Lokkilok

Not back in the air, quite yet

2011-08-21T20:54:00.003+03:00

Some readers of this blog have wondered where I hang out; it's over a year since the last post.

The main reason it has been quiet here is that I simply have not been flying. Recovery from last year's accident went actually quite well but it took of course some time. The bad news is that late in the autumn I started suffering from a strange illness that which is not really diagnosed yet. It's generally not very bad but just sufficiently serious to ground me.

In between I have good periods of a week or two and luckily one of those coincided with the yearly Lokkilok pilgrimage to Gréolières, at the end of April. That was once again a great week of flying, Robin did a nice write up.

That week was also a good opportunity to finally get to fly my new XC Trango. I needed to get used to the wing a bit, especially to using the trimmers but then it turned, and turned out as nice as I was made to believe.

But otherwise it has been up and down in the health department, not in the air. Fortunately I've managed so far to make the best of the situation, doing interesting work on a new web service for discovering and booking diving destinations, TangaReef. Check it out, and like us on Facebook!

And partly as treatment but mostly for sheer fun I volunteered the whole last week at the Underwater Rugby World Championships here in Helsinki. The warm and humid air in the pool building really seems to help a lot. So perhaps I can get back into the air before the winter is here again...

Some involuntary flying

2010-07-16T19:21:00.004+03:00

Just returned home from the Pre-Worlds in Piedrahita, Spain. Attentive readers will notice that this is before the end of the comp. On Saturday, the unofficial training day, I launched relatively early as the 10th or so pilot, while most others waited for the conditions to become a bit more reliable. We had waited quite long for the thick inversion to raise above takeoff, and it was still low; the first thermals only took one some 100 m above launch. But I wanted some practice in working the weak stuff so decided to go as soon as I saw that it was possible to stay up.

I'd worked my way some 5km along the ridge, when I hit a weak but clear thermal, and started circling in it, drifting up along the mountain. At the 4th or so circle I suddenly got a huge collapse, approx. half the wing folded in and worse, it cravatted (folded between the lines) for some reason. Never experienced such an "unwarned" collapse, and never a cravatte when thermalling. Much worse was that I was low, very low, over the gentle (not steep) mountain. I'm used to flying close to steep mountains where you always have altitude above the ground. Now I had only 30 m at most. However the glider behaved reasonably, I managed to steer away and maintain more or less a direction away from the mountain. I just started attempts to open the wing when the glider hit some turbulence, presumably lift, and surged forward somewhat. When I then swing under it, the glider picked up speed. Normally this would open the inflation, but due to the cravatte this time the speed made me turn back to the mountain again, and now with speed. By now I was really low, and obviously going to hit the ground soon. Luckily I managed to steer parallel to the mountain and found time to get my legs out. Hence the "landing" on/against a huge rock was hard, but not hard enough to kill me. I'd injured my ankle and felt a lot of back pain, but nothing seemed broken. Other than my radio that is. Some 15 minutes later other paragliders flew by and with some I managed to make contact, indicating that I was ok, but in need of help. Initially there was no cellular signal, but a bit later I could call 112, who already were aware of the situation and asked for details. Soon after two pilots who had top-landed on the plateau above me arrived, immediately followed by a helicopter with a paramedic rescue team. They assessed the situation and little later I was winched up into another helicopter. Then into an ambulance and to the local health care station. Then after a quick look by the doctor I was transported to the hospital in Avilá, for x-rays. Luckily these confirmed that both ankle and back had not fractured. The ankle was immobilized with plaster, and sometime later I walked with the aid of crutches in the opening parade! Huge thanks to all the rescue and medical people and the pilots who top-landed; you were all wonderful.

I stayed around a few days and recovered some strength, greatly helped by my house mates. Sunday evening was special of course with a great crowd on the plaza around the large screens. The Spanish deservedly won the World Cup, and happily forgave me and the other Dutch supporters our misplaced hopes. The wild crowd and fireworks at the final whistle blow made for an unforgettable evening.

