No wind at all so we headed for teh local power field and I flew my Skymax 4 on the winch. Lots of people but I forgot to take any pictures. Cloudy but I found thermals and had some nice flights around 10min with short line on the winch (100m to turnaround). Arild flew his Raptor 50 to a 92mph flyby (we used my radar gun).
DAY .. 29.september 2007
Rainy day though we did head out for a slope
just to land out with my Crossover on the second
flight. Got the lovely first price from last
Nationals from Arild and it was great. He made
it himself and in stainless steel it weighs A
LOT.
DAY .. 28.september 2007
Went to west coast and Haugesund to visit Rolf
Inge and Arild and maybe get some DS and F3F.
Wonderful weather today but not so much wind. We
did some Dynamic Soaring in light conditions and
I had to land out a couple of times with the
Kobra DS. We had a nice time and stayed in Rolf
Inge's cabin. Have some video if I get time for
it.
DAY .. 26.september 2007
-
Supra electric
After a long wait I have finally got an electric
Supra in the air. I have been waiting for this
because it is a light F3J model and we all know
that a top F3J model is a good thermal model.
The electric Supra is very similar to the
sailplane version but Vladimir have reinforced
the rudder so it can hold both rudder and
elevator servo. I even installed a 12mm servo
for the elevator but had to shave it down a bit.
With a 10mm servo I could have gone internal and
out the front rudder for the elevator and would
be nicer. The wires goes inside the boom and
since I used a glassfiber wing I installed the
antenna inside the midsection. The Rx
(SMC-14/R770) and 4x900mah AAA Rx-pack is just
under the wing and fitted nicely. I have two
motor setup's I want to test and first out was
my "old" but top of the notch 42-60 Kontronik
motor. It has currently been in my Organic 2,5m
and powered with 8xGP2000 cells. All up weight
was 2235g and I fitted a 18x11 prop. The setup
can take a bigger prop but I had another thing
going. First flight was with the 8xGP2000 and I
had a nice flight with 60-70 degrees climb and
what was I expected. The model could take the
weight nicely and as expected I needed to adjust
the CG a tiny bit forward of my usual rearward
position. Next up was my new cells... I have
some A123 cells and had put together 4 of them
to form a long pack that can go into any round
fuse. The Supra fuse can easily take sub-C cells
in two rows but the
A123 cells (4x70g) opens up to put lots of
voltage in a long pack. According to the
manufacturer it can take 80A continuous and 120A
in peak so that's why I had the smaller 18x11
on. I use well above 100A on this setup and with
4 cells (3,6v/cell=14,4v) I get a real punch. I
did not measure amps since this is different in
the air anyhow. What is cool with these cells is
really not the data I have just mentioned. It is
the possibility to charge REALLY fast. They are
designed to be charged at "typical" 10A!!! I
flew 2 flights with the A123 pack and after the
first one (1-2min flying after each climb) the
pack was slightly warm but was set on charge
right away. After 15minutes is was ready again.
This is not possible with my other cells.
Normally I have to cool the cells down and best
wait until the next day. Some might say that why
not use Lipo? Well I wanted something I could
trust and charge fast yet also be fairly light.
The A123 cells are rated to survive more than
1000 charge cycles and will not explode in my
face. A123 is supplied in Norway thru
Gylling and their respective dealers.
Conclusion is that I got what I wanted. A fairly
light model (just like a moderate ballasted
Supra) with a high power setup that flies nice
and can be flown anywhere.
DAY .. 25.september 2007
-
DG-600
On my way home I visited a friend that has been
abroad for some years now. Petter Østbye have
brought home some huge sailplane models and I
bought one of the smaller ones... A 4/4,8m
(comes with small and large tips) DG-600 is now
ready for maiden after a couple of days work.
Quality is pretty good and it is fairly stiff so
I can do full aerobatics with it. Canopy and
wheel is also ready installed so I only need to
provide a pilot.. Weight is 5,5kg ready to go
and maybe I have to make some ballast tube in it
for the heavier slope conditions.
