DAY .. 30. May 2005 
- Again on Klanten airport for some practice. Clouds and not warm but practically no wind other than wind caused by thermals. Incredible how much thermal activity there are up here this part of the year. THEN came the tree elephants. My Superior were just cruising around in low altitude while I fiddled with my camera for some landing shots. Suddenly the tree elephant jumped out and grabbed my Pike Superior like it was lunch-time. Hanging 4-5m up in the only big tree around I had to use my big fishing rod to get it down. The tree elephant was now nowhere to be seen as the model bumped tip down into the ground. Left me with a typical "tip-crunch" that had to be repaired when I got home. Took out the Brio instead and flew 5-6 flights with mostly thermal spotting and landing practice since anything could stay up today. Probably should have taken some photo of that tree with model in it but I was actually thinking of not saying anything here....

DAY .. 29. May 2005 
- Practice session on Klanten with my Pike Brio. 8-12m/s winds coming 90 degrees on my winch line made me practice launch settings. And since Finn Bergstrøm have his caravan up here he volunteered in collecting the line by bicycle. Not super warm offcourse but a good session of practice. Instead of using a switch I tried to use the left slider for camber control during launch. Thought it worked well and since I was launching sideways and could see the whole launch I had a good look on the speed and pull.

DAY .. 28. May 2005 - Nats
- Don't like to name too many companies here in my diary but for Nats there are two that needs special attention.
Horizon Hobby have provided med with both 72Mhz Tx (JR9303) and Rx's (R770S) for the Nats. This way I am using legal frequencies in USA (I am normally on 35Mhz) and have equipment that are working perfect.
Kennedy Composites will provide me with not only a AVA for RES-competition but also an Organic for the 2meter competition. These are both planes I have flown a lot so I know them well. Because of this I dont need to pay a lot extra not only to buy suitable models but also to pay the shipping to USA.
So if you are considering buying an item from similar companies remember that these guys sponsor the sailplane community and are generally people you can thrust to be there for us.

DAY .. 27. May 2005 - DS Shongololo
- High up today on 1300 something meters and a new session of DS at Beitostølen. Great to have that Shongololo that I am not afraid of in any way. Nice conditions today though a bit bumpy at times. The tape that keeps the hinges flush came loose on two occasions with a cool sound I got on tape. It also went pretty fast sometimes (See the end of the video). Had to stop because some snow came in. A great day of flying you might say. The speed according to my calculations were 180-200km/h in other words a nice day with continuous speedflying ;-) Glad I did not go to the competitions this weekend. Saturday was cancelled due to rain (Vingen.no) and Sunday was cancelled due to few contestants (Cirrus-rcfk.no). Video 14,7mb HERE. If you are just as addicted as me there s a bigger version (33mb) HERE

DAY .. 26. May 2005 - Morgan 4/4 - The perfect modelcar...
- Well no flying for some days but tested my mothers new modelcar today. Seems "perfect" with my aluminium box on the back and the winch behind the seats. Well maybe not for those long drives but it was fun. Lets hope she buys me one also... I still drive my shabby Opel Combo and think I will do that for a long time.. And a brand new Morgan is even with rust. See picture of screw for sidewindow
Next up is that I have converted that onboard video of the Ventus so you can have a sneak peak of the onboard camera. The original is in DV quality and slipped with the ground shoots. Pretty cool!!! The DVD from the airshow can be bought HERE

DAY .. 22. May 2005 - F3B, Spydeberg
- I was not going to fly any F3B this year but since I was on the way I either had to sit on B-base or fly... I choose to fly and it was ok to fly F3B again. I did some nice speeds and a new personal best of 16,7seconds (18,5 - 18,1 - 16,7) with my Pike Brio. Widar also flew his Pike Brio with good results to finish in second with 16,4sec as best while Erik took the trophy home with a few minor points in the speed with his Estrella. Knut Vidar took the third while I got 0 in a duration round and travelled far down the list. It was a typical helper/pilot misunderstanding that left me in sink and a restart far out in the working time. With only a 900p duration I would have won the event (its the never ending "if, if and if"). Anyhow it was cool to see that the Pike Brio is NOT slow in F3B ;-)
The event was flown according to the F3B rules but without distance task. 14 competitors were there and the level of performance seems to have rised a lot last years (even me).
Results and report are HERE while details from constest are HERE
On the pictures you also see the first moulded project in Norway in many years. Gjermund Westad flew his prototype before the competition and it looked ok although he did have a wingdrop on start leaving him with dirty wings from the ground. Seems to me he had some sevo problems and never got those launch settings right. He has a site HERE

