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17 pilots in Herrljunga |
Conny's Graphite |
DAY .. 9-11.
May - 2003
Friday:
I arrived in Herrljunga at 13:00 and met Ronny Sandslett and
Aril Røsvik that had come all the way from Tromsø in car to get
here. Tromsø is apx. 2000km away - one way..... Now that is cool!
We started some practice on the winch in nice weather and wind at
apx. 5-7m/s. We got a lot of good airtime and even spotted that a
single tree that was on the field could be used as a small slope.
according to the Lolo I stayed over 4min on that single tree. This
was to be an important discovery the next day... In the evening we
had some pizza and showed some video to others Swedes also spending
the night in the clughouse of Herrljunga modelclub. I also did some
nightflying offcourse. The Toro 300 was abused.
 Saturday:
Up at 8:00 and competition day. This is the third time I am in
Herrljunga and it is always great. Nice guys - good weather - good
organisation of the competition and the chance to compete against
other good F3J-pilots.
Today we woke up to nice weather but the forcast said strong wind
and some rain during the day. The wind became very strong and we
also had a small rainshower in round 5. Us Norwegians used two-man
pulley and guess what - 1,3 line was not strong enough today. We did
try one man with pulley but Ronny was "thrown" 3m back.
The only way not to have a linebreak was one man direct running (or
maybe even stronger line). We also got a "burn-off" when
another line came on top of my own line when launching. This can
make a new starting time but we never bothered to claim it.
The single tree we found yesterday was used by me several times to
get some extra time in the air but strangely enough no one else
tried it (ok it was difficult). 17 pilots competed in 5 rounds and
there were 2 finals with 5 pilots. Ronny did very well in the wind
with his New Sting (Big Sting) and ended up 2nd preliminary and 3rd
in the finals. very good Ronny! Aril did also well with his Stratos
but had to change model in round 4 and had a big problem in the wind
with his Dynamik. Myself - well I did pretty well BUT... I did a big
mistake in round 3 that left me with 0 points there. I was cooling
it of in front and watched Rolf-Erik Blomdahl following a thermal
way back in the strong wind. I was eager to get a 1000 and not just
8-900points so I followed Mattias Carlsson when he picked a thermal
behind some trees.  Mattias had a light machine so he had to stop
early and land way out but I guessed there should
be no problem for me as long as the thermal was strong... I was
wrong! After climbing just 50-100m I watched my plane 5-600m back
and understood I had a problem. I came almost home but probably
outside 75m. I did not bother to measure but stated that I was
outside 75m and a zero point in that round. This left me outside the
final (and probably nice money prizes). Well anything can be done
when looking at numbers afterwards :-)
The
coolest thing was the winner. With an "old fashioned"
Nordic (that weighs 2,8kg and is made the "old" way with
7037 profile) Patrik Johansson flew safe and cool in front of the
field. Nobody noticed him almost at all. But he blew his flapservo
in round 3 - taped it - won preliminary and also the final! And with
a X-347 radio he was the ultimate champion. Big congrats from me -
it was way cool to see that one can win with "normal"
equipment as I see it.
Anyhow I had a
superb time with you all and I will be there next year. Thnx to all
of you that were there. Also a big thnx to the Blomdahl familiy that
supplied shower and beer in the evening.
In the evening we flew some Toro 300, Adrenalin and Majko (if I
remember correctly....)
Be sure to look at: 57 photos in the album
at Eurofoto | Results
Sunday:
Up at 8:00 again hmmm. I bought a Space Wolf of Conny Anderson and
he bought a Pike Superior from me. I got 8 starts on the Space Wolf
and it seems to be a great machine. The moulds are sadly destroyed I
think because it flew well. Maybe I will "abuse" it in F3B
in the future. (2,94m , 62dm2 , thinned RG-15 , 2,1kg)
Space Wolf as seen through Rolf
Erik Blomdahl's glasses.
Conny sold me a Space Wolf and I sold him a Pike Superior.
DAY .. 8.
May - 2003
12 people ready for clubmeeting and training on Spydeberg. I was
there and the weather was not good but the rain stopped and 3 of us
got some great starts in the strong wind. We used both rubber bungee
and winch and the starts with Lolo in were just superb. Widar
Holmedal got a 314m start and I got a 306m. The wind
was meassured at 5-7m/s but it was more up there I think. We used a
Hollenbeck winch with 1,25speedline and a 450EN battery.
I stayed the night here and went to Herrljunga the next morning
(Spydeberg is 200km from home and Herrljunga is even 300km more).
Picture of me launching is taken by Widar Holmedal.
DAY .. 7.
May - 2003
Just a "small" trip on a local slope in the middle of
Fagernes. Great lift today and the Superior got good height just on
slopelift. With 500g of ballast I had some "screaming"
passes :-) Tomorrow I will go to Spydeberg for some practice and
then to Herrljunga in Sweden for F3J-competition on Saturday.
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