Now, 6 days later, I'm back home and after a visit to the local health care centre relieved from the plaster and with permission to try to walk, gradually. It's even hotter here in Finland than in Spain so the possibility to have a shower or a bath is extremely welcome.

Ready for the Worlds

2010-07-08T21:27:00.003+03:00

Just finished packing; tomorrow I'll leave for Piedrahita, Spain, the venue of the paragliding Pre-Worlds. Meanwhile both the Netherlands and Spain managed to get through the football World Cup knock-out rounds and will contest each other in the final, on Sunday. It's going to be an interesting evening in the local bar!

I've packed my my camera already so had to take the picture with my phone....

Finland 2010 season opened in style

2010-05-05T14:34:00.004+03:00

It's that time of the year again. We've endured the long cold winter, did some flying in southern and exotic locations, and now we're ready, no make that eager!, for the famous long XC flights that are expected in spring time Finland.

So I was not surprised when Ari S. called me Wednesday evening to urge me to leave early on Thursday morning for the Oripää airfield. The forecast promised moderately strong thermals, quite much westerly winds and a reasonably high cloudbase, in short record weather. So there I was, a bit before the agreed 10 'o clock. It was quite windy already but as the sky looked promising indeed I prepared my gear. Within 20 minutes Ari and Jyrki arrived, soon to be followed by the local pilots Pekka, Jukka and Ari L, who were kind enough to immediately roll out the towing line. So at 11 we were all ready to go, with a number of sailplane zones activated, and an agreed goal of Selänpää, at 222 km.

Conditions at the airfield looked quite turbulent and the clouds small, broken and far between, but Ari S and Jukka were eager to try. They took 3 tows each which included a couple of heart-stopping starts, one reason why we others figured it was worth waiting a bit. They did encounter only broken lift over the airfield, and lower down the strong gusty wind caused very turbulent air. Some time later I felt that things look quite a bit better and lined up. Ari S. took this as a clue and asked if he could go first. After another difficult start up he went and then found a reasonable thermal. It didn't take him very high but off he went. I then had two attempts, one with nothing but strong sink, and the second with only some broken lift. It seemed time for a coffee break. I couldn't really stay for the late afternoon and drove the 2 hours back home

Later Pekka made a very nice 42 km flight to Forssa, and still later we heard from Ari S. who had managed to stay up in the broken stuff next to the airfield and after some 40 km found better conditions and eventually made it to the Hyvinkää airfield, a 118 km trip! I'll never let him jump me in the towing queue again ;)

Update (Wed 5 May): Mika P. reports from the Leivonmäki free-flight paradise that hang-glider pilot Vesa has been in the air for at least 4 hours now, so could have gone far! And Mika himself did a 24 km triangle.

A French Workout

2010-04-19T08:17:00.003+03:00

Lokkilok is in Gréolières again, with a small group of Finnish paraglider pilots. The weather has been variable over the last week with over-development almost every afternoon. However, each morning, and many a late afternoon, have been very good for flying. So far 10 flying days out of 10!

It all started on Thu over a week ago when Jorma A. and myself arrived in the afternoon and went for a walk up the mountain. The next morning look great so we walked the 40 minutes up to the Gréolières start, some 200 m above the village. With a 20 kg glider bag the first few times really hurt! After a nice flight we landed before the (too) strong mid-day conditions, but after lunch went up again for another two hours of flying. Saturday was even better, but I had to cut my afternoon flight short to fetch Timo and Aki from the airport. We then started serious practice of thermal techniques, concentrating on efficient turns and active flying; I tried to make catch some of the points on video.

Tuesday we made lot of progress when conditions were unusually good at Roquebrune (Monaco) and the guys could make two good flights each, thermalling above the launch and over the sea. On Thursday Jorma went home and Ossi and Merja arrived, just before all the airports were shut due to the volcanic ash. Our routine of walking and flying continued however, naturally with great meals and wine in between. Otherwise we might loose some weight. Friday we had another good day at Roquebrune, while on Sat we deiced to take it easy and visited the famous Gorge du Verdon; followed by some flying at Gourdon.