 

DAY .. 21. May 2005 - Yellow Eagle Throphy
- Competition day and 17 competitors (5 from Norway). The weather was not with us but we managed 3 complete rounds. The rain was hard on us so luckily the club has a house and Senior Wahlberg had some plastic to cover our planes. I flew my Superior all day mostly with 500g of lead. The conditions was not good but at the same time both thermals, waves and some "slope" on the clubhouse could be done. 5 pilots managed full time in all rounds and with no finals it became a landing competition that I lost with only 10cm (3inches). So I came in second with Jonas Blomdahl as a winner and Conny Andersson in 3rd. My team mates did well at 4th (Aril) and 5th (Alf Erik) and bith also flew full time. We also enjoyed a Swedish team mate in Erik Hørberg who were unlucky in the last round and popped off. Inge and Finn also did nice but both with brand new models took it as practice. The competition was relaxed (we flew F3B duration rules) but sadly with no finals. Big thanks to Herrljunga who always is a nice club with lots of smiling faces. Results are HERE


 
 

DAY .. 20. May 2005 
- Drove to Herrljunga and got some practice flying on the field. High winds so not too many good shots but I did get a view of the area and therefore also a view of what might trigger some thermals. The shots of the flying field was not good because of much turbulence and movement in the camera.

DAY .. 19. May 2005 
- Tomorrow we go to Herrljunga in Sweden for Yellow Eagle Trophy. But the weather was so nice and my allergy loves high altitude this time of year so I took an evening trip to Klanten airfield and flew the Pike Brio on the winch. I have now made a internal connection on my Olympus camera so I had to test it in the air. Lots of photos and some video so I got a "summer version" of the launch video. Download it HERE (10mb .wmv)


DAY .. 15. May 2005 
- Very allergic these days so I get sleepy of all the pills. So I went up in the mountains were the spring has not come as far yet. Klanten airfield is now dry and worked great for winch and my Pike Brio. Only 10 celcius and 3-4m/s headwind but what are cloths for? My Brio was way of the settings since I had flown F3F last weekend but dialled most of it in both for thermal and speed. Got 6 speed starts and 2 thermal flights before I quit. Got a nice thermal in one of the thermal flights and ended up at twice the launch height. The other one was just cruising all over with nothing to go for. As you see of the picture this is high altitude (thin air) and launch setting needed some big time improvement before I was satisfied with the speed launches (full of lead).

DAY .. 13. May 2005 
- On my way to pick up my son I had to get a flight with my Fling. The fuse broke on my trip (yes in and out of the car... ;-(( I fixed it but it was not good enough for my hard throws so it came loose again and the Lipo battery got a bit damaged in the landing. I tried to get the Lipo battery to burn but no luck. Short cut and hard charging.. Just small smoke coming out. Boring....!! I also edited a Fling video from my trip. It can be found HERE (6,5mb)

DAY .. 12. May 2005 
- Time to check out the DS this year so I went to Beitostølen and this time I packed my snowshoes. My back have been killing me since I got home from F3F so I thought some walking would do me good. The snowshoes worked ok but the 1m high old snow some places was a bit too much. The wind was not perfect but of nice strength so I got a nice session with my Shongololo. Simple DS-video HERE (9,7mb).
Some has asked for the 34,7sec F3F run of Arild Møllerhaug so it can be found HERE (7mb). A big file of what I had of movies from the F3F-trip is HERE (34mb). I have not done any work on these videos so "they are what they are". I guess its about time I say some more about the 9303 from Horizon Hobbies ( http://www.horizonhobby.com/ ). The radio seems to work well and does all the tricks I need to do with a F3X-machine. I like the sticks and got comfortable with the radio straight away. The switches can be arranged for different tasks and I have become in love with the slider on the side. If I would have changed something it must be another wheel on the left side (difficult to use the wheel in the air) and that the push button can be used as motor without using strange free mixers.

DAY .. 9. May 2005 
- I was going to fly some DS in Haugesund today but there was no wind early enough for it to happen. So I went home (6hours drive) but tsopped in Vøringsfossen and other places for nice pictures. In Vøringsfossen I met "Petr Novotny" (from MScomposit in Czech Republic?). He had been invited to Larvik for a helicopter meeting and was driving thru with his girfriend. I asked if he had flown in the valley but no he had too expensive planes to fly there.... Sadly I had no electro planes ready otherwise I would have showed him how cool it is too fly there. We did not talk much but he knew Roman in Prague since he lived there. He should have flown as that would have been some great pictures.... Dont think he understood the possibilities for great photos of his helis.



