DAY .. 30.June-2002
Just a quick update. This weekends training and cup-event was a big success and I ended up third place.
I am now leading the Norwegian cup as I was best Norwegian after preliminary rounds.
Detailed results and pictures can be found HERE (sorry only NOR txt) or the pure DATA
I have also received the new Lolo-logger from Lomcovak. Looks cool.

     DAY .. 28.June-2002
Tomorrow i am going for practice for sundays big F3J-event. 8 of the best Swedes is coming over to Norway for a one day competition. Wish me good luck :-) See this page for names and results afterwards.
I have made new equipment (pulley) for the WC acording to the new rules. Actually i made it a little bigger (1m) than needed. The picture shown is at a early stage but you get the feeling.... Two-man pulley is really cool and the way to go if you want really high launches. It is one cool way of launching but needs two men running and big ground anchor.

     DAY .. 26.June-2002
I have received another Superior that i am working on... This is a D-box model and is lighter than my own all-carbon (2150g). This is Petter's model but I am borrowing the model so that I have two Superior besides my Pike Plus SL during WC in Finland. This model is not as light as the superlight but more rigid so that hard landings should be no problem. The weight became 1995g with CG on 103mm as the Germans want it (Philip Kolb and Karl Hinsch I think) but i like to fly it at 100mm so the total weight became 2010g. This should be nice on a model that is 67dm (30g/dm). Petter also wanted the servos mounted in "trays" and this actually added 25g to the total weight. These "trays" i had to make myself but it looks almost like the ones Volz is selling. To make this work on a Graupner DS-368 Petter had bought the servo mounting No.3821/20. See picture for details. Petter and his company Østbye Hobby & Sport is selling Pikes here in Norway (and all other countrys).
-22:25h - Finally the wind stopped blowing! The last month i have been looking for calm conditions to really test the Superior. I have even tried getting up at 6:00 but even then it has been thermals. Today I had first flight at 22:25 with the "new" Superior in calm conditions with fog around me and a wet Klanten airfield after some days of rain. The first flight with the model was 8 min followed by a 7min before i changed to the all-carbon Superior and flew a 7min flight with that one. There is no doubt the Superior is also a floater. Packed the winch at 23:45 but could easily have flown a flight more. The sun is up for long here in Norway :-)

     DAY .. 24.June-2002 JW - New DS-model in Europe
Some time ago I read about the JW-wing on the internet. The JW is a swept forward wing that is capable of doing 120mph in DS (Dynamic Soaring). The whole idea I think was to make a durable wing that goes faster than normal wings and especially in the DS-groove. I emailed a couple of friends that manufacture EPP-models and said to them: "The first of you that makes me two JW-wings will close a sale on those two models!". A few days ago I received my two models made by the company Flying Wings. They are now making the JW on license with the correct EPP-foam, carbon rods and whatever you need. It will be on their website in a few days I think. I ordered two models because I thought I would build one slope model and maybe one for electro to use on the field. I have now finished one slope model and went to the DS-slope for some real action. I ended up with a model covered with Oracover and the carbon rods fitted in with silicone. The all up weight is 900g and word on the net says that it needs to be at least 900g to fly well. I have not fitted a ballast tube but will probably do so later (rumors says its even more fun with 500g lead).
-14:00h - Weather was sunny and with 15-17m/s wind straight into my best DS-slope!! It was so much wind that I didn't want to throw my Wizard by myself. But the EPP JW-wing is only pocket money compared to the Wizard and should take the beating of bad throws... Well of it went on his maiden flight. The CG was at the recommended spot 2 1/2 inch and throws 1/2 aileron and 1/4 elevator. This was way to much in the high winds and a little slop on the elevator made it almost uncontrollable. Managed to land on the top of my sharp DS-ridge and made some adjustments for a new flight. Now the CG went to 2" and the throws on elevator at only 1/8". Now we are flying! Difficult to say something about performance in 17m/s bumpy conditions but front side was OK. Backside and DS was a new chapter on what I see in a flying wing. Diving down from the front side entering the dark side was REALLY COOL. This models jumps into warp speed faster than any other and totally rips the sky. A few laps later and a missed turn made me go bouncing the dark side in over 100km/h. Went down to lookup the crashed model and only found a small rip in the wing. 20cm of fiber tape later I was cruising the sky again. This model really handled the gusty conditions well and is made of EPP-foam and therefore one can really learn how to control the DS-dark side. Over the next hour of flying I took more chances than I have ever done before and learned a great deal more about my DS-slope. I hit the ground 10-15 times (flying to low taking chances) and couldn't stop laughing when I threw it off the slope again :-) Looking at the model afterwards I should have covered it with tape not film because the film gets wrinkled. First impressions on the JW is good. It tracked well and with little or no sound the airfoil should be good. BUT I still haven't tested in "normal conditions".. At last I had to stop flying when a control horn came loose and then it was time to check the conditions with the Wizard Compact 2....
My Wizard C2 have shown itself as a durable plane that can go really fast in DS but I had never tried it in this good conditions. They say that a standard C2 can withstand 150mph before it breaks in air so now was the time to tell! Luckily the wind had came down to only 13-14m/s when I threw the plane out. Wow now I could see how big the conditions really was. 10 min flying later and a model still in one piece I didn't dare to fly anymore. It went so fast and twisted so hard sometimes that I was really scared. I ended up making huge circles of more than 200m wide and was still going to fast for my wallet.... For those of you that have never tried DS: Everyone with the skills should try it. It will change your way of flying if you like it!

