Aerotorp

Norway Open 2008

2008-05-13T11:11:00.005+02:00

The weather forecast did not look good for this years Norway Open, nice weather but not so much wind. Luckily the forecast changed the last day and we managed 4 rounds with minimalistic conditions. We are proud to announce that we used our new weather station with great success this day. All flights were measured and we will soon publish the results. We used an average for the flight itself both for wind and direction. All pilots agreed on this new method instead of the old rules. We also agreed that a re flight would be given after the flight was finished if it was ruled under the level and that the pilot could choose either reflight or keep the score.
It was quite amusing to see the pilots being more interested in the weather measurements than their times. It is our club member Kåre Aareskjold who have made the weather station. We will look into offering it to others.
Slope used was Obrestad south.
Windspeed was between 3,1 to 4,5m/s.
Fastest time of the day was 66 seconds.

The conditions was not super but I think very, very even and to master so little wind is just as difficult as master other conditions. It is not so nice to hear comments like "this is not F3F". F3F is not about the fastest speed, it is about mastering all kind of conditions and slopes. Those who can do that will do well, always.

So we had a competition (4 round) and the next day we choose to go to another slope (Austre Bokn) which is much higher and has more thermal influence than the previous slope. This turned out to be a big success with another 8 rounds with pretty good conditions. The weather station was used but since the wind speed and direction was not an issue the results was not so interesting as day one. But we have the data and will publish them soon. Windspeed was between 5 and 9m/s Thermals where coming and going but the variations was not so big.
Some pilots did DS circles in the landing area and this was not so popular among the organizing staff. Please let us not see this while we are trying to run a competition. Some pilots had trouble in the landing and got minor damage.
Fastest time of the day was 41 seconds.
So we had 12 rounds after 2 days and we were very happy with that.

Next day did not have a good wind forecast but we could maybe make a round or two. Unfortunately one pilot provoked the Contest Director by flying a DLG on the slope when the organizer was still setting up the course even he was strictly told not to fly. It almost came to a fight between the CD and the pilot and the jury made the decision to call off the competition. This could be seen as a drastic decision but the pressure on the organizer had been built up over the whole weekend and enough is enough. We have always had a non flying rule before the contest start. This was told specific for the last day and when someone chooses to ignore this just to provoke certain people we will and can not tolerate this. Everybody wants to fly before the contest and that can sometimes be solved with a zero round. But we never do a zero round after round 12! If we let everybody fly, time will run and this could effect the number of rounds. One guy asked for a flight to test his newly fixed V-tail, he was not allowed this. A hand launch on the field would have solved this this problem.
It was unfortunate that this time we had to cancel the whole day but we still had a good competition. It is really sad that one person can cause so much problems.
I would like to apologize to all participants for his behavior. We hope that we can invite to next years Norway Open after we have evaluated this years event.

Espen

Our sponsor http://www.smartmodel.org/ offered us a Swift EPP model which was won by Kåre Aareskjold.

Many thanks to all that helped us during the competition with buzzing etc.

End results:
1 Espen Torp, Norway 10719
2 Bjørn Tore Hagen, Norway 10565
3 Dag Skoglund, Norway 10289
4 Jørgen Larsen, Denmark 10119
5 Arild Møllerhaug, Norway 10116
6 Tom Erik Smedal, Norway 10032
7 Rolf Inge Waaga, Norway 10019
8 Jack Farstad, Norway 10013
9 Angus Lee, Hong Kong 9749
10 Andre Austen, Germany 9744
11 Rolf B. Rettedal, Norway 9674
12 Geir Njaa, Norway 9539
13 Kjell Gai, Norway 9495
14 Jo Grini, Norway 9184
15 Jørg Becker, Germany 8973
16 Martin Knöpfel, Germany 8489
17 Jan Eric Klausen, Norway 8427
18 Tor Bruun,Norway 8050
19 Kåre Aareskjold, Norway 6130

Rennesoy, 2.5.2008

2008-05-03T22:11:00.008+02:00

Gloomy rainy day and not so cool to fly F3B

Me with my new Foxtrot Aerobatic glider
Arild is really making it clear what I shall to in the DS circle!
Landing approach, it does not look to be but it was.

