DAY ..
30. September 2004
Out practicing a bit with my Superior. I had a great time in good and "warm"
(14 degrees celcius) autumn weather. it was no wind and just small thermals
that just madde my model stay up. The
local newspaper had me on frontpage
today and it almost sounded like I got the Kings pokal. But that is not for
sure at all. The Kings pokal is not decided before late in the year or early
next year based on all the Nationals that have been with over 15
competitors. But offcourse I have a small chance to get it. BTW They forgot
to mention that the photo of me and the Brio was taken by Egil Roland. Sorry
Egil I did tell them.
DAY ..
28. September 2004 - The death of an Opus
Got a call from Arne Simonsen. He was in the cabin up in the mountains and
wondered if I knew of a good slope for west winds. He and Tor Skauli wanted
to do some sloping and needed some local knowledge. So i sadled up and we
went for a good slope on west wind. Sadly the wind was North/North-west up
at 1315m (Slettefjell). So we went back to Beitostølen for some DS. I pushed
my Opus to the limit in 13-15m/s conditions and just had to make that last
lap... Smack and my Opus is now dead. Arne got to fly his Mini-ellipse and
felt the juicy DS zone after making a small unwanted landing back there. I
also got a few minutes good stick time on it before we landed and got a nice
dinner back in Beitostølen. They got some great "moose-balls"
:-) Thanks for a nice guys even though I finally got "rid of" my Opus... :-(
On my way back I stopped and looked at my clubmates fly some motorplanes at
the local airfield.
Pictures of the "leftovers" by Tor Skauli
DAY .. 25-26. September 2004 - Nationals F3J
|
|
Wow what a weekend. Ok it might feel different if I had been way down
the list but I dont think so. This I can say since I made some mistakes
halfway but came up again. First of all I went to the Nationals in F3J this
weekend. It was held in Porsgrunn about 4-5 hours driving from home. I
picked up Aril Røsvik at the airport friday and we arrived in Porsgrunn
around 14:00 for some practice flying on winch. 8-9 pilots were there and
more arrived in the evening for some barbeque and fun. The organizers had
provided a heated tent for us and most travellers stayed at the field or in
a sports hall nearby. I stayed in the motorhome that Tor Midtlund had
brought and though we troubled with the heating we managed fine during the
weekend. We had a team managers meeting in the evening but most pilots were
there. This ended in some good discussion about various issues before we
found the bed.
Saturday morning we had a briefing at 08:30 and started the competition at
around 9:30 I think (did not look at the watch). Just before the competition
I gave my DL1 (home made DLG) to
|
|
Alexander Svenning that is known to throw
very high. I knew I had tossed it as hard I could and was eager to see what
he could do with it. He told me it could break and offcourse I said that it
is ok if it did so... Then I would have been a poor builder or what ?..
First a test throw that showed a loose elevator servo. OK fix it and later
he made a new test throw before he went for a 90% throw. SMACK and the wing
broke in two :-( This boy throws so ohard that you will not belive it. He
later in the weekend threw a lot with Tor's Blaster and Alf Erik's Salome.
Those are ok models but not good enough to throw more than 40m I think. We
totally forgot to put the Lolo in.
The conditions were calm but the sun had just started to warm up the ground
so I launched the AVA. I have adjusted the CG on it almost 20mm back now and
the starts are actually very good (just as high as the others in these
conditions). I travelled out over the city and came down as last man for a
0-1 landing!!! Wow I am proud of daring to use the AVA and it worked atleast
for this round. It wasa ok the next round also but I came in a bit early.
3rd round I came in even nearlier and made a loop with full break at the end
of the loop. It was cool but ended in a poor landing...So over to some
better Pike's and I was cool again the rest of the day I thought. But then
in round 5 I was not happy with my results and dthe conditions were a bit
windy. There was a wave apx 400m upwind that gave us good lift. I thought I
could launch the AVA and get into it for 10 min. How wrong could I be... I
launched and headed upwind only to find the AVA not moving at all.. For 1
min I kept sinking in the same place and made a new plan. I flew to a small
treeline just 70m from the landing spot and started to ride the slope lift.
It went fine for 3 minutes before I gave it too much elevator and landed at
the top of the tree... Ran back and tossed the Brio to complete the round
:-((( So I ended the day with a poor score but still in the finals. It is
all about getting ok scores and not miss out. The conditions were pretty bad
since the wind came over a small mountain nearby giving us some waves but
mostly sink all over. In the evening we were all tired but still made a good
barbeque before we went to bed at 22:00 (yes true).
