Norway Open 2006 and the Warmup

The Warmup did not work out this year. We got unlucky with little wind and wrong wind direction. We had a relativly good turnout with 15 eager pilots looking forward to this years first F3F contest. Despite some people have believed that the Warmup is a training for the Norway Open I can only tell that we have run this comp on this day (which is a public Holyday) for more than 20 years. So we will set it up again soon.

Norway Open 2006 started with lots of rain on Saturday. We drove to Obrestad and waited. Then someone had the idea to drive to Egersund and visit Oegrey Hobby. When we came back after 3 hours it was still raining but not so much and it seemed like it would stop. So we rigged everything and started the contest. After 2 pilots the rain started and we again had to wait.
Well F3F is an outdoor sport and what can we do? There are many factors that have to be right.
The day before most of the contestants had a super day with lots of training in good wind and clear sky. Come race day and it has all turned the opposite, wind from south and rain.
Luckily the following day the wind turned to west-northwest and we could start the comp again. We managed 1 round before the first and only shower of the day. In total we did 5 rounds before we had to call it a day. The wind turned to much to the west and was getting even weaker.
The conditons were by no means even this year and luck was needed to win and to place well.
We had 3 English and 2 Danish competitors and it is always more interesting for us when we can compete against others. Thank you very much for showing up and I hope you will come back next year. Off course when I write this Monday evening the wind has been strong all day long....
Take a look here for results: http://www.f3x.no/f3f/2006/eurotour.pdf

More practice before Norway Open F3F

Approx 13m/s today but a bit westerly at Hodne. I got to fly 15 minutes before Rolf came and we did 3 and 3 rounds testflying/practice. Rolf got some super air and I clocked him to 41 seconds. Not bad! The first picture show Rolf from Sunday. Picture by me with Rolf's new camera, pretty good I think. The two next pics is me launching Geir over the stone fence. Must be careful doing this or it will go wrong. Pics by Rolf.

Out flying today

The weather man does not get it! Well I am not complaining when they get it wrong the right way. Today they predicted 10m/s wind from northwest and rainshowers. They got the direction right! Apart from that, it was sunny and only 4m/s wind. So this was a good day for bringing out my ASW 28 3meter scale model and just cruise up and down the slope. I also had a quick go with the RaceM and flew it empty today as there was not much lift. Even my old buddies Geir and Rolf came and we sat down in the grass and talked about the upcoming Norway Open.

Picture I took Friday

This is a picture of the main entry of the Hinna Park. www.hinna-park.no The new Viking Stadion (local football club) is now being surrounded by apartments, shops and other buildings.
25 years ago this place was used for making the big concrete oilrigs like the Troll, Sleipner and many others. The leaning tower was made to prove the concept of gliding the concrete from smaller to bigger and then smaller diameter, all in one go. So this actual tower is a copy of what they made for some of the legs. Check here for a better picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/hufse/131495695/

Aerotorp goes blogging!

The reason for this blog is simply to part my "blog" from my ET-Air pages. So ET-Air can be my commercial channel and not a blog. I will create links to this blog from ET-Air.