1st. of May should have been a local F3B contest here in my region but bad weather with rain stopped it quickly. Next day was much better and Kjell Gai and me met went to Rennesoy to meet Arild Moellerhaug for some fun flying and F3F practice. Forecast was promising and it turned out to be even better. We all clocked sub 40 times with Arild all the way down to 34 seconds using his Aris. I flew my RaceM and my best was 38 seconds. I did not bring any ballast except my steel joiner so I hope some of the lost time was due to that fact. But Arild looked sharp and I was impressed. Kjell flew his Brio very well and I think he will move up the ranks this year. I also had the chance to test my RaceM in some rather light DS but rough air DS and it was steady as a rock.

I spent the day before to finish my Foxtrot which is an aerobatic model made by some of my friends in Slovakia. This was a very pleasant surprise and both Kjell and me enjoyed flying. I even tested it in DS and it was very easy to control. Landing was not so easy as this slope really demands crow brakes. But I managed so it was all in all one of the best flying days for a long time.
All pictures: Kjell Gai

Norway Open 2008 Eurotour F3F

2008-04-19T09:22:00.010+02:00

This years sponsor is: Smartmodel, Hong Kong

This years Norway Open is held the 10-12th of May. The entry list is very good and we have pilots from 5 nations so far:

1 Andre Austen, Ger
2 Jörg Becker, Ger
3 Espen Torp, Nor
4 Rolf B. Rettedal, Nor
5 Geir Njaa, Nor
6 Arild Møllerhaug, Nor
7 Rolf Inge Waaga, Nor
8 Tom Erik Smedal, Nor
9 Jørgen Larsen, Den
10 Bjørn Tore Hagen, Nor
11 Jack Farstad, Nor
12 Dag Skoglund, Nor 66154 75/76
13 Angus Lee, Hong Kong
14 Kåre Aareskjold, Nor
15 Kjell Gai, Nor
16 Jo Grini, Nor
17 Tor Brun, Nor
18 Martin Knöpfel, Ger
19

It is still possible to enter.

This years sponsor is: Smartmodel, Hong Kong

Spain, La Muela 2008

2008-04-05T14:55:00.007+02:00

Finally I was back at the Tooth after 4-5 years. I like this place and it is a good place for hosting F3F competitions. Yes it is inland but the fact that it is sticking up like it is makes it suitable for any wind direction.
This year only 35 pilots entered the contest and some of these did not show up so the total was around 30. A good number if you ask me. You get to fly relatively often and this is good. As far as I can remember we had all kind of conditions from 3m/s to 20m/s and with sun, rain and even hail. At least 2 rounds was cancelled due to change in conditions (I think).
The organizers did a very good job and we all got a T-shirt and a goodiebag. One item I liked was the A3 size calendar with all F3F Eurotour events already plotted into it. I was in the lead from round 2 and kept it all the way. But I really had to fight and Carlos did what he could to try and catch me. Variations in the conditions made it more exited than I like. Alexis Marcheal was 3rd and could have been a lot closer if he did not do so many mistakes. Well I guess it was an early start even for Alexis. My new team mates, Juan and Tomas from Malaga, was taking care of me during the contest and I really apriciate that. Tomas Eklund is a Swedish guy who moved to Spain some 30 years ago. He is now a Spanish citizen. He used to be a hang glider pilot but have now moved to RC gliding and has quickly become an enthusiast.
On Sunday one of the bases was hit by a model. Luckily nobody got hurt. This happend when the wind was very weak and the model did not have much speed. Please consider at all competitions to move back the bases so people can be in safety when we do our sport.
Some results and info can be found here: http://www.livef3.com/reportages/2008F3FInternacionaLaMuela.html

Tomas, Juan and me. The Malaga Fantastico!

French camp.

Rainbow

Tomas Eklund and me after the contest

Weekend trip to Manchester

2007-12-16T00:09:00.000+01:00

Had a nice weekend in the Manchester area last weekend and visited Ian Masan and Greg Dakin. The idea was to go to Wales and attend the Wales winter league event with Greg. Well the weather did not cooperate so we did something else on Sunday. Monday Ian took me to a trip to North Wales and the Llangollen slope which turned out to be a very, very good slope. Even it was a rather cold day with sunshine the thermal influence was clearly there. But the slope was pretty good just windriven also. I flew my Ultimate and Ian got to test his brand new RaceM F3F and I could tell he was pretty exited.

Many thanks to Ian and Cubbitt's models to get me a very, very needed mitt for my new Futaba 12Z radio. In fact I think I will start to fly in the winter now. I have had big problems in cold conditions before but these days seem to be over now thanks to this excellent product.

