26th of desember

we have a tradition in our local club, "Vingen". We get together and fly airplanes! And often a lot of new airplanes... This year was no exeption. A lot of people showed up, and many started the day with brekfast in the club hose. I am kind of a "late night person", so I started the day a little later...
My good friend Vidar Bech had his "virgin trip" on a new made tug. He has taken the good old Sig Kadet, and enlarged it by 1,5 times... A huge Kadet in other words. It flew quite well, and after the first trip into air, we towed my old Bird of Time several times.
And even in the winter, the thermals are there! So I got some nice, long flights with my Bird...
Not to much flying for me now, so the day was great!
Photo by Rune Svendsen

Reports

from Espen Torp are telling me that the brand new RaceM X-tail is on track... And I look forward to get my hands on the new planes!
Not much activity these days, my job takes most of the time.
But... I have startet building a tug! A Super Cub from Adrian Page. Electro version of course. Nice to build with balsa wood again. Some years since last time.
With a Axi 4120/18 and a 5s LiPo pack, it would hopefully be capable of towing sailplanes at least up to 3 meters.
A Merry Christmas to all of you, and a Happy New Year also.

Yesterday

Cirrus RCFK invited to "Winter F3J" at their field in eastern part of Norway. Bad weather forecast resulted in just 5 people showed up... And one of them decided to not fly. Because of the wind... Which was rather heavy. I think we had up to about 20 m/s in periods... and not below 10 m/s. But 3 of us sat up the winches with 1,45 lines on. And they snapped right of... Several times. I had no logger in my Crossfire today, but wow! Those starts... As we was down to 3 pilots after a short moment, (Alf Erik was not happy, crashing two planes in just a couple of minutes) there was no contest. But a lot of nice training of both thermal flights in very extreme conditions, and also a lot of fun speed flying in the heavy wind. Lost some parachutes during the day, when a line broke the parachute was drifting up to several kilometers in to the dark forest of eastern Norway...
But what a day! Even if it was no contest.

While waiting for

a long winter to end, some news maybe? ET-air has just released some news for next year, a cross-tail version of the well known Race-M.
And... I have ordered two of them! For the next season. Several years ago, I told Espen that if he got a crosstail for he's Race-M, I would order models from him... And as a man of my words, of course I had to make an order... Hopefully my new planes arrives in good time before next season. I plan to use them in both F3B and F3J. And I would also keep my Crossfire.

Not to much

activity these days. Getting dark realy early, and also getting cold... First snow has fallen down. But, yesterday we gathered 5 pilots and made a little LSF competition... 3 rounds and a total of 21 minutes flying time.
This is a very "laid back" form of competition, but it was really nice to get hands on the radio againg... I flew my old Pike Plus, and got 5th place... Gambled a lot in round 3 on poor conditions, and landed out. Shit happens...
Geir Strømstad was the winner, a few points before Erik, with Rune at third and Jostein at forth.
A nice late autumn sunday it was, and we plan to do a few more of this competitions during the winter. At least if it's not to much snow...

This thursday

was the last one this season, with training. I think... Getting dark very early in Norway this days. And it keeps on going worse during the winter... Just a couple of hours with daylight. But what a nice day it was today! Huge thermals all over the place. Climb to 600 meters, a lot of fun, and then climb to 600 meters again. And it was just going on and on and on... Unbelivable! Not to many guys today, but a lot of fun for those who found the way down to the field.
BUT: We plan to do a couple of winter contests this winter. And I think we would be able to to some F3B, perhaps without distance, but hopefully nice training for next season.

Nationals F3J...

is over, and: I got a place in the final! After flying Crossfire all weekend... The plan was to fly my Pike Plus, but a little "misshap..." ended that plan early saturday morning. We flew 8 rounds prelim. A lot of wind all saturday, the thermals was hard to find and fly. We finished 5 rounds saturday, and I had 3 OK rounds and 2 not so good.
Sunday was the oposite to saturday. Verry little wind, and a lot of small thermals. Not always easy to fly. But I got 3x1000 with my Crossfire, and was top 5 in the preliminary rounds. (5 in the finals).
When we started the finals on the afternoon, all wind and thermals where gone. No activity at all in the air, and I realised that my chances was gone... The Crossfire is a good model, but against Perfects and others like, I got no chance at all. And finished 5th. But I am really happy with that... Flying my F3B machine all weekend.
The winner was Jo Grini (his 6th title...), second was Tor Midtlund and third Arnfinn Lie. No. 4 was Alf Erik Ross.
A realy nice weekend it was, lot of good flying and quite some "sosializing..." in the evenings...
A BIG thanx to Jo Grini, he was organising both flying and the sosial happenings, including all meals all weekend.

