Bjørn Hammer’s Hang Gliding Page

Today was the first day of the Norwegian Championship and Vaagaa Open (Cat. 2 comp.). Øyvind Ellefsen and I are meet directors/everything else except help from Stein Edgar to score. The forecast for the day, as for the rest of the week, was not good. With strong winds and totally overcast it was no point holding even more than one morning briefing before the day was cancelled at 1200. Some of the pilots then went to Heidalen for a game of paint ball, while other (mostly those who also have participated at Veko in Voss) preferred to take it easy and relax. I went for a work (Nordic walking) in the mountains. I started at 663 masl and walked up to 1070 masl. I used 50 minutes up and 35 minutes back down. Just as I came back to the car it started to rain, perfect timing.

Tuesday 19^th: Again bad weather in the morning, even hard rain, but good conditions from 1300. Based on the experiences from yesterday I was more alert now, and ready to fly even with the early rain shower. The task was a little back and forth in the valley and with landing at Villach to the East of Greifenburg. I got up easy but got a little behind the mail gaggle. I felt that I flew reasonably well today, but became too eager to catch the main gaggle and flew into an area with shade just around the launch, and had to land. I was accompanied at the landing by Stein Edgar, who had lost his contact lenses in the air and landed due to bad visibility. I should have managed to better today.
Flight HERE. 

Weather and task briefing at the upper launch.

Wednesday 20^th: A long and interesting 188 km task was set today. The forcast predicted about 50 % chance for rain and thunderstorms, and with high temperatures the trigger temperature was very high. Conditions was a little slow in the beginning and most pilots only slowly got up. But I, and a very few others, got low and never got up again. I first got up to about 2250 masl but wanted a little more altitude before heading for the start circle 10 km away. But as I tried this I lost 400 metres and never got over 1800 masl again. It was easy to hold an altitude at about 1100 masl (700 metres above the landing) but this was only marginally interesting and I landed after 1 hour 30 minutes or so. The day was later stopped, cancelled, stopped, and then finally cancelled (to take the short version) due to heavy rain and overdevelopment along the task route. Yet, it was still very disappointing to see nearly everyone get up and away to fly in the spectacular landscape the task was set over. I felt pretty bad for some hours after this. I guess I just have to come back another time to fly this route.
Flight HERE.

Thursday 21^st: Overcast and rain, and the day was cancelled early. The Norwegian team used the day for sightseeing to Landskron castle where it also is a show with birds of prey. The birds are part of a breeding programme, but also trained for the show. The show was very good with spectacular flying of “the professionals”, but the highlight, in my opinion, was when one of the golden eagles tried self serving by trying to snatch the food container of one of the trainers. Luckily for the trainer the golden eagle did not give it its best try; with finger long talons that would have been pretty messy.

From the bird show at Landskorn. Photo: Stefan Hobbesland.

Friday 22^nd: Again overcast and rain showers. Olav O. and Kjell drove home, while the rest of us did nothing useful or interesting.

Saturday 23^rd: It rained heavily during the night and conditions looked hopeless, but the meet director decided to give the day a change, maybe because of the two cancelled day. Fair enough and most (?) pilots were eager to fly. But when many from the local Austrian team had beer and soup for lunch it became clear that the ones best knowing the area was not too optimistic. Hence, Olav L.O. and Stein Edgar decided to start driving home even before the briefings. After a couple of briefings the day was cancelled at 1300 as the small opportunity of it clearing was not realised. Many pilots glided down, but we did not bother as we were more interested in starting our drive home early instead of a sled ride.

Sunday 24^th: We, Bjørn + Bjørn, drove through Germany during the night trying not to fall asleep. We only stopped to fuel and eat a little, and arrived in northern Denmark at 0730. Here Bjørn J. met his wife and daughter for a vacation in Denmark, while I caught the same ferry returning from Denmark to Norway at 1030. I spent the time on board writing this. As it still is tax free trading between Norway and the EU, I walked through the tax free shop and bought a new deodorant – Dior Higher. Hope it will help during the upcoming National Championship. Pretty boring in other words; I miss Greifenburg and Emberger Alm already. Hopefully it will be good weather and flying during Vaagaa Open/National Championship (July 2.-7.). I will be meet director and good weather always makes this job easier.