Thanks to Ian and Greg for a nice weekend.

Pictures by Ian Mason.

Good weekend in Wales!

2007-09-18T12:14:00.000+02:00

Just back from the Welsh Open Eurotour 2007. This an event I have been visiting regularly since 1999 I believe. Last year I did not attend because the Viking Race was so close.
This time I had Bjørn Tore Hagen with me. We flew in to London and Alex McMeekin picked us up and we drove straight to Wales and the Bwlch (yes, try to pronounce that if you can!)
This year it was a 3 day event and 50 competitors showed up. Lots of withdrawals but who cares, the size of 50 pilots is very good.
Friday started out with low clouds and rain and we waited for 3 hours before we managed to get in 1 round at Mickeys slope before the wind turned so much that we could fly anymore.
Next day the forecast was light winds and we could fly on "Back of the Wrecker". This is a fairly good slope and with 5-7 m/s wind we did 4 rounds. I got lucky and pulled out a 37 second flight in round 5. I did not have any bad air so I had fairly good times in all my rounds so far and was the overnight leader. BTH and Alex also did well with 7th. and 4th. place before the last day.
Long before we started the comp. we formed the TGT team and we were all agreeing that this year we should try to make the podium in the team event. This team effort made us all work for the team and trying to avoid mistakes as they would effect not only yourself but also the team. Before the last day we were doing well and was in the lead.
The last the the forecast was good but with much higher wind from the south west. So again back to Mickeys and again waiting for the clouds to lift. Finally it did and we started in 15-20m/s wind. Many people set PB's and fastest time came from Jarda (CZ) flying his Ascot to perfection with a 32,7 second round.
Unfortunately the wind increased and the organizer could nothing else than to stop the flying until the wind came down under the max allowed wind speed of 25m/s. That did not happened so we only got this single round on Sunday. I stayed in the top, Alex moved to 3rd place and BT moved down to 9th place after some bad air in the last round. But the team The Gnome Team stayed in top and won the team competition with a good margin.
Many thanks to the Welsh organizers who did another good event. I hope we all learned a few things when it comes to setting up the safety area. I also hope that the Viking Race committee soon can take a look on the current rules and perhaps make some suggestions in the future rules so organizers can have a manual on how to do it.
Look here for my pictures (not so good as there was something wrong with the camera)
http://picasaweb.google.no/aerotorp/Wales2007
For results take a look at Kevin's web page: http://www.knewt.com/ Also check out RC-Soar's http://www.rc-soar.com/gallery/2007/wo/index.php

Espen

F3F Norwegian Championship

2007-09-10T10:21:00.000+02:00

This weekend our club, Forus RC Klubb hosted the Norwegian Championship F3F 2007. 15 pilots entered and we had a pretty strong field of competitors. The weather forecast was rather poor but luckily for us it turned out almost perfect as we got good strong wind from northwest straight into our best slope for F3F. Thanks to Sigve Hodne for letting us using his fields.

We flew 14 rounds on Saturday. Windspeed was from 12-18m/s. Best time of the day was 40.16 seconds set by Bjorn Tore Hagen with Crossfire. Leader of the first day was Rolf Inge Waaga (RaceM F3F) only 19 points ahead of me (RaceM Ultimate, Aris, Ceres) with BTH in third place only 40-50 points behind.

Next day we had 7-9m/s dropping all the day so we managed only 4 rounds. Rolf Inge was still going strong and won 3 of these rounds and earning his first ever Championship! It was well a deserved victory as he made no mistakes and flew very close and short both days for 18 rounds.

I kept my 2nd place and so did Bjorn Tore. In fact the 4 rounds on Sunday did not change any positions. Results and pictures can be found here: http://www.f3x.no/

Also I must thank Jan Eric Klausen and Sigurd Torp for helping us organizing the event.

The slope on Hodne is quite difficult to master and some of the "new" pilots to this slope needs more time to adapt than the locals. The main reason for this is the stone fence on top of the slope + the narrow lift band. We prefer to use the slope mostly because it is very easy to host comps there due to very easy access, car parking and landing facilities. Also there is no doubt that this slope is one of the most equal slopes I have ever been to.