Yesterday

was again "thursday practice day" at our field. 5-6pilots, and the focus no is F3J, almost all the pilots yesterday is going to attend the nationals. Therefor also just 150 meters to the turnaround pulley, to get a little feeling with the more brutal tension in the starts.
I flew the Plus all evening, and actually starts to like it... Even if the starts are a little lower that I am used to. Because of the wing, of course. But the model handles well in every thing. Also tried "JoJo" setup on the brakes (both flaps and aileron down), and it seamed more effective on this model. Have to get used to "tail up" approaches, but the model was quite easy to handle this way.
Hopefully more flying in the weekend...

I hate...

to crash planes. I hate, hate, hate it... And still does it! Unbelivable...
Last weekend we had our local club championship, not F3B, but LSF-ruels. And I picked up my Brio for this event. After flying Crossfire all summer. And the Brio is a lot quicker on the elevator. And what happens? Crosswind start, a lot of tension on the line, and smack.... There is the line, nicely twisted around the elevatorand rudder. Beautifuly tied together... Straight into mother earth, with locked elevator and rudder. Shit...
I was really angry at my self. And offered the Brio at spot price to the other guys at the field, and whopps: Exit Brio.
OK, the contest of course went shi.... for me, but I promoted my self to contest manager, and we had a nice day anyhow at the field. Erik Morgan became the club champion this year, after nice flying.
Next up for me i the nationals F3J. Yes, I also enjoy flying F3J a lot! And I actually has bought a plane for the nationals... An old Pike Plus SL! Tried it saturday... A lot of flexing in the wing during start, but what a thermal sniffer! Nice and very pleasent to fly. So the Pike Plus and my Crossfire would be my planes for the nationals.
Btw.: The nationals is the weekend of 23rd and 24th of September.
And my club "MFK Vingen" would be represented with 8 pilots for the nationals.

Congratulations to Espen Torp...

Espen won the nationals in Norway this weekend, before Erik C. Morgan (second) and Widar Holmedahl (third). 4 rounds was flown, no flying on sunday because of rain. My self? I ended at 7th place, after terrible flying alomst all saturday... At least it felt so. Actualy not so horrible, but I know I can do better. On the upside: New personal best in task C at friday: 18.32 Happy with that one... Saturdays speed was not good at all. But an average of 19 something is my best so far.
My other teammates Jørgen ended 12th and Øivind 13th.
Results can be found at Cirrus RC club's website.
Speedmaster was Erik C. Morgan with an average of 16,86. Fastes speed was Espen Torp with 16,0 seconds.

Speed practice...

Erik, Jørgen and my self had a wonderful day at the airfild today, with speed flying all day. We had 3 winches, and made 3 starts each, and then rotated. Think we got 15-18 starts each, in varying conditions. I am quite happy... Starting to get stable with my flying. 10-12 good speeds, and the other was also quite nice. We did not take any times today, just fintuning flights in the speed course. And tomorrow the nationals starts... I am ready! (I hope...)

Update on the nordic championship F3B...

Finally I got the results from the nordic championship F3B. Impressive speed flights by Lasse Nyberg (Finland), average speed 16,13 sec! (6 rounds, one discarded).
The results was:

1 Jesper Jensen, Denmark, 14787
2 Søren Krogh, Denmark, 14650
3 Jan Hansen, Denmark, 14404
4 Lasse Nyberg, Finland, 14249
5 Søren Helsted, Denmark, 14205
6 Michael Munk, Denmark, 14122
7 Widar Holmedahl, Norway, 13804
8 Bernhard Henschel, Norway, 13236
9 Erkki Arima, Finland, 12953
10 Knut Vidar Moløkken, Norway, 12815
11 Gjermund Westad, Norway, 12778
12 Heikki Astikainen, Finland, 12150

Another day at the airfield...

Got home from work at 4 PM yesterday, and headed right to the field... Nice weather. To days task was to practice task B with different CG settings, and different ballast.
Got a lot of good flights in both windy and calm conditions, and I feel that i found out of some more things during the flights... Will see in the weekend, I guess...
Later today I am gona meet my team buddy Erik at our field, and we are gonna fly speed all day... Lot of flying before the nationals!

