DAY .. 28-30.
march - 2003
What a weekend!
100 pilots - Nice weather - Indoor flying - Night flying with rocket show
- Banquet ......
Read more at http://www.vfkm.no/flyshow
DAY .. 26.
march - 2003
Just a brief flight with the Toro 300 (with 280 motor and 6 cells) on the
ice. Then back home to print out 150 pages of material for this weekends
airshow on the ice. See you there....
DAY .. 25.
march - 2003
No flying today either but I am working on models and for the local club.
The model I am preparing you have NEVER seen before.... A Minipike fuse
and Superior tips should be fun. The Minipike with Plus-tips was superb
when I tried it a while ago and now I just had to test the Superior tips.
It is nearly ready. Just some CG testing and it is finished. Next weekend
I have booked a flight to the west part of Norway for a F3F-competition (Haugesund).
They have also excellent DS-slopes and I hope to go crazy with the
MiniPike there...... No Limits - Just DS....
This weekend there is "Fagernes Flyshow" for the 28th time. This
yearly event was visited by 63 pilots last year and this time I think more
is coming. See you there.... Read about the airshow HERE
(Nor txt)
DAY .. 22.
march - 2003
Today our national club had its yearly meeting. Thnx to Narve Jensen we
use the facilities at Gardermoen airport (Norway's biggest airport) just a
few meters from the control tower. Along for the trip I had Geir Atle who
drove the car. Off course we just had to stop both ways on the road to fly
the Pogo and also outside UNDER the control tower I flew the Pogo. What a
small plane on this big airport! Compared to the DC-10 and Jumbo's just
hundreds of meters away it was very small.....
DAY .. 21.
march - 2003 More winching. Today my only goal was to practice launching and distance. I need to improve in both if I am to reach international level sometime. 8 starts and 2 hours later I was tired and cold. But it was a good session and new ideas was tested. BTW If you are into big video's --- Lomcovak have put out a video WELL worth the download of 33mb on THIS SITE - 21:00 - Indoor flying in the "Valdreshallen". I had some spins with the Pogo and a Toro 300 with speed 280 motor. The Toro 300 is perfect with directly driven 280 motor and Gunther prop. Tom Olav also borrowed the Toro for a spin as seen on the picture. |
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DAY .. 20.
march - 2003
Winching on the ice today and after three flights the battery went dead..
Think I will have to buy a new winch-battery before the season starts. But
there were plenty of wind so it was only that the zooms were short. Then
came the solution... Tom Olav came with his old Opel Kadett car on the ice
and why not use 150m line after the car? The line was attached and Tom
Olav gave full power to his little car. Very good power and I even managed
to get so much tension that the car just spun on the ice just before the
zoom. A Pike Superior model is then "stronger" than Tom Olav's
car!!! I think he will hear that many times :-)
The picture shows Lolo logging of the Car-launch!! Yes correct. The
Line were stretched to apx 168m length (the 1,22 Pentagonline broke on second start) and a good
zoom made 226m possible by "car-launch". Really cool.
DAY .. 19.
march - 2003
Over 50 people on the ice today ---- all of them ice-skaters making use of
the excellent quality of the 1m thick ice. Me and Tom Olav used a few
hours flying Pogo, Majko and a little bit Toro 300. 7 degrees warm and
sunny.
DAY .. 16.
march - 2003
Competition day! 24 pilots were ready for this seasons first competition.
The weather was ok with a thin layer of clouds and a few degrees. Very few
thermals so I dont think we could see a single 10min flight but they all
were in the 7-8min mostly. Two-men pulling was not allowed - only one man
with a man as anchor. This means not as good zoom's as usual but it is
equal for all pilots. My own team (5 pilot teams) were new for this season
and I think they worked really well. We also placed 3,4,5,6 and 8 in the
comp. and that shows power. We did have some problems with some lines so
the two last rounds we had use thick lines not giving us any advantage in
height. We normally used 0,97 line but after a line break and some lines
that were tangled into some others we had to use the spare 1,22. I did
fairly good myself but did one mistake in the 3rd round loosing a few
seconds for Inge Balswick. This meant that I had to settle for 3rd place
overall as there were only 4 rounds flown with no fly-off. But I am happy
with the result and it is a good start for the season. Arnfinn Lie (that I
sadly did not meet in any rounds) won the trophy with 4x1000 points.
Results
- SFTH
page
DAY .. 15.
march - 2003
Practice on the ice where this weekends competition is being held. This is
at Jevnaker about 110km from me. We were about 15 pilots on the field and
used winch, bungee and some running. My Superior had two starts and a few
with the Majko. Young pilots Alexander Svenning and Kjell Sture Johansen
came from all up north about 1000km away just to fly with us this weekend.
Problem was they forgot to tell their uncle (that was picking them up at
the airport) that they had loooong boxes with airplanes. The Uncle had no
room for the boxes..... Anyway it all went well. There were 5 pilots that
had been traveling over 1000km just to get here. That is pretty impressive
when the event does not count in any national cup. Just really great fun.
DAY .. 14.
march - 2003
Out on the ice to prepare some lines for this weekends F3J-comp. Also flew
some Majko. 7 degrees outside and sunny!
DAY .. 13.
march - 2003
Still Majko but now 0m/s wind and sunny at Fagernes. New propeller (13x11)
and also some other batteries.
With the 8x Hecell NiMh batteries it was difficult to get full power but
they will work when they are warm! Now I had 20A and 5-6m/s climbrate. Apx
3min motorrun. Changed to 7x700AE NiCd and the motortime dropped to 2min
but way more power at once. Almost 7m/s climb now. Also changed the CG
from 62mm and back to 75mm. Now it glides better and even caught a thermal
today. Have some videos but not enough space...