Espen

World Championship F3B

2007-07-30T23:23:00.000+02:00

I thought I finally should write a little bit about this years World Championship F3B. This was my first time in Switzerland since a ski holiday in the French part of the Alps (we could ski over to Switzerland). So it was really my first time here. I only regret one thing about the trip..... I should have made it to the top of the Pilatus! Well it only means I have to go back one day. Here you can see what I missed: http://www.pilatus.ch/
I was not really in Switzerland for a holiday anyway. Up at 06.30 every day is not my kind of holiday but F3B is something it is all worth getting up early for. I'll be honest and say it is easier when the results is better than I experienced this time but I have only my self to blame. No training and no preparation this time due to work related stuff was hindering me.
But overall I think I learned a lot and I will certainly not give up this sport. I could also see clearly that many countries had done their homework and came well prepared and their results showed that clearly. Good to see the French guys were doing well, likewise with the Aussies. Also Holland were doing well. The Americans surprised a lot of people grabbing 3rd place.
What I like about the sport is that it brings me around and I would not mind if the USA, Argentina, Japan or some other country would try to host it. I think it is about time that some non European country hosted the World Championship. My advise to any nation wanting to host this is to get an Airline sponsor if possible. This will make it a lot easier for most of the Europeans to accept a bid from overseas. Maybe it could be possible to charter a plane as well. A chartered plane from central Europe would be a very interesting way of doing it.

The contest was dominated by the Germans and especially the Herrig brothers. Martin Herrig only lost about 40 points of maximum and that is remarkable. The conditions were not easy to master and many pilots lost a lot of points in duration and distance. Speed conditions were not super fast as one may expected the last two days when the weather was getting better.

Visitors

2007-05-27T10:39:00.000+02:00

When we host international contest I normally get a couple of visitors staying in my flat. And this year I had Ian Mason, Brano Legersky and Jan Tulak coming . Ian came by boat and I met him at the Stavanger Harbour and showed him the way back to my place. But before Ian came I also had to take care of Kjell as his friend Kaare was still in Poland. Kjell came early and was mostly out practicing. I was mostly sick with the flu..... On Thursday I picked up my good friends Brano and Jano from the Airport. Brano did not get to fly much, he was unlucky in the very difficult conditions on Friday and got only to fly one round before the earth came and claimed his Aris. But Brano was here mostly to relax and have some holidays and he took it very nicely. One should think that he could just get another Aris as he and Jano is running the Aerodesign company who makes the Aris. It is not so easy as the orderbooks is pretty packed and customers is waiting. Well I think Brano has one more Aris at home so he will be OK. Sunday Ian left and we went to Rennesoy to fly the contest. After the contest we did some sightseeing and had a small trip around Rennesoy and Mosteroy before a little detour via Stavanger before we visited my family. Next day I had to work and I sent Brano and Jano to the Pulpit Rock. I think they enjoyed it very much. In the evening I took them to the Bore Beach and the outlet of the Figgjo river where we took the pictures. What a nice evening, no wind, waves from the day before and I got to fly my Logostick.

Norway Open F3F

2007-05-21T15:02:00.000+02:00

This years Norway Open F3F which also was a part of the Eurotour is over. We had one day with one round and the next day we flew 11 rounds in rather difficult but interesting conditions. The 4 first rounds were flown on the south side of Obrestad. Round one was terrible with low clouds and high winds. Some pilots had problem with this and had some bad luck. Round 2-4 the next day it was even more wind but no rain. The wind was moving towards southwest and we had to change to the southwest slope over at the lighthouse. Here it was much better for a while until it started to shift back to south again! But it was flyable and we decided to stay.

This year we were lucky to have pilots from 6 nations and I think this is a record. The Norwegians were not many so this was very fortunately for us to have so many foreigners.
I think the 17th. of May(Our National day) is the cause of why we had so few Norwegians.
Next year we will avoid this problem I hope.

The contest was won by Rolf B. Rettedal flying an Aris for the first time in contest. Filip Kalensky was 2nd. flying Ascot and New Sting. I managed 3rd place with RaceM Ultimate and Opus. Both Filip and me got unlucky with our A models after round 4. Filip had a hard landing and I had my plane blown out of my hands and dropping it on the tail.....
Filip clearly had problems adjusting to the New Sting and I flew the 190cm Opus almost to perfection and snatched 3rd place 2,5 points ahead of JoJo. (hehe) JoJo flew well and would have taken second place if it was not for his 100 point penalty in round 1. Also Rolf had a 100 point penalty.

We flew 8 rounds on the south west slope in pretty even conditions. Rolf flew very well and we had no chance against him. Landing on this slope is very easy and the contest ran very smooth thanks to our Slovak, Czech and Norwegian helpers.