Made a spin...

to our local airfield this afternoon, and got some relaxing task A practise. Tried out different CG-settings on my Crossfire, as I have not been to happy with cirkeling in calm air. But out with 10 gram from the nose, and I got my self a brand new plane... (Have not measured where the CG actually is now, but my guess is around 98-99 mm.) Will put in 5-10 grams in gusty conditions, and also probably in task B and C.
Nice day with good friends at the field!
My team is also ready for the nationals... I will fly Erik Morgan (as I always do), Jørgen Busk and Øyvind Ellevog. Erik is a verry experienced F3B pilot, and has also got the campionship a couple of years back. Jørgen and Øivind is relatively new to F3B, but we did fly together at last years nationals with good results. I am really looking forward to this event!

Practice...

Last weekend we went to Cirrus RC-club's field at Spydeberg, the arena for the nationals F3B next weekend. Jo Grini and my self showed up saturday, and had some nice "task A practice". And a nice evening in the club house. With a couple of bears, and some good laughts.
Sunday we where 8 pilots and we sat up a speed-course and flew 3 starts each, 12 flights in total for each pilot.
Varying conditions it was, but nice training. I still have a job to do to get my times down a couple of seconds... But some of my starts was OK. (That is why practice is so nice, I guess...).
The plan for this week is to fly as much as possible before the nationals. If it would stop raining... Autumn in Norway is rainy! The results is found at Cirrus site (norwegian...).
17 people has filled in their application forms for the F3B nationals next weekend, and that is nice!
The nationals F3J has been moved to the weekend of 23. and 24th of september, and I also think that is nice! Probably a lot more pilots will attend the F3J event, my self included... I have made a deal (late saturday night... with JoJo) to borrow one of his Supras for the F3J event... And with a Supra and a Brio, I should be well equiped for that event also.

Photo: Me getting ready with my Crossfire. JoJo's Crossfire Extreme in front. Photo by Jo Grini.

Nordic championship F3B

This weekend it was the nordic championship F3B at Søndeborg in Denmark. Have not get hands on the results yet, but the roumors talk about danish dominance at the podium... Should have been there, but sadly it was not possible this year.
I will come back as soon as I get hands on the results.

Thursday training

In our local club, (www.vingen.no, only norwegian I am afraid...) we try to make every thursday afternoon a happy one :-) We get together at our local field, an flies to it gets dark. Yesterday 7 people showed up, with DLG's, electo's and of course som e F3J/B ships.
I had some problems with my Crossfire, the elevator was not with me at all... It "hanged" and moved slovley. Had to sand the carbon joiner a little, to get easier movement. Then every thing worked fine again. Got some nice speed-tracks, and also a couple for nice duration rounds.

F3F, norwegian championship

Then the norwegian chamionship is over. Bad conditions all weekend, and we only managed to fly 4 rounds. The wind was calm and also in the wrong direction.
Jo Grini (Crossfire) got his first gold medal in F3F this weekend, congratulations! Rolf Børge Rettedal (RaceM F3F) got the silver and Jack Farstad (RaceM F3F) the bronze medal. Ny self? Finished as 12th... With only 4 rounds I got no chance at all, but my ambitions also was low before this event. But... in round 3 I came in as no. 2... Of course I was extremely lucky with the conditions, but it was a nice experience anyhow!
Next up for me is the national championship F3B, first weekend of september. Hopefully I got some training at a speed-course before this event, I need to get my speed down a couple of seconds.
Results of the F3F championship can be found at www.f3x.no

F3F practise

A nice of me flying Crossfire at Reve... Photo by Espen Torp.

Visited Espen Torp today, and got some training at the slope at Reve. 5-6 m/s wind, pretty calm, but good practice since it has been two years without flying F3F... Competition starts tomorrow.

F3B eurotour

Just have to say... No. 171 on the eurotour... Not bad after my international debut at Ørebro this year, if I have to say it my self... :-)

Club championship 3x12

Today we had our local club championship with electro sailplanes. 3x12 minutes. I flew my Brio electric. Somehow you never get to old to do mistakes... Landing in your own leg is kind of stupid... And no landing points. Unbelivable...
Jostein Myre got the championship with his 3,45 m electro Graphite. Jørgen Busk was second with Organic, and Brynjar Pihl third with his electro Superior. I think I ended in 6th. 9 competitors today, two of them flying F5F-machines. Impressing! 20-30 sec. motor-time and full flight time, the difficult thing with those planes is the landing.
A nice evening, even if the result was not to good...

National championship F3F

This weekend I am going to Haugesund (in the western part of Norway), to partisipate in the national championship F3F. Have NOT been flying F3F the past 2 years, so the podium is maybe a little far out... But it is a lot fun to fly F3F. Sadly we do not have to many slopes where I live.
I will fly my Crossfire, I guess, with the Pike Brio and an Opus as backup-planes.