December
2nd: New homepage layout on its way.
I will soon replace this current layout with a new. This new layout is a
publishing system that is easier to update compared to my old Front Page
design. The new layout will be published on this address, but until I
have the new layout implemented here visit this
address to see the latest updates.
November
30th - Tuesday: Frode Halse's 100km club Frode
Halse's homepage has a address for his 100km club - http://www.fridistanse.no/.
The content is the same, and the page is in Norwegian. For those of you
how do not know Frode Halse, he is the ultimate no. 1 fanatic and 100 %
dedicated XC pg pilot, and current holder of the
distance record for pg in Norway, and was the first to fly 100 km
with pg in Norway. Hence his 100 km club.
November
29th - Monday: HG-course at Flesberg I
was about to cancel the course on Saturday when Øyvind
Ellefsen persuaded me to give it a try. Based on local weather
forecasts Øyvind wanted to try Flesberg, a NE launch 120 km East of
Oslo. As our new Aeros Target has a bent leading edge I got to borrow a
WW Falcon 2 195 from the Norwegian WW-dealer for the weekend. In
addition, we used our own Falcon 2 170, so that we had one glider for
each of the two students (Lars and Petter) this weekend. This means
that we had two new course-gliders with no more than 8 flights
between them before today - this must be a national record.
Saturday: Calm conditions and quite a lot of fog, but flyable. Both
Petter and Lars got three flights each. For Lars, this was his first
flights on a hang glider.
Sunday: Even calmer conditions, but today is was sunny. While driving
from Oslo to Flesberg we had fog all the way to Flesberg and SW winds.
But at Flesberg we had 0-wind and sun, but it was cold. When we drove
from Flesberg in the evening it was -11 C at the landing; it was a cold
day. Today Petter got 3 flights, while Lars came later and got 2 flight.
Since Lars was late, Øyvind used to opportunity to try the Falcon 2
195. He was very enthusiastic about the glider. Read more about this on
his homepage. Today
we were also joined by Lier HGK and their two students. Pictures from the dayHERE.
November
26th - Friday: Weekend plans, Airborne C2 It
seems like the usual late autumn early winter weather is making troubles
for our hg-course this weekend as well. Saturday is not promising at
all, but may be we will be able to fly on Sunday.
Unconfirmed
rumours: It seems like the "all Moyes Litespeed" national team
is history. Two of Norway's national team members have ordered Airborne
C2 instead of the "traditional" Litespeed. Hence, the
Norwegian team will fly with two C2s and three Litespeeds in the coming
Worlds in Hey. I do not know why the two pilots have changed from Moyes
Litespeed to Airborne C2.
November
23rd - Tuesday: More Helite Topless 5 pics Five
more pictures of the Topless 5 has been added to the album. See HERE.
Quite exclusive pictures :-) even the Helite
homepage does not have any pictures of this glider.
November
22nd - Monday: No flying, Helite Topless 5, more pics from Nordic Hang
Glidng Open 2004 No
flying this weekend or even the weekend before, on me and the course
that is. Last weekend it was too windy, and this weekend the wind
direction and fog made me decide not trying.
Olav
Lien Olsen just received the first Topless 5, now made by Helite and not
LaMouette, in Norway. Olav has previously flown a Litespeed 5, but
before this he was flying a Topless 2. It is good that not everyone in
Norway is buying Moyes Litespeed. Not that this is not a good glider,
but it is very boring having only one brand of competition gliders. As
Olav is within the top 10 comp pilot list here in Norway, it will be
interesting to see how the Topless 5 will perform. Olav's initial comments after three sled rides: Weight about the
same as a Litespeed (with carbon a-frame), the speedbar is a solid 2 kg
piece of carbon. The Uprights are thin as knives, but has a "weak
link" and is attached on the top to a rotating joint so that the
uprights can be turned sideways. The hang loop is adjustable. Overall
finish is good, but with about one metre of needle marks on the sail
(removed stitches?). Batten tips is of the new lever type in addition to
a spring system. The handling was a little stiffer than a Litespeed and
a Topless 2, but the glider seems to be easy to land.
Pictures of the glider HERE.
Pictures
from Nordic Hang Gliding Open 2004 HERE.
On Hedemarken HGK's web.
November
9th - Tuesday: Weekend report Øyvind
Ellefsen and I had instructor duty this weekend. The students were ready
for altitude flights, and we had high hopes for the weekend as the
forecast was pretty good. Saturday we, and Lier HGK, tried to fly from
the giant ski jump hill at Vikersund. But the weather demons provided
cross- and tailwind. Sunday we drove to Brandbu in sunny and good
conditions, but as we arrived at Brandbu we met the fog. In addition we
had cross- and tailwind. I think this is the first time I have
experienced two consecutive misses at a hg-course. As we drove home from
Brandbu I thought I heard someone laugh; weather demons?
Pictures from Brandbukampen on Sunday HERE.
November
3rd - Wednesday: National record approved My
71 km flight June 12th, including a 56 km declared goal, is now approved
as a new national record for speed over 50 km. I actually did not
realise that this was a possible record while flying, and it was only
while taken the bus back to Vågå that I realised that it could be a
record. So it was pure luck that I meet the requirements of less than
1000 metres of altitude loss. It turned out that I only had 18 metres
excess altitude when I took the last TP.