DAY .. 12.
march - 2003
Have got a Majko sold worldwide by ET-AIR
that might come in handy...
It is a small electro thermal machine produced by Carol Mrva in Slovak
Republic.
I
have two motors for it and have started with a Graupner speed 480 with
inline gear and a 12x8 prop. This gives static 16A and 4 minutes motortime
in the air with 1000mah cells (NiMh). First test was today in 4-5m/s wind
on the ice. Not perfect conditions but the model handles really well.
First thing I had to test was a rolling circle (yes it is an acrobatic
thermal machine :-). After 5 climbs and some acro with motor it was time
to check the Lolo
(altimeter logger that stores the height and exact time).
The batteries were new today so the first climb was not good. It will have
to be cycled a few times to give full power but the climbs was stable at
4m/s. I also took two "speedruns" from around 100m and Lolo said
75km/h both times (without motor on). No flutter and the model looked
stable while I looped and rolled the speed off (sorry Espen just had to
:-). Next step is to use a bigger prop and maybe install a brushless with
gear....ck
Building: The model is so finished from the producer that I doubt you will
find a more ready set on the market. It is made full glass/epoxy/herex/carbon
and quality is actually as good (maybe better?) than Jaro Muller models. I
had to put in the servoboard and make holes for the servos and also glue
the servos in the wing. Other than that it was just to screw in the motor,
make some wing cables and adjust the length of servo throw. The price is
2200Nkr and well worth the money if you are looking for a softliner with
mould finish. The only thing I ever could put my finger on was the rudder
hinging that could have been smoother and more up to date.
Just for the record: This is a softliner for thermal soaring - not a super
duper aerobatic machine. But it will roll and loop whenever you want to.
And this is not for you balsafreeks -- It is ready in only 2-3 hours
DAY .. 10.
march - 2003
Finally some sun and good temperatures. Around 7 degrees and the Superior
was again used for some practice flying. I also used the Lolo
from lomcovak today (altimeter logger that stores the height and exact
time). After 4 long thermal flights which gave me altitude for F3B speed from 250-300m each time
- I had used over 3 hours on the ice. A great day but now I am a bit tired
and think there will be no more flying before this weekends competition.
In the weekend there will be a
F3J event at Jevnaker (4 rounds - no finals). Those of you that want to be there should look at http://balswick.no/sfth
. It is an annual event that brings most of the guys that have been hibernating
thru the winter. The comp. is held on a frozen lake and is always in nice
weather..... at least we hope... Anyway many of us just have to be there.
DAY .. 9.
march - 2003
More practice! Yesterday there was 2-3m/s headwind but today there was
0-1m/s backwind (because it started to change after I had set up the
winch...). Perfect for testing the new X-tail Superior... 6 flights - 4
with thermal and 2 speed testing. Also had a flight with my Organic to
compare. The "Pogo" also got two flights in between.
As you see on the picture I have started practicing one hand throw and is
using the camera to check how it goes. Still need more practice but the
model settles quicker after launch compared to the normal throws.
DAY .. 8.
march - 2003
Oha! My own X-tail and with new UMS tips in the air. 5 flights and it
looks promising. Have to do some minor adjustments but the overall
impression is very good. I had 3 thermal flights and 2 speed F3B. AND the
weight is "superb" with all gear the fuse is 740g with elevator.
Empty weight of fuse with elevator is 360g!!!
That should be very good on a X-tail that is so stiff that it can be used
in F3B/F.
In the evening there were the usual indoor flying and despite Espen saying that i could not fly the "Vasa" turbine inside I now have proof in a video. The "Pogo Vasa" is a small EPP wing with carbon impeller with brushless motor. Tom Olav was also there and managed to clip my V-tronic wing - stripping the case out of one of my servos. His X-wing was allover me but finally he also got ripped. BTW Have you ever seen a propeller standing in the floor after a crash ? Look at picture.
DAY .. 7.
march - 2003
When we were on trip we did a stress test on three different midsections.
It was John Rasmussen's Trinitus, Espen's X21 and when I got home I tested
the Superior. What we did was to put a 55Ah winch battery in middle of the
wing and meassure how much the wing was bending. John's Trinitus had the
stiffest wing but also the heaviest. The X21 and Superior was almost the
same but the X21 with steel joiner was a little bit stiffer (Normal is UMS
joiner). I also tested one of the first midsections without UMS (all wings
is now with UMS) and you could clearly measure the difference in bending.
But they are very stiff compared to many other planes.
DAY .. 4.
march - 2003
Been on a 10 day trip in Europe and visited Samba. Even flew the new
X-tail Superior. It seemed great with good rudder control and enough size
on elevator. It even looks really good. What more do you need ?-)
Be sure to also look at pictures in for the positive mould of the new BRIO......
and
visit my sales page for Pike's
Just looked over the 5 Pike's I brought home on the trip. Pictures of
models will come later. These are the colors available and in stock. All
with brushed tip in opposite color.
X-tail Superior carbon - Jojo version
- White with red underside SOLD
- Red with red/blue stripes underside
- Yellow with blue underside SOLD
V-tail Superior carbon - Jojo version
- Yellow with red underside
- Green with red underside
Price Export: 820EUR. Price Norway: 7500Nkr
I have
also got a used model for sale:
Pike Superior V-tail carbon - flying weight 2200g
Yellow top and red underside
Price 5500Nkr
Almost mint condition (picture)
DAY .. 3.
march - 2003
Some questions about bigger Brio pictures so here it is. I am now just
back from the trip. Last visit were the Norwegian customs were we were
towed in and "alles aus". Papers were ok and after a small hour
we got out. Customs are newer a good feeling.