Sunday morning and last day of Nationals F3J. The conditions were similar to
yesterday so for the first round I took the AVA and got a win. But for round
two the thermals were producing small winds and more sink so I switched to
Superior and I think that was a good choice. I flew against Per Pedersen and
had to make it tactical. So I followed him around the sky thru 2-3 thermals
before we landed with me 30seconds later. Warm lunch at the field and we
were ready for the finals. 5 pilots in the finals and 4 final rounds of
15minutes flying with no throwouts (local rule to eliminate landing
competition). I dont remember all details about all the rounds I fly. It is
kind of like I reset myself before each round. So please correct me if I am
wrong guys...
First final went well and I managed to get the longest flight. I was then allready in the lead and that gives a good confidence. But in the second final we all went into poor air (we flew all over the sky) and the guys came in for a relaunch. First out was Alf Erik but i knew he had a bad first round so I let him take the relaunch. Then Thorbjørn Jespersen came in for a relaunch and I knew he could make better time than me that was in 50m height. I imediately speeded down for a relaunch too and got in the air just a bit later. I managed an ok score. I had lost a bit to him but not more than that I was still happy with what I had done. In round 3 me and Arnfinn hooked of the others by following a few thermals far back with the wind.
|
|
I
landed safely on 14:45 without pushing the time at all while Arnfinn that
had waited a few seconds in the start pushed the time a bit. We ended up
with the same score and I was now in a position that I could "look after"
Arnfinn in the last round. We all launched and after just a fewe seconds I
found the thermal i hoped would be there. We were all within a 100m diameter
but I was the only one going up... Wow what a feeling. The others missed the
tight thermal and I thermalled away backwards with the wind. They found da
new thermal to the right but it was not as good I guess. After 10min I was
alone in the air and in good altitude. The feeling of becoming National
champion by pure thermal joy is incredible. You can stay there flying in 5
minutes while the guys walk by congratulating you.
It was hard this year and I am am very happy for the hard competition the
other guys gave me. I know the best guys were there and that the level of
competition is higher every year. A big thanks to: My team mates for
bringing me there, Samba and Vladimir for bringing good models (I am NOT
sponsored in ANY way BTW...), all the organizers for a superb competition,
Stein Jaksland for good cooking and all the competitors for the good laughs.
See you next year!!
Written Sunday 26.february:
Just a small report since I just got home. I became National Champion
again!! 3rd time in a row now.
Jihaaaa! It is a great feeling! The aeroclub Vingen made a fantastic
Nationals and I think all had a super time!
Results and details from finals
HERE | Look for updates on
www.vingen.no (results)
Some extra pictures
HERE (opens a pop-up with pict.)
DAY ..
22. September 2004 - F3J timing equipment
Ever wanted to hear the "official beeps" when practicing F3J. Or do you
want to have a competition without CD ?
Go to THIS PAGE and download
some MP3's :-) Today I tested the stuff and it seems to work just great. I
made a page just for this at
www.grini.no/f3j .
Today I flew the AVA on the winch and my son also flew a loooong flight. I
think it became over 5min on the winch for him. Ok he only got rudder today
but he flew the model were I told him too and stayed in the good air. Not
bad for a 7 year old kid. My son also operated the camera for a small 2min
task just to show you all how it works. Dowload the video HERE (7,3mb .wmv)
DAY ..
19. September 2004 - F5J
Extreme
Another day of F5J Extreme and some depron model. First of today was to
get my friend Arild Hagabråten out with his new Edge indoor model. We had
some good fun at it seemed to work ok. It is not as easy and fun to fly as
the Vertigo but I had also 5-6minutes on the sticks with it and it was nice.
Afterwards we headed for some F5J flying and maybe Arild could fly his
Majko. The conditions were extreme so he just wanted to get the feeling of
the model and not be in the F5J postal competition.. This is a postal
competition that have been going on for quite a while now on RC-groups.
The conditions was extreme here in Norway
since I found a site down in a valley. The wind came tumbling down and made
it turbulent at times. My AVA was not the best choice in these conditions
since you cant travel anywhere... But it will go up in a fart and it did the
first round.
Second
round I had to spot the thermal before I launched and use the motor to run
from thermal to thermal. In the third round I ended up with empty battery
and used 20 sec of short bursts just to get home. I could have gone up in
the mountains instead but hey thats cheating. So it was fun trying to work
what I had. Thats the whole point for me with these competitions. To get
some practice
Arild made his first thermals and I think he kind of liked it...
For those of you that wonder what happened
to those strange results at yesterdays F3J competition you got fouled...
The competition was not held due to rain all day. So we had a "draw" of
points of 6 rounds plus finals to give away the parachute for the first
price I give them. I won the whole thing but ordered a "re-draw" to have a
new winner. There was also a few more prices that were drawn among the
pilots and CD. I did not get any of those... While we waited I did fly some
DLG and had a good time with the guys.