Pictures
DAY .. 23.september 2007
-
Club Championship Cirrus
Late and bad weather forecast I guess because
only 4 pilots attended this years club
championship in Cirrus sailplane club. We flew
teh "Cirrus'21" that consists of 3 rounds x 7min
were one can be 10min. Landing is on a mark with
0,5m knots. I flew my Pike Perfect in rather
heavy air but as long as one could get in front
to the better air 2-300m in front I could ride
the air most of the time easily. Landing
conditions were pretty turbulent and some rain
showers came upon us. The guys I was flying
against had problems even though they have been
to both F3J and F3B championships and are good
pilots. My own landings were all within 1m and
my times were good (we are aiming for a total of
21min) so I won the competition.
Results
Alf Erik landing his Pike Perfect and Stein
Jaksland timing. Sorry for the poor
DAY .. 22.september 2007
-
Skymax 4
Arrived early for the club Cirrus club
championship in sailplanes this year. Flew the
Skymax 4 in pretty good launching conditions and
when it calmed down in the evening I took out
the Perfect for a flight. The DLG pictures is of
a Jan Bratbak's Kisal.
DAY .. 21.september 2007
-
Skymax 4
Repaired my Skymax 4 after the nose broke of
during Nationals F3B and flew it on a local
slope today . Awesome air.
DAY .. 15-16.september 2007
-
Pike Perfect
Got a visit from Alf Erik yesterday and we fixed
some models and today we flew in very nice
weather at a local farmers field. We both flew
Pike Perfect on thick line in interresting
weather ranging from almost dead to heavy
thermals as it developed during the day. As
always I switch my CG according to the
conditions and fly 112mm in dead air and 110mm
in active air. Testing again today shows it is
useful. I also tested different throwing
techniques and as always a very high tension
with the hand under the wing is best for me in
most conditions.
DAY .. 15-16.september 2007
-
Norwegian Championship F3B
So this years Nationals is over and the season
is almost over fro the bigger events. Sadly we
were only 5 pilots but as we say the best is
only the ones that is there. National
Championship holds a special feeling for me and
I always wants to be there. Since I this year
have worked hard to improve in F3B I was curious
on my results. With only 5 pilots it is not
possible to make teams so we did it a very cool
way instead. We did not fly distance but in the
duration we had enough officials (actually very
nice work of the club Vingen) to fly all 5
pilots in duration. With no helper you only get
the flying time and it becomes a true individual
flying. In the speed we helped each other and
this worked well. We had quite a few line breaks
but with some officials helping out at the
turnaround this worked out ok. All got good time
to change lines and fix models when they needed.
Saturday was a very windy day and with crosswind
it was difficult to fly speed but sometimes
rather easy to fly duration on a nearby hill.
Interesting and irritating when you launch above
300m and still only get a 19. something speed!!
Later in the day the wind calmed down a bit so
some of us could get new personal bests (Erik
15,8 and me 16,6sec). In the first start of the
day I had a real setback when the nose of my
Skymax 4 broke off during the zoom (old damage
faulty repaired maybe). Model came down nicely
and is already almost repaired but I had to
switch to the Crossfire V and got a zero in the
first duration. I also landed poorly in many
durations (never really fixed that down thrust
with brakes). It became clear early that it was
to be between me and Erik Morgan although Knut
Vidar had a small chance if I missed one more
duration. When Erik landed in the safety zone a
few meters from the winches he was punished with
a 300points penalty and I was ahead. We managed
7 rounds duration and 7 rounds speed on Saturday
so Sunday would be a race in mental playing if
we could go for many rounds again. Sunday
morning we woke up to rain and low clouds that
never really cleared up before the time limit.
So I was the winner and got my first National
Championship medal in F3B. Now I have a gold
medal in both F3J, F3F and F3B. Jihaa! I also
won the National Cup F3B this year
A big thanks to the organizers that supplied us
with breakfast, hot lunch and even dinner when
we arrived on friday. Congratulation for a well
driven event. I admire the ability to get that
many helpers and organizing fixed.
More pictures HERE -
Organizing club Vingen -
Results Nationals F3B 2007 - National Cup
Some of my
flight logs -
zlog-files
2. Erik Morgan, Vingen (Crossfire
X) - 1. Jo Grini, Valdres (Skymax 4 and
Crossfire V) - 3. Knut Vidar Moløkken,
Løten (Crossfire V)
DAY .. 13.september 2007
-
Skymax 4
Some practice on a local field and todays task
was to figure out drum size and how much it
matters on my Skymax 4. Since this model pulls
well on the line and still builds speed and
power I was thinking I could do with less drum
in dead air. The reason for this thinking was
also that I will borrow a old Hollenbeck winch
for the weekend as my backup winch and that has
only small drum on it. I started out with large
drum and tried different sizes with the same
type of launches all the way. The difference
were smaller than I thought but it seems I could
launch 10-20m higher with no drum comparing to
the big. This difference was bigger when I had
some headwind. I bought a new battery since last
time I flew and the winch was also measured and
adjusted for this battery.