Results can be found here: www.f3x.no

Sunday we had the scheduled Cooldown (The race after the big one, still official but more relaxed) Rolf and Joergen decided to stay home so it was now down to 7 pilots. Anyway none of us wanted to fly at Obrestad anymore so we went to Rennesoy Island and checked out the South west slope there. SUPER-DUPER conditions! We set up the course and all agreed on flying 8 rounds running 2 and 2 so only 4 landings were needed. 2 pilots backed out because of slightly though landing area. Rolle Rolf had the fastest time of the day with 34,72 seconds and was in the lead all the way up to round 6. I flew very even all day and "stole" 1st. place from Rolle. Arild was struggling with his Aris having servo problems, still enough to take 3rd. spot in front of JoJo and Kjell. Kjell is BTW getting better and better and it want be long before he is on the same level than most pilots here. He won round both in the Norway Open and the Cooldown.
Thanks again to Brano, Jano, Kaare and Tor working the bases and the middle.
Landing was not as tough as we thought, it was very laminar and crow brakes was all you needed to get down safely.

1. Espen Torp, RaceM Ultimate
2. Rolf Inge Waaga, RaceM F3F
3. Arild Moellerhaug, Aris
4. Jo Grini, Crossfire
5. Kjell Gai, Brio

No pics.

Easter F3F Hanstholm, Denmark 2007

2007-04-11T20:44:00.000+02:00

This year I decided to enter the Easter F3F in Hanstholm mostly because it was part of the F3F Eurotour for the first time. Over 40 pilots entered and that is close to a record I think. I had to take a quick trip to Hamburg and pick up Tom Copp which decided to go to Denmark instead of La Muela, Spain. The wind direction was west and that meant the Cafeteria slope which is not the best. Building the harbour bigger and bigger has more and more destroyed the slope and makes it very turbulent. But turbulence is one thing, change of wind direction during rounds was another problem that many pilots had problems with.
It would have been very interesting having the weather logger going all day and actually could have seen what was going on. I hope my friend Kaare Aareskjold will have this device ready in not so long time.
Helge Borchert had the new Freestyler 3 and impressed us all with good flying. 3 Czech guys had also taken the long trip and Filip Kalensky (Fastest time of the day) flew his Ascot to 5th place. Kai Henning Nielsen won one round and got 6th place. Tom Copp flew his Caldera and Aris to 7th. place. Good old Klaus Untrieser showed us all that he still is a top contender and ended up in 3rd. I flew my prototype RaceM Ultimate to 2nd place and was quite happy with that. This model is not yet in production and we will test it properly before we decide to produce it. It was quite promising but to early to tell if it is any better or worse than the RaceM F3F.
Top ten list:
Helge Borchert, Freestyler 3
Espen Torp, RaceM Ultimate
Klaus Untrieser, Aris
Knud Hebsgaard, Ellipse 2
Filip Kalensky, Ascot
Kai Henning Nielsen, Elita V
Tom Copp, Aris and Caldera
Jörgen Larsen, Aris
Jan Wichmann,
Frank Wiedemann,

Going outdoors

2007-04-01T11:40:00.000+02:00

Last Sunday we had our first F3F competition this year. As can seen on the sea it was not much wind so it was cancelled. Anyway we had a good day out and it was good to meet the guys again. Some of us went to Ole Vidar and had a look at his 1:2,5 Wilga positive. If you ask me this is a crazy project. The size and the amount of details is breathtaking. Ole Vidar has several big projects behind him and one of them can be seen in a big article in the latest Auwind magazine. It is a ca 8meter wingspan Antares.

Arild Moellerhaug giving the Aris of Rolf B. a good launch

Arild with one of his 3 Arises (they all used to be mine)

Wilga positive, Ole Vidar on the left.

The positive is pretty heavy

Karl Petter had a little show with his Schock flyer.

In Slovakia week 9 and 10

2007-03-01T09:17:00.000+01:00

A picture of me and the positive for the new RaceM elevator made in aluminium by Jan Hansen.
The progress is a little bit slower than expected due to heavy work load but we hope to start production soon.
I am in Slovakia to help my partner in ET-Air Slovakia with the UAV project. All molds will be ready this week and we can start to make tests.
The weather here has not been so good but that is fine for us as we have to work indoors anyway :-)

Finally we got some better weather and we went to the Airport for some flying.