A friend of mine in the local club flew by and snatched a picture of me a few days ago. As you see I have a nice field and just nearby some of the golf course (might go DLG-golfing some day). It is my car in the middle field.
|
DAY ..
18. September 2004 Bad weather but I did do this years landing. Or did I? Snatched a few pictures from Egil Roland that reported a great story for www.vingen.no The results (yes we did have a competition with BUT DRAWN NUMBERS out of a bag :-)
|
|
DAY ..
17. September 2004
Bad weather these days. The storms that have been in US ruining a lot of
homes are now here and though they are not as strong theye will produce some
rain. So I am driving 4,5 hours tomorrow and HOPE I will get some F3J
action. I have also some problems with my charger and sadly this will be the
third time its for repairs last year. Maybe I should be happy since it have
been very nice to me for a lot of years untill the first repair. I really
hope they can come up with a new one for me. Otherwise I would have to look
for a new one. And I think there are so few good ones out there. Since my
charger does some strange stuff I was wondering how dangerous a LiPo battery
is. So I searched the web and found
THIS video (5mb
.wmv). It is worth the download I can assure you!
DAY ..
16. September 2004
A video of the "LieRider" and what Arnfinn Lie does besides flying F3B
is out. The LieRider is a Depron small model that Arnfinn has got some good
critics for. It seems to fly wewll and maybe better than most of these
models. Arnfinn designed it himself and it will be in the stores soon
(allready are)
6,4mb HERE
DAY ..
16. September 2004
About time I did some "low altitude practice" since everything prior to
WC was in "high" altitude. So I went to a farmers field nearby and took out
my Superior. The conditions today seemed fine with 15 degrees celcius and no
wind. How could I be so wrong... The wind came down from the mountain and
made some real hardtime sink for me. I had to fly out in th evalley to find
air that actually went up. I could find air nearby that was thermals but the
sink was so high that the hot air did not actually go up. I think it is good
to practice in these conditions as one needs to have confidence in all type
of air. After 5 flights I could not belive how much sink there were so I
launched my DL1 just to check it out with another model. It WAS sink. My
small DLG only managed a few circles and it confirmed the poor air nicely. I
took a few more starts with the Superior and tested with some lead and also
a different CG just to confirm. Everytime I managed to spot the thermal and
waited for it it to build up a few minutes I managed 7-8 minutes. But if I
just zoomed aroud the field I ended up mostly at 3-5minutes. So a good day
of practice actually.
DAY ..
15. September 2004
A video of me and Alf Erik throwing my DL1 during the fog saturday is
out.
7,8mb (over 3min) can be
downloaded here
Btw:
My video folder is 390Mb big... A big thanks to
www.workflow.as
Btw2: During the weekend I passed 275 hours on my EVO radio :-O
DAY ..
10-12. September 2004
This weekend I was CD (Contest director) for Nordic Championship in F3B.
I was qualified (in the first team also) but had let my place go to others
of various reasons. It became a good event even with very difficult weather
to organize in. It was everything from cold, hot, fog, 8m/s wind and heavy
rain that made the timing equipment go down. But we did manage to get 3
rounds + one duration during two days. Congrats to Joakim Ståhl and also the
Danish team. I came down there on friday and got some flying in sun and
windy conditions with my Brio and the DL1 (my micro DLG).
The results and some pictures is
HERE
(yes I also do startlists and results + sat on lane one during distance. So
I was doing more than just CD...)
| DAY ..
9. September 2004 Throwing my DL1 is NOT good for the back. But I had to go out and try a bit more today when the thermals were out. There should be no doubt that I will need to get a few new wings to get a competition plane but this is a testmodel just to see if I know what I am doing. So I did only half speed throws today trying different techniques. To throw a DLG is not so much about power as it is technique. But the last 10-20m or so is pure power. But with bad technique the throws actually is lower with full power. The weather was great and some small thermals came thru to give me long flights if I wanted. Top height today (meassured with Lolo) was 28m and according to the pictures I need a slightly bigger rudder (thats what i thought but hoped not).
- This weekend there is
Nordic
Championship F3B. If the tech stuff is ok there will be updates
HERE.
I have said no to th enational team this year (Was qualified) and are
instead contest director for the event. |
|
DAY ..
8. September 2004
My "DL1" is ready for testing and since Arild wanted to visit some local
pilots narby I joined with my new model ready for fun. The pilots we met up
with have just formed a new club and have made a small flying field for
noisy motor models. They semeed to be a bunch of good guys having lots of
fun. I even got to fly a Kyosho Viento electric glider one of the guys had
in the air. It flew very well and I am quite impressed since we have not
seen too many models from Kyosho that is worthy to fly thermals with. It is
not very stiff but flew very nice and had a good glide ratio. So over to my
DL1.. I went straight for DLG launch and it flew right out of my hand. It
was late in the evening so very little lift could be found but still I
managed some good airtimes. I have only two servos in the fuse (aileron and
elevator) so to alter camber I have to do it on the ground before launch.