DAY .. 8. May 2005 - Norway Open F3F
- Last day of Norway Open F3F and again there was little or no wind. At 13:00 it was above the magical 3m/s (3-4) but that is not fun to fly in on a small slope like this and just 1 hour later we were down to 2-3m/s. Then finally at 15:00 we started the competition and managed 2 rounds before we stopped. Sad it was sunday because now the conditions was up in 12-14m/s so the last ones to fly got super air coming almost straight in (tiny bit from the left). I flew ok today and was up there with the best but did not climb on the list. Rolf Inge lost the top 3 position by only a few points since he did not put in more lead and flew too light. Probably we should have changed the starting list since the conditions changed to the better all the time since the start (in Norway we normally fly one list all the way since we are few and fly in even conditions). Other than that the competition was fine and I think all had a nice time. After the competition Helge flew his Crossfire (flew nice btw..) and suddenly shouted for no contact. He went down far behind and while I flew the Taifun Espen asked if I heard a strange sound? I could not hear anything but a few minutes later while I was landing I heard the sparkling sound and it came from MY antenna on my JR radio. Holy macarony it was a thunderstorm building up and it was lightning around us. The electricity made me and my antenna a good ground object to go for so I landed immediately. Just after the landing a tornado formed and Helge came back with his radio saying: "Modell 1 wurden verandert..". It had gone crazy by the sparkling electricity. Crazy!!!!
1. Espen Torp
2. Arild Møllerhaug
3. Jørgen Larsen
Results from Norway Open F3F HERE
 


Tor escaping the waves
 


Left: Helge flying Crossfire, middle MC24 with error, right winner podium with Jørgen, Espen and Arild

left: winner podium with Jørgen, Espen and Arild, right wind meter

Thunderstorm

Reve harbour with the slope in the background, right: Espen flying Taifun
 

DAY .. 7. May 2005 - Norway Open F3F
- First day of Norway Open F3F. We had to wait for a rain shower to pass but started in slow 4-5m/s conditions. I flew the Fling (from www.elefun.net ) and the Hawk (from www.RC-Flight.com ) before we started. The conditions were not good and we had to stop for a while after I had flown a slow 80second round. Sadly (for me) they started again in light rain but stronger conditions just before the 30min period so I lost that round with 25sec (done correctly according to the rules offcourse unless there are protests). The conditions picked up for the last rounds and great weather and up to 7-8m/s gave us a best time of 50,2sec by Rolf Inge Waaga with his Pike Brio V-tail. I also had a smashing run in the last round but missed a turn and flicked. Needed 2 legs to get it going again but it was great to see that I can fly with the best if I just find those bases... This evening we all are going to Rolf Børge Rettedal for some food and fun. More flying tomorrow. Today we had 8 rounds and we will fly the same tomorrow (one competition).



Arild flying Aris

Briefing and my Fling

Left: Kjell Gai's Pike Brio, Middle and right: Espen and Espen

Paraglider and surfer

Typical throws by Fritz and Espen

DAY .. 6. May 2005 - TSS Open F3F
- Today we had lots of fun and multiple tasks. We started with fun flying and I flew a L33 I fixed up for Richard Blindheim at www.RC-Flight.com. It flew well but the elevator servo was not properly glued in (inside rudder) and came loose so not much flying. Then we had an unformal competition with unconventional scoring. 6 rounds and the overall total time won. Helge Borchert won and flew very well all day. I had some poor rounds in the middle but did some blistering finish rounds (atleast I think so myself) and made the two best times of the day with my Pike Brio X-tail (CG apx 112mm and 3,1kg). The wind started with 10m/s was down in 8m/s and then 10m/s in the last rounds. Me, Arild, Rolf Inge and Kjetil went for a sand dune at the camping place and did some slow but fun DS (Dynamic Soaring).
 

