DAY ..
30.september
2005 - Istanbul Open
Second day of Istanbul Open (competition starts tomorrow)
and most of us have used the day to practice. I had 3 flights were I
went to the thermals but did not get up but after a few adjustments
to the model I went up in all the thermals at the field. I even did
some transmitter "swapping" with Larry Jolly while we were both
flying. I got to fly his "slow" and light Eraser X-tail while he
immediately ordered a Giant from
Skip
Miller after he had landed my model.... (Just had to write that
Larry...) Sadly my Tx went dead
after flight 6 (I think it is my fault with not original battery
installed)
but Tom Kiesling luckily had two JR9303 with him. His my HERO!! The
radio is great and I managed to program both my models from scratch
in under 10minutes and get 3 flights with each model. 25-30 degrees
Celsius, sun and some great organisation. The food is getting better
and better and ALL is free. Drinking and eating all day long (no I
don't drink alcohol while I fly..). In the evening we enjoyed a great
swim in the sea just 50m below our rooms. The water is now apx 20
degrees. Sadly there is no internet and phone is only working on
9,6kb so not to many updates from me. It costs a lot to update from
here. Mustafa Koc (the guy that started it all though many others are now
contributing) arrived late in his super Helicopter and showed us
some scale sailplanes and sadly one of them went down in a spiral
with no control. He had no chance in controlling it. The pictures
show that the towing line was still attached and was not tangled in
the tail so it probably was some equipment failure. The frequency
control was very strict today and we are only allowed to use one
frequency all weekend. That means some waiting but ok they do
monitor ALL bands. Even 72mhz. BTW I served dried raindeer heart to
all and only 20% did not dare to try. I think Santa Claus
has lost Rudolf or something...
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DAY ..
29.september
2005 - Istanbul Open Felt like a long day since I had to start early, discuss with customs, shift airplanes in Munich and drink some beers with all my friends at the airfield. BUT I AM IN ISTANBUL!!!! Tents is all up and refreshments for all while some fly a little. We also arrived on a seaside Hotel for a late dinner that tasted very well after airline food all day. I tried to creep into the Englishmen but ended up getting served too much beer by Tony.. The Hotel is not something new and fancy but does the purpose well I think and we had it all for our self. 128 competitors and I think all have arrived now. All smiling faces and good warm feelings from friends all over the world. There is nothing like having friends that shares the same passion in the way we do. Looking forward to a practice day or touring Istanbul tomorrow (depends on the weather if I understand it right). Not sure how much I can get updated since there is no internet in the room and mobile is barely working in the room. And I might have to fly also ;-) |
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DAY ..
28.september
2005
The feeling of flying in the morning AND catching those
small thermals are great. Set up a small bungee on a football field
while there was football training on a nearby field. Great that the
local sports club have two fields. Then I can use the one not in
use! The Giant was flown today and only two starts were needed to
get that long flight. First start the thermal did not develop enough
but I got a good flight out of it. The second developed slowly but
specked me out at 3-400m after 10minutes. The trigger for my camera
seems to work as you can see. Only two flights and 10 shots but 5-6
of them were good. A good morning session!
DAY ..
27.september
2005
Received my trigger today! That is a small remote control
unit that can be connected to a receiver and be operated from the
radio. It will control my new Nikon D50 (fits other brands also) and
it seems to work great. Instant triggering and also the possibility
to program time interval for more pictures. It can also be a stand
alone switch to take photos on intervals. Very cool indeed. It was
cheap and only 1$ for shipping and payment by paypal was perfect. It
can be bought
HERE.
No I did not get any free for writing this at all. But I do suspect
there will be some orders of this gadget from Norway ;-)
DAY ..
26.september
2005
Super day but my line broke 3 times before I finally got it
to hold. And when you don't have an empty spool to run it over on
you keep trying to tie it. Got 12 flights in at a local farmers
field in great conditions. What I am trying to practice as much as
possible on now is to pick thermals over my head or in the launch
area and follow them. I feel that's what I am really poor at. To
keep that model in level at all times and feel the energy is easy to
practice but is difficult. Camera was only set for sunny pictures
today and it seems to do fairly well (my old Olympus was super at
this).
DAY ..
25.september
2005
Only 4 degrees Celsius today but I took out the Pike Giant
and the winch and got 1 flight before the rain set in. So only 6min
of flying and packing fast after a short landing. Pictures by my
son. Checked the weather for Istanbul in Turkey since I travel on
Thursday. 25C and sunshine... 126 competitors from 18
countries!!!!
DAY ..
23.september
2005
Indoor session again as every Friday (well I dont have time
each Friday but). I was alone all night but managed to use up a few
batteries on my 3DX and 250 pictures on my new Nikon D50. My son
took most of them. The camera is not heaven compared to my trusty
Olympus but it makes it a bit easier. A bit on the heavy side for my
8 year old son but he seems to have a good grip on it. First one is
with timer. The others were my sons.
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DAY ..
21.september
2005 Since Nats my camera have been for repairs and it takes time... So it was about time I fell into the pit of BIG cameras. I checked a bit around and had tested a few cameras before I went for the Nikon D50. A small benefit was that my mother had some 70-200 and 75-300 lenses for Nikon and they fitted well. I also bought a 512mb SD card and what do you know I think it goes well to my new car... A Seat Alhambra with 115hp Turbo diesel, cruise control and automatic transmission. I think I am in heaven right now ;-) Today I went to the local farmers field and flew the Pike Giant a bit. Good practice before next weekends Istanbul Open. Yes I am going to Turkey together with most of the worlds best F3J pilots for a weekends competition. Mustafa Koc invites and Ms. Semin Kiziltoprak arranges for me to take Air France down there. Should be an interesting weekend. |
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DAY ..