By then Aki and Timo were "stuck" here in France, as no planes would leave or enter Finland. So yesterday morning they simply continued and made their best and highest flight so far, all the practice really starts to pay off. In the afternoon we then for good measure made the walk down to the river and back, a very steep patch of the GR4 trail, 260 m of what could almost be described as steps. So we should be in good shape for the good sunny weather that seems to return now, which should allow for another full day of flying!

Finnish mid-winter thermal right above the frozen sea

2010-03-05T17:24:00.002+02:00

Today was on the ice at Karhusaari, together with co-instructors Rami and Mika, hoping to teach our eager students. And to try out the new pay-out winch of our club. The sky was clear and sunny but it was quite windy and above all gusty. Also although the thick layer of snow was compressed during the last week into a nice hard layer it now harbored a thick layer of soft slush under it. So conditions for teaching were marginal at best.

But we really wanted to try that winch so we decided to tow me up. Initially it was difficult to inflate the wing and keep it nicely above the ice-road as the wind also turned out to be very twisty, but eventually I managed to make a good start. The winch worked very well indeed and within a few minutes a was some 350m above the beautiful winter archipelago landscape. After I released the little kite on the winch line opened quite well and started to fly and was nicely pulled down by the, now reversing, winch.

I meanwhile pressed the bar to glide upwind to what seemed a thermal possibility. And indeed I was rewarded by an unexpectedly good thermal, that took me up at some 2 m/s, which peaks of 3 m/s. The string wind made me drift quickly back towards Estonia, so quite soon had to leave the thermal that by now had formed a nice little cumulus cloud high above me.

In any case the first thermal of the 2010 season for me in Finland; and it's only early March! I uploaded the short flight to the XContest as it is funny to have a flight above the sea in there; Google Earth doesn't show the ice we have in the winter!

Crazy Days

2010-01-29T22:51:00.002+02:00

Days 4 and 5 of the Monarca Open 2010 have been very strange indeed. On Thursday morning we had a sunny briefing (picture above) where we were told that overdevelopment (too many, big, clouds) was to be expected especially over the Toluca plateau. Hence a task was set that kept us in front of the launch area. Before the launch window was opened the sun was blocked by overcast and it was clear that it would be a difficult day. I launched early and managed to slowly work my way up and to the edge of the start cylinder, but then sank out and had to start all over again. Amazingly it was possible to get up under the completely grey skies. After the start the field slowly worked its way to the end of Espina, which was the place to get high before starting the glide into the valley towards the Diente waypoint. From there it was southwards to a new turnpoint, Sur. Only a few pilots managed to get there and a little bit back. Many landed out even before the start and another bunch at a couple of km south of Diente. That was where I landed (track) whereas a bunch of gliders that were only 20 meters above me managed to work their way up and got close to Sur. I'd flown (only) 15 km in 2:40 hours. I decided to walk back to the main road which was an interesting 2 hour hike along canyons, over hills and through forests. But then I quickly got a ride back to Valle where we enjoyed a stunning sunset.

Today it looked like we would have another weak day, and a short task was set that would keep us out of the canyons in the valley but close the plateau instead. And indeed, the free flyers seemed to have even more difficulty to stay aloft then yesterday. However, this time around conditions improved a lot once the launch window was open, despite a persistent thin layer of overcast clouds. Around start time at an early 12:40 a large group was very high and dived towards Espina to continue towards the antennas at Divisadero. The leading group went far down into the foothills whereas others decided to stay high above the edge of the plateau. We then went back towards the launch area. It was important to be high before crossing the valley so that one could fly right back to the "crazy thermal" or to the Penon rock. To me it seemed that there was wave in the area as some lines were so much betters than others. Once back in the Penon area it was easy to complete the course, via the launch to Espina and then to Valle. The fastest pilot completed the 53 km speed section in an incredible 1:20. I needed 1:48 which was good for a 29th place (track).