Declared
goal speed over 50km
Pilot: Bjørn Hammer
Dato: 2004/06/12
Takeoff: Blåhø, Vågå
Goal: Fåvang
Distanse: 50 km
Oppgavetype: Declared goal speed over 50km
Oppgavetid: 1:15:50
Gennomsnittshastighet: 44,34 km/t
Antall TP: 2
Informasjon: http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&trip_id=59522
In
addition, seven other record was approved after this season, including a
new national record for open distance; Jon Gjerde - 206,5 km. See HERE
for a complete list of the records (entry on Nov. 3rd).
October
17th - Sunday: Some updates It
has been a long time without updates. The main reason for is that I have
been really sick and tired of hang gliding after this season. I was a
lot of work preparing and being meet director at the Nordic Hang Gliding
Open 2004 in addition to flying the comp myself. After that I have used
some time and energy on KK-HG (admin of all comp flying in Norway and
the national team), and on the "fagkomitee" (the part time
management team supporting the head of the hg and pg section here in
Norway). We have also started a new hg-course and this has also taken
time and energy, although I have got very good support from Terje
Brønstad and Erik Vermaas. Further, I have had 3 weeks where I have
been ill. First food poisoning, then a long lasting cold. Still, here is
a short update from the last months: Last weekend: Finally some flying. On Sunday I got one very good
flight at Trøgstad airfield. I had two tows behind Åge and Robin's
trike to about 500 metres. In the first flight I got to 1360 masl and
stayed up for 1 1/2 hour, and probably got the last of the thermals this
year. The second flight was a prolonged sled ride. The
hg-course: After having had about 45 people at 3-4 intro days, we
only ended up with 2 students. Still, as they are both enthusiastic and
actually good pilots we are almost ready for the altitude flights. In
addition, we have 3 students from an intensive course in Vågå to take
care of. Some product news and gossip:
=> New short tail 4-fight
helmets from Icaro. Made for pg-pilots. I have flown with the
ordinary 4-fight helmet the last year and is very pleased - I hope to
publish a review of the helmet soon.
=> Olav Lien Olsen has ordered and is soon to receive the first
Topless 5 from Helite (ex.
LaMouette) in Norway. Olav has previously flown a Topless 2 and has the
last two years been flying a Moyes Litespeed 5. Nordic Hang Gliding Open 2004:Here
is a short report from Ultrasport of the comp. (in Norwegain). I will
publish a short report from this comp soon.
August
4th - Wednesday: Soon some updates I
am sorry for the lack of updates lately. I have had lots to do
organising the Norwegain and Nordic hang gliding championship, and I
have been flying a lot lately. Still, I will soon publish a summary of
the summer, so pop in now and then.
June
25th - Friday: Intro day, new course glider, weekend plans -
The
intro day before the hg-course was not a big success. It rained so I and
Terje Solberg (student from last year) had to limited the intro to
information to the three potential hg-students that turned up. Still, we
will try again next Thursday.
- Today I have ordered a new Wills Wing Falcon 2 170 for use at this
years hg-course. We have already a one year old Aeros Target 160, and it
will be interesting to see how these two compare. I initially wanted to
buy a new Target, which I am very pleased with, to have a standardised
glider park. But then the Norwegian Wills Wing dealer Alf Oppøyen thru
a WW Condor in the deal. Alf is buying the Condor to have as a demo
glider, which the club will rent for intro days and courses. This will
be the first Condor in Norway and it will be very interesting to see and
test this specialised training hill glider. In addition to this deal, we
have an option to buy one or two used WW Falcons in the autumn.
- No plans this weekend. The weather looks pretty unstable. Maybe I will
fly on Sunday? - XC-seminar picture link below and in the album page is
corrected.
June
23rd - Wednesday: Tragic start of the European championship, intro. day
before hg-course -
The
European Hang Glider Championship apparently had a tragic start as one
Croatian pilot was involved in a fatal accident while landing during the
first task. Manfred Ruhmer was the only pilot to complete the 87 km
task. Read also Øyvind Ellefsen's reports from the comp - http://www.ellefsen.net.
Due to the accident it was no task today, the day after the accident.
More about the comp and results can be found here - http://millauclassic.free.fr.
- Tomorrow Terje Birdman and I will have a free intro day at Årvoll
before this autumn's hg-course. The weather is not the best and I have
not heard from anyone yet so
I hope someone turn up.
June
21st - Monday: No flying this weekend, Zoom a-frame, and pictures -
It
has been a totally useless weather the last week; rain and strong
northern and eastern winds. According to the online log book it has been
very few flights in south-east Norway this week. And I have not even
considered flying. -
Moyes
Zoom a-frame. Monday 7th before my flight from Vole I noticed that one
of the nuts attaching the right upright to the keel on my zoom a-frame was missing
and the the bolt was
almost falling out. Moyes has issued a
technical alert on this, and the
new zoom a-frames apparently have a new design to resolve this problem.
My glider is a Litespeed 5 2002, purchased new in May 2003, and has flown something like 45
flights and hours.
- Here are a few pictures from the last two weeks. First from the magic
record weekend, then from the xc-seminar.