  TSS open F3F 6/5-2005
Nr. Navn Fly Gj.snitt Omg.1 Omg.2 Omg.3 Omg.4 Omg.5 Omg.6 Sum time
1 Helge Borchert  Crossfire 51,4 50,9 50,9 55,1 52,9 49,4 49,1 308,3
2 Rolf Inge Waaga  Brio 52,3 51,7 53,4 54,0 51,3 53,0 50,5 313,9
3 Espen Torp  RaceM 52,6 51,6 50,9 54,8 53,1 51,8 53,2 315,4
4 Jo Grini  Brio 53,0 54,1 50,6 60,4 59,1 47,5 46,4 318,1
5 Fritz Kristoffersen  Homebrew 54,1 61,8 57,5 53,8 49,7 50,8 50,7 324,3
6 Arild Møllerhaug  Brio 54,7 53,5 54,2 58,1 58,8 50,8 52,5 327,9
7 Tor Brun  Viking 60,3 59,1 59,3 60,5 62,3 62,7 57,6 361,5
8 Kjell Gai Brio 63,3 65,2 63,7 63,8 63,9 61,7 61,4 379,7
9 Kjetil Stensen Pike WR 70,9 73,5 64,6 73,6 66,6 75,3 71,5 425,1
10 Kåre Aareskjold Fredy 71,7 68,1 72,4 77,4 75,5 69,6 67,1 430,1



DAY .. 5. May 2005 - Warm up F3F
- Today we had warm up F3F for this weekends Norway Open. Sadly there was very little wind and after half a 0-round on Obrestad we moved to Reve (seaslope 15m high) and started round 1 in 4m/s wind. The wind came up to 6-8m/s but ended up at 5-6m/s and that is a bit too little to get fast times. I flew my Brio but in round 5 (last round) I tested the Taifun and it came out well just 1sec behind the best pilots. My team did a big mistake flying very low on the stonehedge and with very little lead. There just aint no substitute for high weight. And since we all (Arild, Rolf Inge and me) have very light F3B models it went as it did. Another issue is that I have not flown an F3F competition in 1 1/2 year so I feel very rusty. But hey it was fun. The rounds became better and better as we threw in more lead and Arild had the fastest time of the day at 59,7sec.
 

  Warmup Reve 5/5-05            
  Navn Average Points r1 r2 r3 r4 r5
1 Jørgen Larsen  62,64 3988 63,3 65,7 60,8 60,4 63
2 Espen Torp  64,48 3916 68,8 66,3 62,5 62,7 62,1
3 Rolf Rettedal  64,12 3908 65 68,9 61,1 62,6 63
4 Fritz Kristoffersen  64,4 3905 67,7 66,2 62,4 62,9 62,8
5 Helge Borchert  64,66 3884 67,6 66,9 63,4 61,6 63,8
6 Arild Møllerhaug  66,52 3830 72,8 69,7 67 59,7 63,4
7 Paal Wiik  66,82 3805 70,6 68,5 63 68,9 63,1
8 Rolf Inge Waaga  67,58 3793 75,8 69,8 67,1 62,1 63,1
9 Jo Grini  68,74 3651 71,3 73,9 68,2 65,9 64,4
10 Tor Brun  70,86 3552 74,7 71,6 69,3 67,2 71,5
11 Kjell Gai 73,02 3455 77,7 74 71,6 69,8 72
12 Thomas Kobel   80,78 3190 92,1 83,3 75,4 79,7 73,4
13 Kåre Aareskjold 91,48 2834 93,6 92,7 102,2 77,7 91,2
14 Kjetil Stensen 95,08 2770 116,3 87,1 87,7 93 91,3




 

DAY .. 4. May 2005 - Haugaland Open
- Every year we try to fly a "Haugaland Open F3F" as a friendly competition among friends. So also this year! Rolf Inge have won most of them but Arild had won one before this year. So we went out in super weather with 10-12m/s a bit cross on their North-west slope (apx 150m heigh). The wind had a bit better angle later in the day but still a bit off center. The wind was at its most 12-14m/s and on this slope this means great flight times even if the angle is not perfect. I got to fly my fastest F3F time ever (36,00sec) and Arild banked in a smashing 34,7seconds in the last round. I have some video of the fast run but not possible to get it out thru my mobile... The course we did set up was probably apx 100-102m since the wires were 104m and stretched. So it was a "true" 100m course. Tomorrow we are heading for Stavanger and pre-event of the Norway Open. During the competition I flew my Pike Brio (3,1kg) but before and after I flew the Taifun a lot. First with no lead and then with some. It was clear that it carried the lead easy and had a "drive" out of the turns that looked very good. All in all it seems like it can have some potential!
 