DAY .. 12.september 2007
-
Kobra DS
Heavy conditions on my local DS slope today. So
heavy that I had to wait to throw the Kobra DS
out on the slope untill it was a calm period. It
was above 30m/s on the front edge... Very
turbulent both on front and on the darkside but
as soon as I got decent DS speed teh Kobra went
on rails for most of the time. Fantastic session
and I flew so fast I had to stop flying in
periods because I could not cope with the high
speed. If one is not sharp one will loose sight
of the model as the brain can only cope with a
certain speed when flying close. I was very
happy to see that the model had no problems even
with extreme turbulence that could make the
model jump up and down and getting smacked thru
the share layer. Checking the model afterwards
revealed no slop or cracks of any kind. SO I am
sure I now have a model for any speed/condition.
It is now up to me... My son used the radar gun
but due to me now wanting him in the direct line
of sight he did not get any good readings.
Small video by
my son (13mb .wmv)
DAY .. 12.september 2007
-
National Championship F3B
To the weekend there will be National
Championship F3B and sadly there will only be 5
pilots attending. BUT we have been talking about
how cool it would be to fly all against all in
the duration and with no helpers only a official
timekeeper. This will happen now. It will be a
true individual winner I think!! We will also
probably have a lot of rounds in during the two
days of competition and will be dead tired. Or
can we be tired of flying?-)
DAY .. 9.september 2007
-
Report National
Championship F3F last day (updated 11.sep.)
Lighter conditions with 8-9m/s but falling thru
the day. We ended cancelling the 5 round because
the wind died totally. Rolf Inge Waaga (Haugaland
MFK) flew wonderful also today and secured his
lead by "a mile" in front of Espen Torp (Forus)
in second. Bjørn Tore Hagen (Bodø) took 3rd
place. Jo Grini 4th, Rolf Børge Rettedal 5th,
Arild Møllerhaug 6th, Dag Skoglund, Geir Njaa
8th, etc.
Detailed results. A very good competition
and a total of 18 rounds on a coastal slope
gives a pretty correct winner. All were amazed
by Rolf Inge's constant flying! Big
Congratulation to Rolf Inge Waaga.
Me? Well I was to tired today to do well in the
first rounds (just like yesterday). So I did not
manage to move upwards the list. But I am happy
to prove that my win last year was not only
luck. I flew both Crossfire V and Ceres 2,8m. I
felt the Crossfire is good in good air and Ceres
actually could perform well in medium to bad.
The problem was the roll-rate on the Crossfire
on this small slope. The Ceres is now sold (Arild
Møllerhaug). Quite funny in the last round that
was cancelled. I always started as number 2 in
the rounds and in the last one it was 3,5 to
4,5m/s when I started (we measured almost every
start that round). When Bjørn Tore Hagen started
it was also 3,5 to 4,5m/s but I feel he had much
worse conditions and his time was extremely bad
at 77sec. The round was stopped with only one
competitor to go! If this round would have been
on the result I could maybe have been on the
podium. But it would not have been fair since
the conditions are far from even when we fly so
slow. Or at least we can see the difference in
air easily. My point is that F3F can be very
unfair but I feel we had a very good competition
with the correct winner since we flew so many
rounds.
DAY .. 8.september 2007
-
Report Nationals F3F day 1
of 2
Heavy conditions on one of Norways smallest
slopes "Reve" outside Stavanger. 16 pilots
entered the competition from all over Norway
(Norway is long, good thing we have airliners).