Very nice Wizard Compact II with Ferrari paint scheme

Miro Polonec with his electric and DLG Logostick

Miro Majercik launching the Logostick

www.et-air.com

New model for Video filming

2007-02-04T10:14:00.000+01:00

I have finally made ready the new Videoplane which I intend to use for landscape filming.

Check this link: http://www.et-air.com/index.cfm?id=120883

Apart from this the weather here is not normal with + 6 degrees and rain (well rain is pretty normal). The fields are green and if you did not know better it could be April.

So there has been no chance to test the videoplane with camera yet, but the first flight without equipment went very well.

Logostick, new DLG from ET-Air

2006-12-25T19:07:00.000+01:00

I will soon post more pictures of this little beautiful model on www.et-air.com

The quality is very high and it fits ET-Air standard very well.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-25T18:44:00.000+01:00

Happy Holidays to all people reading this blog!

I am enjoying some days off and I try to do some web work to catch up a little bit. Today I was out doing some photos in the local river. This picture is taken in the middle of the river system near by my flat and is barely moving forward here. This place is well known for its birds and in fact I was using one of the birdspotter towers when I shoot this picture. This and many other pictures will be used in a DVD compilation I am making together with a friend. It will be ready next Christmas. We will use still photos, ground video, aerial stills and aerial video to cover the complete river system.

The next picture is taken where the river starts.

Trip to Slovakia

2006-12-16T20:51:00.000+01:00

Check out ET-Air news section to find a little story from the trip and some pictures.

I had with me Alex McMeekin and we had a good trip and met some interesting people.

Jano, Brano and Espen at Aerodesign workshop.

Some news

2006-10-30T12:21:00.000+01:00

Check out www.et-air.com for some news about the new fuselage for RaceM.
The picture shows a CAD drawing made by Jan Hansen, Denmark.
The positives will be milled in aluminium and will hopefully be ready early next year.

Trip to Hanstholm, Denmark

2006-10-18T20:35:00.000+02:00

I knew already 3 days before leaving for Denmark that it would be a relaxed weekend and no F3F flying. The reason was a high pressure building up over southern Scandinavia and this normally does not give much wind. And unfortunately I was right. Very little wind but a very nice trip. The first picture show Jesper Jensen, Keld Jensen and Jan Hansen doing free flying while we waited for more wind. Next picture show their models. Last picture we can see Joergen, Regnar, Knud and Kai. In the background you can spot Rolf with his new camera. Maybe they were discussing the wind that never came.....

Finally some practice....

2006-10-08T19:48:00.000+02:00

I can't remember the last time I got some good F3F practice in. (maybe I have to read my blog)
Well conditions was nice with around 7-8ms almost straight into my home slope Hodne only 8 minutes away from my home. I had two good 10 minutes practice runs with my RaceM F3F http://www.et-air.com/index.cfm?id=85380 and it felt pretty good. I tested several different turning styles and now I have no idea of what to do....
Then came Paal and flew his paraglider and I got some pics of him before I grabbed my video camera. This guy is amazing with his paraglider. I hope to edit the video and post it so you can see for yourself. He does with his body the same things we do with models. I am as ever very impressed with his flying. Paal is besides a paraglider also a model enthusiast of course, he flies helis, power and sailplanes.

Airbus training at Sola Airport

2006-10-02T23:55:00.000+02:00

I just would like to share this picture of SAS Airbus 340 doing test flights at Sola Airport Stavanger, Norway. Picture was taken in 2002.

Test flying a new field

2006-10-01T21:22:00.000+02:00

Today I drove half an hour to test a new flying field made by Jonny Ueland on his farm. The airstrip can be used for microlight aircraft and model airplanes. I had my winch with me but I decided to use the rubber as it was quite windy. As normal I could not get any friends to join me so I did not fly so much, but the air was quite good and I had some good flights.
I then took a couple of flights with the heli to take some pictures.