  Haugaland Open F3F 4/5-2005 Times and points with 1 throwout
  Navn Klubb Fly Gj.snitt Sum Omg.1 Omg.2 Omg.3 Omg.4 Omg.5 Omg.6
1 Arild Møllerhaug Haugaland Compact DS 37,3 5000 37,7 39,1 39,3 35,8 44,2 34,7
2 Jo Grini Valdres Brio X 40,9 4627 47,2 42,7 44,3 36,0 39,5 41,8
3 Rolf Inge Waaga Haugaland Pike WR 41,9 4545 43,3 40,9 43,5 43,6 41,7 40,0
4 Arild Kringlebotten Haugaland Pike WR 50,0 3755 47,4 58,4 55,4 53,3 47,1 46,9



DAY .. 3. May 2005 
- I said the Fling would be great to have a model you can fly anywhere... The Fling got a spin both in Vøringsfossen and outside Rolf Inge's cottage by the sea. Had to use a bit motor after a while but the weather was nice and it is always a kick to sit on a slope when it drops vertical below your feet. The canyon is apx 600feet deep I think.


DAY .. 2. May 2005 
- When going for a trip it is always great to have a model you can fly anywhere at anytime. During the winter I have had the small electric indoor models but I am actually getting a bit tired of them. They will rest until the winter and indoor season. So today I converted the Fling sailplane into electric. A tiny propeller (4,5x2,4), a Speed 300 6V and 2-3 cells Lipo was fitted into the fuse and the all up weight was only 258g!!! (2cell Lipo 300mah Polyquest at 17,9g). I was a bit disapointed of motocalc that said 9A since  when I meassured I only draw 2,5A... So I fitted a 3 cell instead and draw 3,5A ;-) The motor goes pretty well and although it is no were near any vertical performance it should be enough to have lots of fun and plenty of motortime. The model flew great in the evening conditions. BTW the Fling can be bought from www.elefun.no and comes ready covered and with a small bungee.

DAY .. 1. May 2005 
- Me and Arild went to Volbu and the weather was nice but a bit windy. It was Postal F5J extreme competition today but I was not motivated much after first flight. I forgot that the 10minutes watch that counted down stopped to count at 0 when it was activated by motorbutton. So I did not get an accurate flying time. Conditions were pretty good and only 8 seconds were needed to fly the Superior for 10 minutes. So after a session here I went to check out my DS slope on Beitostølen instead. It seemed fine but after 20m of walking I sank down in 1m high snow!!!! So I had to give it up and went down to our airfield again for some small electrics instead. Up in the mountains crazy guys were also climbing to ski down.. Wow that is a long walk in high altitude... Arild have bought a used Funtana 90 with Saito 1.20 but was troubling with full throttle. When we looked at the fueltank we understood why. The tubes were blocked by silicon that the former owner had used to seal it.
On Tuesday I am going to the west coast for some fun and Norway Open F3F. Hopefully some DS also... ;-)



 
 
 

January - Won the first F5J extreme postal competition and first flights of both my new Brio and Superior. 9 days of flying in total
February - New Pike Superior, won Arnborg F3J winter flying (Denmark) and bought a Caracho as a spare F3B-model
March - Good practice on the ice, Indoor and Fagernes Air show
April - DS three times, new and bigger Brio for F3J, electro fuse for Superior/Brio and the AVA
 May - Won two F3J competitions - one of them with my Brio Giant. 3 days of F3B flying and I got to be speedmaster.
 June - National cup F3J and fun F3J event. Won all rounds! Jane and Paul came from Czech Republic to visit.
July - F3B, Denmark, some visiting of Dave Reese and Bob Bingham and start of WC F3J
August - WC F3J, Bob on visit, "new" Shongololo
September - Indoor season started, built my first DLG (not good for the back) and National Champion for the third time.
October - 3 flights with AVA and some X-wing. Other than that almost only Lierider and Edge.... It have been fun.
November - - A lot of indoor again... Lierider and 3DX but also small test of new Volz digital
December - Lots of indoor / outdoor stuff again. SX3, Lierider, 3DX and Shockflyer. But also AVA and Brio on the ice.
January 2005 - Winter is on but good flying on the ice and indoor. 6 days with sailplanes, even some slope flying.
February 2005 - Got some good days with winch on the ice, tested synth rx and first big competition in Arnborg.
March 2005 - Indoor season stops soon and outdoor is on. I tried high power 3D model and it burned down to ashes..
April 2005 - Two F3J competitions and new JR radio in testing. The electric Superior is in the air also.
May 2005 - Lots of F3F, some F3B and Yellow Eagle Throphy in Sweden. Tested the Taifun Supersport.
June 2005 - Started editing

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