But it seemed to be an ok solution if one wants to save a few bucks in servo
cost. The launches got better with 0 camber but the hang time was better
with camber. I tried different CG settings and ended up in a slightly aft
position. I tried the CG really way aft and it seemed that my geometry of
the wing is good as I could fly it as far aft as I wanted with no problems
(other than too much elevator). So as a first conclusion I have a good
consept and can now go further with better wings. The weight was a bit
higher than calculated (148g) but thats ok for a first build that is very
strong and should be able to take some serious throwing. I was missing the
elevator rod but got a tip on the internet on guitar strings. I ended up
with 0,14mm guitar string with what the salesman called "Goretex" layer on
the outside. It was actually much stiffer than the normal ones and seems to
be stiff enough for my all moving elevator. The span is
1m... Sadly I thought I had forgotten my camera but it was in Arilds car all
the time. So pictures are from my phone (not great in evening conditions and
actually never will be good anyhow).
DAY ..
6. September 2004
Aaaaah how lovely. I got to fly some DS with the Shongolo today. It is
so great to have a machine that is strong and did not cost so much. I do
understand why the South africans do not care about perfect finish. They
land on hard ground every day and most important is how the plane flies -
not how it looks. Ok the colours could be better than the one I have but I
did see some gourgeous Eish's in Canada. The conditions today was not
perfect as the wind was 12-16m/s. This is so strong that the rotors might
gete very violant at times. But it smoothened out from time to time and that
nor,mally happened just after a the wind had been on its highest. So when
the lift gets "blown away" you wait 1 minute and go for the back. I had a
good day and it did seem warm but I have got a flue when I write this... But
it might also be that I have been working with mould epoxy the last days. I
got inspired by the japanese models during WC in Canada and have started
work on my own. After some consideration I found that to aim at 68g is maybe
difficult but to aim at 100-120g and 1 meter span is maybe easier. So I have
now fixed myself up with a few broken fishing rods (14g and very stiff) from
the local sports shop and made some rudder (2,3g) and elevator (3,4g) and
all moving tail parts 1g (similar to the parts for AVA but homemade). The
wings will probably be foam but since I need to learn this first I sanded 3
layers of some depron sheets to suit my eye :-) The wings are now half way
done but it takes time since I am using 24 hour epoxy. I am even using UMS
spar!! I think the name will be DL1...
|
DAY .. 5. September 2004 Finally the farmer have made ready a field for me. Here in Norway they stop using the fields sin sep/oct. and it is free for us to use (but we do ask). I took out my Brio (short wing) and had some nice flights in good autum weather (20 degrees celcius today). I also tested a bit on CG in sink since the wind came down the mountain and made strong downdraft. I tried 119mm, 125mm and 110mm. Ended up on 125mm. Previous I have used my Brio at 119mm empty, 118mm with 11 leads (for distance) and 115mm with 22 leads (for speed). These are meassured from the leading edge. Beware this is with X-tail Brio. With fixed tail the CG is much more forward (apx 105-112mm).
DAY .. 3. September 2004
|
|
|
DAY
.. 2. September 2004 Finally good enough weather and time for some winch again. I went to Klanten airport and flew 5 loooong flights with my Superior. Today I tested some joiners I got hold of during WC. They give 5 and 7 degrees dihedral and today I wanted to try the 7 degrees. I started with the original 4 degrees and weent for the 7 before I finished off with some 3 degrees. What I found is that 7 degrees is way too much on the Superior. What is happening is that you loose a lot of lift on the wing and by loosing lift you loose speed also. So what I found was a slow model that lost height and had not got the means to get out of the sink as I was used to. The model would also be very easy to flip over by any wind and/or thermals and a yaw effect typical of a high dihedral plane would make you loose a lot of energy. Aftre flying 3 flights with 7 degrees I finsihed of with 3 degrees (the original joiners before 4 degrees came). I like the 3 degrees best. 4 degrees might be a little easier to circle but a stable model (not affected so much by sidewind) that keeps the lift were it should be is most important for me. I also have a few 5 degree joiners I will try. I also tried my new skeg today but they broke of in every landing... I used 5mm carbon rod apx 1 inch long outside fuse. As you see from the landing it breaks immediately and bounces of to make a 0-1m landing a 1-2m. I finished of with one flight on the Shongololo. - Evening: Went to Arild and started the work on a Edge 540 indoor plane he bought. He had also bought some of the cutest servos I have ever seen. Check the sizes - standard, 8g and 4g... It will not be ready for indoor tomorrow but they are farly fast to build and hopefully wiwthin next week it will be in the air.
|
|