As I drove of the ferry I was, as usual, stopped by the customs. I am always stopped so I never even think of bringing with me more than the legal amount of alcohol. They had obviously plenty if time and asked a lot of questions about the two strange things on the roof rack and searched the car. They showed some interest for my portable medical cabinet, but as I had prescriptions for all the funny pills, they quickly lost interest.

Pictures from Greifenburg HERE.

Wednesday at 2000 Bjørn J. and I started on the 2007 “Greifenburg Tour”, more specifically the pre-Europeans. We are 7 pilots from Norway participating in the competition. Stefan H. with family had traveled down on Monday, Bjørn + Bjørn arrived 0200 night to Friday, Olav L. O. and Stein Edgar came Friday morning, and Kjell Speidern and Olav O. came down just before 0900 Saturday after an unusual hard encounter with the facilities at the Kiel ferry.

Day by day reports.

Friday 15^th: After arriving 0200 at Sattlegger’s Alpenhof at Emberger Alm (after some problems finding our way up) we (Bjørn + Bjørn) got a few hours sleep. But we were eager to test fly the area we were up and ready to fly at 1100. We started as it overdeveloped around us, and most of us rained down after about half an hour in the air. After the flight we registered for the competition. A bit chaotic but not more than one could expect with 150 pilots in the comp. The main problem was getting some gps’ to work with CompeGPS and/or with the Garmin drivers, not an unusual problem, although annoying as I was one of the few with problems (later also with downloading the track log, but also this was sorted out). The problems were Flight HERE.

Saturday 16^th: Opening day of the Pre-Europeans. As the main launch at Emberger Alm is not big enough to accommodate all the pilots in the competition, lowest ranking half was sent up to the higher launch. A task was set even if the weather was not too good with overdevelopment and rain showers all around. Everyone started, apparently without worry, but Stein Edgar and I chose not to start. The task was quickly cancelled so I guess that we made a good decision. Still, the weather here seems unpredictable for us Norwegians so it is difficult to tell.

Briefing the first morning.

Glider “hangar” at the top launch at Emberger Alm. As we did not fly we put the gliders in the tent in order to have rigged gliders the next morning.

Sunday 17^th: Again the day looked really bad with overcast in the morning, but again it cleared during the day (instead of overdevelop totally) and it turned out to be a very good day. The task was about 80 km and went back and forth the valley on either side of Greifenburg. I felt that I flew reasonably well, but it turned out that I had missed the first waypoint because I had set up the gps wrong so I only got minimum distance for task. Still, it was good and fun flying, and Greifenburg is great place to fly. Flight HERE.

Glider transport the Austrian way.

Monday 18^th: The day looked totally hopeless, with overcast weather and a bad forecast. It looked so bad that I initially did not even bother to set up the glider. But just after 1300 it cleared up and it started to look promising. I speed rigged, but it was difficult launch conditions with 0-wind combined with some tail- and cross wind, but with a some good launchable periods. Consequently it took some time to launch, and I did not start until about 1445. Then after the launch I flew like an idiot and managed to get low, something that should have been impossible. This combined with a wrist that has not healed after a hard landing 3 weeks ago, made me land after only 30 minutes. The problem with the bad wrist is that I have to try not to put too much stress on it and therefore have to use muscles in the left upper arm and shoulder more actively to hold the wrist more or less stable. So after the flight yesterday my muscles in the left upper arm and shoulder were so sore that they cramped up after only 15 minutes. This did not help while struggling low and made me give up the day. Flight HERE.

Launching at 1900 masl in warm and moist air requires a very good launch run.

All photos by Bjørn Hammer.

The second part of the report from the pre-EM in Greifenburg will be published tomorrow evening.

A 234 km task via one turn point today. All Norwegian except Jon made it to goal, while Robert Riesinger won the day. No results are available yet, probably because it was fatal accident today. An Austrian pilot aged 44 is reported to have tumbled, being separated from the glider, and then from the chute (!) and the pilot fell to the ground from about 1300 metres. It is always sad to hear about these accidents; a tragedy for the hang gliding community, even more so for the pilot’s family and friends.

