This time it turned out nice with enough winches though we might be on the safe side with all winches set up in the morning next time.
Two juniors participated and while my son Fredrik (12) took a fantastic 7th place and just a few points from the finals. The other junior Stein Marius is also a very good pilot and although he did not get value for money on his placing we have high hopes for him in the future (both are in for Nordic Championship and European Championship this year). These youngsters now what they want and our job is to get them there flight by flight. Really fun! Others that should be mentioned is the guys from Lillehammer. Stig has done a good job up there and I think they are on with some fine pilots that likes to have fun. The organizing club also have a lot of pilots that pop out and will be pilots to watch out for if they can keep up the practice sessions and.
The rounds before lunch had a little wind factor into it and having that ballast jumping from thermal to thermal was nice. If you had chosen the wrong side it was important to be on the alert and punch over to the right place. After lunch it was more calm but although the thermals were bigger and stronger they still could fool you when they left the ground and just disappeared. If one look at the scores one can see that it was easy to get lost and loose the whole competition in only one flight.
In the end Jojo (me) won both preliminary and finals with Tor in second and Per in a nice 3rd. The finals shuffled the numbers a bit but that is the cool thing about F3J. You get to fly against the best that day. Thanks to Cirrus for a warm and shining day at the field.
More pictures HERE - Results and other reports HERE - more on the Xplorer see below pictures

DAY .. 1.June 2009 - Xplorer 3800
OK here is a long one about my first experience about the Xplorer 3800. As always this is what I find now. It CAN and probably WILL change when I have flown more. So take it for what it is. I do like the model and have no problems flying both Nan and Samba models at the same time. This was written at RCgroups but I copy it here.
Beware both the Xplorer's I got are the 3800mm version and I wanted a spar that could take all F3J and full carbon and preferably 2kg. The rest was up to them but I got to make my own color scheme.

Flew the Explorer all weekend in hot conditions (well high pressure and 25-27C is hot for Norway). Today (Monday was holiday in Norway) we flew a F3J National Cup with 24 pilots and 5 teams. I alternated beetween the two (Perfect ET/Xplorer 3800) and so did my son a little during the weekend.
I won and he was a few points from the finals in 7th position. Daddy is very proud!! Fredrik (12yrs) liked both model much better than the Supra that he normally flies.. guess daddy never made a ballast tube for his Supra...
What I have found so far is:
No matter how much ballast i throw at the Xplorer I still cant get the legs I want. Maybe I still need to tweak it a bit more. It is only my first week with the model.
But it does hang very well and maybe a notch better than the Perfect. Atleast easier to just hang there and cruise around.
Launches well though I need to fine tune that rotation to get a bit more on initial. If I throw on very high tension and straight up it is fine.

I got two different set of joiners with the models. Did not like the large dihedral (same as perfect philip joiners in degrees) but the smaller ones suited my taste (same as original perfect)

My Xplorer models are built very light and fairly strong it seems. Very little epoxy in skin so plenty pinholes but that does not matter for me. Fit and finish is nearly Samba but not quite (though mine is not a production model I think and I have not looked too much on others). Only time and some heavy launches will tell if the model can take all conditions. But so far it has held up and got some fairly good launches.

Another interresting thing was that when tweaking the differential (I like it to almost roll straight with no ail-rud coupling) I found that I am almost at no differential at all. The Perfect needs differential so... Aileron response on Explorer is less than Perfect and it does have an issue on negative balloning in high speed braking that I need to figure out. Again first week.

January 2008 - Snow and cold is on us but squeezed in a F3J competition with the Swedes
February 2008 - IGG event, Spain
March 2008 - Blew up my Skymax4 but bought a new one. 3m Extra 300.. 150cc 17,5hp
April 2008 - Eurotour F3J Turkey and F3J in Norway. 2 wins with 2,4GHz JR Spectrum
May 2008 - Eurotour F3F in Norway and Eurotour F3J in Podhorany
June 2008 - 318mph with Kobra DS
July 2008 - World Championship F3J, Interglide F3J
August 2008 - Hollandglide
September 2008 - WSM World Soaring Masters, Nationals F3J, My son is on in F3J!!
Oktober 2008 - First podium place for my son in F3J
November 2008 - Lots of DS and a trip to Molde. Both me and son got new sailplanes
Desember 2008 - Predator, first FPV
January 2009 - Predatot, IGG, FPV
February 2009 - Lots of FPV
March 2009 - My first big international F3J win. Fagernes Airshow
April 2009 - Soarist Cup, Istanbul, Vårlige vinder
May 2009 - Vårlige vinder, Xplorer 3800
June 2009 - Podhorany and Integlide UK
July 2009 - Started editing
You want back to Main page of the diary ? Or main page Jo Grini

All images copyright www.jojoen.no