 
 

     DAY .. 20.June-2002 Finally some REAL DS (Dynamic-Soaring)

-15:30h - Picked up Frank-Olav and went for a spin at the DS-slope at Beitostølen. This was the first time this year that i have gone to this slope. It became a day to remember. We went up the slope (400m walking) and found 4-6m/s wind coming straight into the slope. The DS was marvelous as always when the wind is NW here. After 30min we stopped flying and went for a Pizza down at Beitostølen (5km away). After one big pizza and some dessert we went up again and finished the day at 21:00 with almost 1 hour of pure DS. Sometimes the Compact went so fast that I was sure it was going to break. This model is just unbreakable i think. It was going so fast that i had problems flying it and the wings was sometimes twisting and bending really hard. When you are flying DS in really good conditions i think the model will take it. The problem comes just after the good conditions or when the conditions is building up. Then the air is not so smooth and the bumps might kill anything that comes near it. Luckily the model is still in one piece :-) Wow what a day. This is something to remember for a long time as my adrenalin is still pumping! Someone asked were the landing spot was.. There are a 4x2m "green-spot" 20m from the top or you can walk 200m down and land on a nice 100x50m. BTW check out that cool "Halo" around the sun.


 

     DAY .. 19.June-2002
-07:35h - The clock was only 06:00 and i could not sleep. Made some coffee and went to Klanten for some early morning thermalling. The Superior was in the air at 07:35 and even at this early time i found thermals. I was hoping for dead air but no luck.. Second and third start was also 10min with no problem so I packed my things and went back home at 09:00. Now this is early morning flying :-) The nicest thing i did today was the first start. I stepped the winch only just as i thru the model away and didnt touch it before the zoom. The Superior actually goes up like a kite and with a thermal or a little head-wind i am sure you just need the line-tension to start this model. And this was done in 90 degree crosswind. Cool.
     DAY .. 17.June-2002
-00:00h - Report from the weekends training is found HERE. Maybe launching video later but be sure to look at different launching next time you are visiting the field... In this series the coolest one are the one with linebreak throwing E4. Since the throw was good the model manged to land in one piece and make a re-launch (Bjørn Kjellberg's E4). A few more shots from Inge's camera at Eurofoto.

     DAY .. 15.June-2002
-00:00h - While you are waiting for this weekends report on the distance and speed training and pictures of the second machine i am going to fly in WC.... Read about the ZaPPLe on F3J.no/2002 or buy some of the few tickets left in the Aeromodelling raffle!
     DAY .. 14.June-2002
-15:00h - Today was eXtreme sports day!!!! My friend (Frank Olav Øyen) had an old Multiplex Alpha that wanted to do some time in the air. Last time we flew this machine was this winter and we heard some nasty noises when using the winch. Same thing happened today. Nasty noises.... The pictures shows that the gluing was not good enough and the first three spars just separated from the rest of the left wing! Wow what a sight and we even got it on a picture. The rest of the day my friend got to use the Superior offcourse. Got some nice shots of the zoom and as you can see of the picture it is much less bending than expected. Strange that the camera was still there because i gave everything in that zoom :-) .....

         DAY .. 12.June-2002
-09:00h - After a phonemeeting with another F3J-pilot (Inge Balswick) I found out that we needed some "early-morning-training". I was up at 7 o'clock today and had the first start at 09:15 and the second at 09:25. The frist start was with Pike superlight (Plus X-tail version with RG-15) and was 9:59min and 1-2m landing. Second start was with Pike Superior (V-tail with HQ-2,5-8) and was 10:02min and 2-3m landing. There was simply too much thermals even at this time of the day! The plan was to see some difference in the models in "morning-weather" but this was not possible today. The next two hours I only flew the Superior and even attached a camera as you can see of the pictures. It was really cool to see the pictures afterwards and I almost got some perfect shots. Next time I hope the wind is more straight (90 degrees cross today) so that even I am on the first pictures. Really exiting to see how bad the plane flew with my huge camera on top. Even big thermals didnt get it up again. Now I understand why the fuselage is so slim on our planes!