Test report

2006-09-28T11:05:00.000+02:00

Just testing blogging from my cell phone

Viking Race 2006, Scotland

2006-09-17T10:51:00.000+02:00

This years Viking Race was the all time biggest with almost 90 competitors. The debate is already on if this is too much or not. I will get back with more on this and other F3F topics later.
We only managed to get 5 rounds in and with typical inland conditions this was not enough to have an even race. So many "good" pilots ended up way down the list and even the winners were very familiar there were lots of surprises in the top 20 list.
The event was organized by a few Scottish enthusiast and a handful of English/international helpers. The step-in CD made a couple of wrong decisions in my point of view but the weather was the main problem with no wind and cross wind. We also flew all the days at East Lomond hill which certainly was quite demanding for the pilots.
If we had managed 7-8 rounds I think the competition would have been pretty good.
More to follow.....
Links: www.knewt.com
Well a few days after the event I am still a little disappointed but we must not forget that this is an outdoor event and many things can go wrong. It does not mean we have to keep F3F to the same format and the same rules in the future. We have to decide if we want a big social event or a real F3F competition. In Scotland most of the pilots seemed to go for a three man team option if they could choose. The Viking Race has always been a limited open event. It means that the organizer can invite as many or as few pilots they wanted. I think the people who invented F3F never thought that there would be as many as 90 pilots in one event. As this class is so dependent on the weather it is not practical to have contest with large numbers if you want to give relatively equal conditions to all pilots.
This is not new of course, we have always had problems with rising and falling wind and thermals, crosswind and other factors. The best way to deal with uneven conditions has always been to run as many rounds as possible. Until last year 10 rounds was the maximum number of rounds, now there is no limit.
In F3B there is a possibility of flying the speed in groups, but most pilots do not like this and most want to fly the speed in one group. This is also my meaning in F3F. We should try to fly the rounds in F3F in one group. But we could make some rules that would allow the organizer to use this option but the rules for this must be very clear and should only be used if absolutely necessary.
Our biggest problem today is the poor measurement of the weather conditions. We must be able to make a weather station which by itself can measure the wind conditions and determine re flights by itself. This would help the CD a lot. I also think we should reconsider the rules concerning the lowest wind speed and the most crosswind (45 degrees). It would be better that the CD could decide which wind speed and direction would be the lowest for a certain hill/slope.
The weather station should have the option for 2,3,4,5,6ms and some different crosswind possibilities that could be preset for the day. Lets face it, not all slopes gives enough lift at 3ms and 45 degrees of crosswind. So if this could be changed we would in my point of view have a much better system and a contest would be easier to handle.
I also think we should make more precise method of measuring the wind and direction. Instead of the current rule we should have an average of the flight and a green or red light if the conditions was OK or not. The pilot should also be given the right to keep the score if he wanted to.
In Scotland they shifted the start order by 10 pilots each day, not each round. Since we did not fly more than 3 days this rotation only made 3 shifts. Well this is also a way of doing it. I think we must look into another way. I can see 2 ways right now and I think both of them could be used. Organizers has to tell in advance which method.
1) Draw all the rounds. It means nobody can tamper with the start list. All rounds are drawn and handed out to each team or all the competitors in advance. This is the easiest way of doing it and probably the most justified method.
2) Draw the first round. Then fly all the following rounds after the ranking principle. Fly the last pilots first (or last in the round). With this system there will always be changes in the start order. This method requires a PC/printer at the slope (or near by) to keep the flow of the contest running. The Germans tried this in the German Open last year and it works!

et 22.9.2006

Norwegian Championship, F3B

2006-09-04T14:13:00.000+02:00

Finally home after a long drive from the east to the west of Norway. As I am the only F3B pilot in the west at the moment I had to take the trip alone. Thanks to Egil R. for letting me stay one night in his house on my way to the Championship. And also thanks to Espen G. and Lars N. for taking care of me during the Championship. This is rather important for me as I can concentrate more on the flying.
This year we started to fly Friday evening and got to fly 3 tasks.
Next day the weather was fine and we managed to fly 4 full rounds. In the beginning I did not do so well but after some flights I was back in business and to my surprise I was leading after four rounds. Not by much so the lead was fragile.
The organiser, Cirrus RCK did a good job but they had few helpers. But what a good job they did, even Lars's 12 year old daughter stayed in the B-base chair for all rounds of distance! Thanks to all the helpers, they certainly did a super job.
The forecast for Sunday was not good and indeed it started with heavy rain and low clouds. After a while the rain stopped and we all started rigging our equipment and we were more or less ready when the rain started again. They set the start to 11.30 but the rain kept coming down and then finally at 13.00 they called the Championship off for the day.
So in my 20th. F3B Championship in a row I was declared the winner. Also this meant I was qualified for the next years World Championship which will be my 11th WC in a row.
2nd. place went to Erik Morgan and third to Widar Holmedal which actually could not attend on Sunday as he got ill. I guess he was happy that the weather did not cooperate.