18.september
2005
Club championship sailplanes and we flew the "Cirrus'21"
that is a local version of the LSF program flying 3x21 minutes but
with a bit different landing task. 5 points for each 50cm the first
2,5m then easier up to 20m. I flew my Pike Giant to its first win
though we were only 8 pilots in a sailplane club with over
100members. I guess there have been many competitions this autum.
But hey - If you dont whow you dont win. And I showed and by one
single point won the competition with exactly the right time (21:00)
and good landings (1-1,25m, 0-0,5m and 0,5-1m landings). Number 2
missed the total time by 1 second and had the same landings as me.
Talk about close... As starting equipment we used F3B winches but
with kantal resistors to make only 20kg force (44pounds). This makes
the launches ok in wind but zooms are poor. The idea is that all
planes starts equally. I am not so sure about todays 0-5m/s winds.
My Giant started much higher than the AVA's.
Results HERE - Detailed results
HERE
Left Finn with Eraser, Right me with Pike Giant and
JR9303. Yes we have big frequency pins...
Left Stein helping Per with Eraser. Right: the top 3. Tore, Me and
Alf Erik
Clubhouse. We used 3 winches today
DAY ..
16.september
2005
First indoor session this winter (yes it is soon winter..)
and we managed to collide in the air offcourse. My 3DX survived but
Arild's Shockflyer needs to be rebuilt quite a bit. Well I think he
wanted a new one so...
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DAY ..
10-11.september 2005
- National F3B I had set my mind to not go to the National champs in F3B this year. But then I bought a second hand car and had the chance to pick it up and fly some F3B. So I drove the 2 hour drive to Løten and spent 2 nights at Tor Midtlund's place that had a spare bed for me. It was an ok experience in super autumn weather but with horrible starting conditions for the first day. Saturday we flew 4 rounds duration and 4 rounds speed. There was a high pressure right above us so the wind came in all directions with small thermals that almost never filled the speed course. The duration was almost too easy though I had to give it all in the first morning round. I flew the Pike Giant all the way with the normal 3 degree joiners. I felt I needed some more dihedral to fine tune the circles and tested the 4,5degrees I had made for the last round. The model is calmer and easier with it for sure though I might loose some lift because of it. I also had to shift the hook a bit since the launching conditions were terrible. In bad conditions there is no point in launching on the tail offcourse. So midway I moved the hook 1-2mm and had much better starts. We also changed some batteries and that improved our scoring on the team. F3B is a technical sport to the fingertips and to have a calibrated winch is essential. We should have done that... I think it is worth it. 8 tasks took a looong time to fly but we were finished around 18:00 I think. The evening Saturday was spent by a small lake with a great barbeque from the organizers side. I was still affected by my poor health so went to bed early. Sunday was the last day and only with distance task left to fly. 4 rounds took a while and today there was a bit wind so I even flew both tubes filled in the last round. The Giant is a super distance machine and handles the lead easily. I lost some points in the first round due to wrong side flying and too little lead but I am very happy with the model. Results could have been better but I did not draw the best ticket this time. 6th place overall is still ok since I do not practice this stuff. My team mates were great (Tore Kvarme, Tore Midtlund, Espen Torp and helper Egil Myr) and we had a nice time all the way with no problems what so ever. Espen could have had a better place if there was not made some mistakes... He was missing a turnsignal on base B and yelled for the organizers with no effect offcourse. So he lost 2 legs and that was enough to twist the 3 first places and winner a bit. So yes it was very tight in the top 3 and actually after day one all first 6-7 pilots could reach the podium. Results | Report Egil Roland |
Left: Tor my mate from F3J flying have a "small" hobbyroom. But he
is making winches... Right: I get my diploma for 6th place and yes I
did bring my Norwegian flag so the organizers had something other
than an old military tent as background.
DAY ..
8.september 2005
Health is still not good but had to get out and test fly my
secondary F3B model for this weekends Nationals F3B. Set up the
winch but the wind suddenly was strong from behind. So some very low
launches. But I did manage to test all I needed (elevator neutral
mostly)
DAY ..
6.september 2005
My body says I should be in bed (above 40 for over a week now) but
hey 25 Celcius outside cant go to waste. So I pulled out a bungee on
a farmers field just nearby my sons school (I was anyhow picking him
up). Lots of thermals out so I just used the bungee laid out double
and with only 30m of line. I tried to test the CG on different
locations and particularly more forward on the Pike Giant. I found
what I thought that the 118mm CG is the most forward I really want
to be. I was at 110, 112, 115 and 118 on 12 different flights but
ended with 118mm. What is cool to see is that when one flies in
heavy sink there is no point in reducing the camber to get away. One
is anyhow not flying super fast so keep the camber. If one flies in
positive air it is off course a different deal.
DAY ..
5.september 2005
Today I had to practice. When I am not satified I have to get some
extra practice in just to knock myself in the head. So I headed for
a nearby field and brought the Pike Giant out for a spin on the
winch. I loaded it with 1200g of lead and did some downwind launches
for speed practice. I did not give up before I had that winch
slowing a bit down on only 40mm drum.
DAY ..
2-4.september
2005 - Nordic Champs F3J
Arrived 2nd but rain and not much flying. Had a great time meeting
the guys again though.
So to my story (my debriefing). First of all I have to say that I
would have done the same thing again..
I might have left out some details (a linebreak and so on.. bare with me)