 

         DAY .. 2.June-2002 Sorry only Nor txt this day. Maybe later. Anyhow I managed to grab a 6.place with the Superior and a new personal best with 20,0s in the speed in the competition with 24 other competitors (5 and 7th place in the speed rounds with best speed at 16,9s. I am very pleased with the day even though I did some mistakes in the thermal part :-) 
Detailed results here or full report also at Cirrus-rcfk.no.

På bildet ser dere Per Pedersen som motvillig  har blitt "hang-around" i Hystarlaget.  Her sittende med ringing på A-base  fra venstre Per Pedersen, Ole Martin Støwer,  Stein Jaksland og Øystein Sunde.

-12:00h - Vanvittig strålende værutsikter på diverse værmeldingstjenester, god markedsføring og generell oppgang i miljøet må muligens ta skylden for at hele 24 utøvere tok seg tid til å møte opp på BAH'minnestevne arrangert av Cirrus RC-flyklubb. Og det ble akkurat slik værdamene på TV2 predikerte, nemmelig sol, litt vind, 20 varmegrader og en heidundrande flott konkurransedag. Stevnet ble arrangert av Cirrus ved sportslig leder Inge Balswick som også fløy. Dermed ga han plass til Espen Gukild som fikk prøve seg som stevneleder på Løtens "lille ringeannlegg" (ifølge Inge) medbragt fra det urbane Løten. Espen fikk en kjapp instruksjon i anleggets digitale tastatur samt triviale fasiliteter og kjørte stevnet med nemsom hånd innenfor de gitte rammer (2 omganger før kl.18:00). En imponerende innsats av han og ikke minst hans medhjelpere som betjente B-base og hadde satt opp banen dagen i forveien. Banen ble satt opp av Ole Nordskogen, som satte opp en perfekt bane med profesjonelt vinkelmåleutstyr donert til klubben. Det imponerende antall deltakere kom fra spredte deler av landet og både Haugesund, Stavanger, Valdres, Kongsberg, Løten, Larvik og sågar en "halvt danske" var representert. Det eneste vi manglet var deltakere fra det høye nord, men de var godt representert ved Inge Balswick og Kåre Mortensen som alltids sper på med litt skikkelig dialekt (heretter kalt "dyktig A-baseringer"..). 

Thorbjørn hjelper  Finn med de siste  justeringer på  hans Tragi

Dagen begynte med rolige vindforhold og de fleste startet med veldig tynne liner på sine vinsjer, noe som skulle vise seg å bli skjebnesvangert for enkelte. Utover dagen ble det sterk termikkaktivitet og en vind med 3-6m/s i kastene, som gjorde at tynne liner og flotte starter var en dårlig kombinasjon. En mid-air i løpet av dagen hvor Odd Arne Stensby og Inge Balswick var involvert var vel en av de få virkelige kræsjene, selv om Per Pedersen tok stuk-landing i sisteleggen på speeden med sin Trinitus. Enkelte var nok også litt glad for bondens høye silogress etter ett par linehekt i starten. 

Termikk og noe vind gjorde etter hvert forholdene vanskelig med til tider sterk termikk og sterke synkområder. Akkurat dette med termikken er dette som gjør F3B spennende, da det å lese hvor og når en termikkboble er på feltet er helt avgjørende i alle øvelsene. Man kan fly så perfekt man bare vil, men starter man på feil tidspunkt, eller velger feil banehalvdel er løpet kjørt i forhold til noen som kanskje så situasjonen bedre. F3B er rett og slett usannsynlig kult, spesielt når det er velorganisert og så mange flygere stiller til start. 

Vinner ble tilslutt Espen Torp, med Finn Bergstrøm og Jan Hansen på henholdsvis 2 og 3 plass. Takk for en flott konkurransedag. 2 dager neste år ? Selv er jeg meget fornøyd med min 6.plass og en god innkjøring av min Pike Superior. 
Resultatlisten finnes i BAH-dokumentet hos Cirrus.

Mange flere bilder i arkivet hos Eurofoto. 

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 slopeflying 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 carzy but had a good time flying the Organic. Cool. Finally the Superior arrived and that were interresting.
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!"

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