Jon Gjerde wins another round! Today Jon won the round with 72,19 points before Guido Gehrmann with 71,64 points. It seems like it is those two who will fight for the World title in acro. Guide is still ahead of Jon in the total result, but it seems like Jon really injoys the free programmes. Also Johnny is flying well with a 5th place in round 4, and 6th overall. Unfortunately, the third Norwegain Jørgen has withdrawn from the comp.

Results round 4 HERE.

Overall results HERE.

The 1st FAI World Hang Gliding and Paragliding Aerobatic Championship is currently flown ( 18 – 27 August 2006) in Villeneuve, Switzerland. Norway is represented by Jon Gjerde, Johnny Nilssen, and Jørgen Kjellsberg. The competition has 10 contestants, of which 3 are Norwegians!

The offical web site provides reports from each day, but as I am not that sure about the rules I am not completely sure what is going on. Further, the results have no points or anything else indicating how far the pilots are apart in the total results.
The Norwegains did not do too well in what seems to be a compulsory programme flown the 19th. Jon was 6th, Johnny 8th, and Jørgen 9th. The second round the 21st (compulsory or free programme?) was a little better for the Norwegains, Jon ended up in 5th, Johnny 7th, and Jørgen 10th. The 3rd round was an announced programme, and here Jon was no. 1 and Johnny no. 3! Jørgen is not on the result list.

Overall after 3 rounds, Jon is now no. 2 and Johnny is no. 7. Jørgen is at a safe 10th.

The Pre-Worlds in Big Springs, Texas, started on Sunday. The only Norwegain participants are Nils Åge Henden and Olav Lien Olsen. Time, money and 1st FAI World Hang Gliding Aerobatic Championship in Villeneuve (Switzerland) is the reason why only two Norwegian are flying the comp. The aerobatic championship starts August 16th, while the Pre-Worlds ends the 12th, so the logistics of going from Texas to Switzerland would be difficult.

The comp does not have a very informative web site, but at least the results are being published. Instead, I guess we have to rely on the Ozreport to get updates. It also seems like both Norwegian pilots log their flights; Nils Åge Henden – Olav Lien Olsen. Sunday a task was flown, but Monday was cancelled.
Results and scores can be found HERE. The flex wing results seems to be a mix of flex, rigids, and Swifts, or maybe it is just the result of using an old database for the pilot registration?

The forecast looked very promising for Bøverdalen west of Vågå, with NW winds. So by 1115 we were on our way to Bøverdalen. So wind in Vågå, but sunny and it looked like it would be a good day for flying. When we arrived at Bøverdalen it was strong W winds (crosswind) so we drove all the way up to Juvasshytta, then down again for a new briefing. At 1600 the day was cancelled and most of us drove back to Vågå. This evening it is food and beer. A few pilots waited 2 more hours and got short flight in strong wind.

Lentic west of Vågå, photo Terje Solberg.

Overcast, rain, and bad weather. No flying, some beer drinking.

This turned out to be a long day. The forecast predicted SW winds, perfect for the Vole launch, but it turned out that the wind was from SE. The task today was: Vole – Salknappen – Lora – Lesje LZ, about 56 km. Because of the crosswind at launch and slow conditions pilots were slow to start, and it was lots of bad launches both by comp pilots and free flyer. I did not launch untill 1602, but by then the conditions had improved and it was easy to get up to about 1600 masl. I waited some in the air over the first TP and finally found a good thermal that took me up to 2200 masl. It went even further but I thought it was enough and rushed on to fly the task, but had to land already after 12 km or so. Still, nice to land somewhere else than the main LZ.

Results task 1:

1. Olav Opsanger.
2. Arnt-Ola Opsanger
3. Nils Åge Henden.
Complete results HERE.

Results task 2:

1. Olav Opsanger.
2. Bjørn Joakimsen.
3. Dag Ring.
Complete results HERE.

Cumulative results HERE.