Started out with 12-14m/s wind and going up to
20m/s abbrupted by some small rainshowers that
gave us lunch and needed breaks. This is a
relatively fast event since it is easy to land
here. So we finsihed 14 rounds today and with
the F3F rules we need to run untill the limit at
16:00 tomorrow. Interresting competition and
pretty even. Many flies far out in the heavy
conditions but on this low slope you need to be
on the edge or close to it. The best line is
probably just on top but most of the good pilots
fly 4m in front and up on the straight but
pretty high up in the turns. Kind of
rollercoaster flying. Rolf Inge Waaga leads by a
mile by flying conservative and easy all day
while Bjørn Tore Hagen and Espen Torp battles
for 3rd and Jojo in 4th. Then there is a gap
down to some others. I think Rolf Børge Rettedal
and Arild Møllerhaug is there ahead of the pack.
Lots of good times today ranging from 40 to 50
for the best pilots and pretty even conditions.
Some official helpers but we need to help a bit.
Special thank to Kjell Gai and Kåre Aareskjold
that always does a good share of work. Rolf Inge
flies RaceM, Jojo Ceres (first 3 rounds) and
Crossfire while Espen Torp flies and changes all
the time beetween new Ceres, RaceM extreme and
Aris. Bjørn Tore with Crossfire X and Rolf Børge
Aris and RaceM..
results after day 1
DAY .. 5.september 2007
-
Ceres
Needed to fine tune the Ceres (2,8m) launch
settings so that on a local farmers field with a
winch was the goal today. Dead conditions or
slightly downwind and first launch at 185m was
as expected but I wanted more. Flew duration
most of the day and this model works well
actually. Small bumps in the air can be worked
to ensure a 10min duration. I mostly fly it with
2mm camber and a CG of 102mm (105 for speed).
For some air neutral can be used. One can also
fly it with 10mm camber but have not tested
enough to say it works. But the altitudes kept
going down no matter what I did. After 7-8
starts I understood why... The winch battery was
dead so I bought a new one. About time really as
I knew it started to show signs of this. No
pictures as I was concentrating on launching.
DAY .. 4.september 2007
-
Car for sale
Trenger du skikkelig modellflybil? Masse utstyr
og knallfint hylleopplegg bak som kan følge med.
Gå til annonse HER
Jo Grini, mob.90898709 hjem 61361606, email jojo
(@) vfkm.no
DAY .. 2.september 2007
-
F3J
Updated 5.sep 2007
Great day and good turnout with 18 pilots on the
field. We use winches on 150m to the turnaround
in Norway and the organizers had divided it into
4 teams with extra winches for 6 pilots in the
finals. I had done some tweaks on my Perfect
that I needed the whole day to sort out but
managed to get into the finals by good margin.
The conditions today was very difficult with
high winds and lots of sink and difficult
landing conditions. I flew my light Perfect with
strong elevators and my stiff spar with new
stiff joiners from Philip is just that - very
stiff! Only bad thing about a light model is
that it is too light in the ends (tips/tail) so
in turbulent conditions you might get thrown
around a bit. This winter I will order myself a
strong and heavy one. One thing disturbed me
about fairplay and how some think about
situations. I have now got some calls from some
of the involved and assurance that they did not
think this way. Good!! Personally I got the tension I needed
by this and flew well afterwards to grab the
first place by good margin. Thanks to my usual
spotter Tor Midtlund that is always nice to have
around. 6 pilots entered the
two finals and all of them flew Pike Perfect. Egil flew very well with my older Pike Perfect
to lead after preliminary and get a good 3rd
place after Jostein Myre.
Detailed results
BTW I won all F3J Cup events this
year (except one in Norway with 6 pilots and me
not attending) but since I organized the
Nationals this year I did not do well there
because I was all over the place I guess. So
result of this is that I am only alternate in
4th place on the
Norwegian ranking for WC F3J in Turkey next
year. Bummer! But I knew this already after the
Nationals.
DAY .. 1.september 2007
-
Pike Perfect
Practice day before tomorrows F3J event - the
last F3J event in Norway this year on the
calendar but I guess we will have some winter
F3J. Alf Erik, Thomas and Egil showed up for
some practice while Arnfinn flew some electro
(As usual...) and Thorbjørn stopped by with a
new Tx for Egil. I flew both Thomas Pike Giant,
Perfect and set up the Perfect Egil was going to
borrow from me for tomorrows event. Egil was
unlucky 2 days ago and crashed his Perfect after
the Tx gave up on him. My "new" Pike Perfect
also got a flight. In the evening Egil checked
out his new Tx (took him 2 1/2 hour to set up
the mode and the model) and we had some drinks
on the field.