Monarca Open 2010, task 3

2010-01-27T19:51:00.001+02:00

Today, day 3 of the Monarca Open 2010, things went a bit better again. Far from perfect, but better. Already in the morning it was obvious that unlike the previous days we would have plenty of cumulus clouds in the sky to show us the way. A 65 km task was set with a start around Magay which also was the first turnpoint. Interestingly the next turnpoint was Laguna and was given an unusual 2 km radius. Alltogether this made it potentially advantageous to take the start on the north-west side very high to do a quick down-wind run towards Magay and then return to Laguna. I'd considered this but thought the advantage would at best be small, and as I didn't end up with a group to cross to Magay (before start time), decided to wait above Espina. Some 15 pilots tried the alternative and then got a nice lead on the way from Laguna to Saucos.

Once we'd reached Sierra Gordo and tanked up on altitude it was fairly easy to fly the famous convergence zone to Saucos and back to the plateau (see track). The real challenge was now to fly to the antennas at Divisaro, against considerable headwind. I saw new clouds forming all the time over the northern edge of the plateau and decided to take that straighter route. The normal route is to fly back to Magay and then turn towards the antennas. But I know from experience that the glide from Gordo to Magay is often too much for me and my glider. Initially my route seemed quite possible but later I failed to get back to cloudbase although I did find several thermals. Slowly I got ever lower and eventually had to land near Colorines; at best I was only 3,5 km from Divisaro for a scoring distance of 50.2 km.

Later I heard from one of the pilots that left me at Gordo for Magay that some of those crossed the ridge only 5 m above the trees, whereas others were forced to land on the plateau. So perhaps my plan was better but would have required company and/or better thermalling.

Not a pretty sight...

2010-01-26T19:16:00.001+02:00

the result list that is. Or rather the scores for us Finnish pilots in the Monarca Open 2010. Yesterday Karoliina however did quite well with 41 km, good for a 67th place, and nicely second of the ladies.

But today's task may well have been even trickier. It was "only" 56 km, with a exit start around the Diente turnpoint, then on via La Pila to Aguila; all these points in the "flats". From Aguila then back over the plateau to Javon and via a detour over Sacama back to Valle. Although today we saw some cumulus forming it was very difficult to get high in the valley. karoliina and Jyrki didn't make it to Diente and I myself bombed out after La Pila.

In the series of mistakes not to make: 1 km before La Pila I was in a dispersed gaggle switching a bit from one group to the other to chase the best core. I was eventually going up slightly quicker and when the thermal got a bit better organized decided to fly out to take the turnpoint and then return to the same thermal. Although that quite often is a reasonable tactic, this time I was too low. Especially as the thermals were fairly short lived (in that area) as I should have noticed and taken into account. So upon my return the thermal wasn't there and I had too little altitude to search for a new one (track).

Finnish pilot Make saved our day though. He patiently worked his way along the course and did a good 44 km of it. Several of the top pilots didn't make it today so the rankings will be shuffled a lot.

There were also a couple of pilots that got caught in the turbulence of the "crazy thermal" today and had to use their reserve parachutes. They landed in the trees but did not occur any damage. Also their equipment seemed to have survived the ordeal in good order, kudos to the excellent rescue team at this competition.

A turn or two too few

2010-01-25T18:04:00.004+02:00

Another great day in Valle de Bravo, the first of the Monarca Open 2010. After a bit of expected hassle with transport and briefing on this first day we got into the air at noon. The task committee had planned a route of appprox. 65 km. Some 20 minutes before the start gate would open the sky became very crowded with all pilots trying to get every centimeter of altitude before the crossing to the Magay turnpoint. Like yesterday the conditions were blue, but seemed weaker and the inversion wasn't lifting as quick. From Magay we had to fly to the antennas. Many pilots dived into the area in front of the plateau, but I found a good thermal at Magay and decided to stay high. That worked out very well, I could fly on top of the ridge, taking two more good thermals. After the last one I was nicely high above the whole field, and could glide directly towards the next turnpoint: Santa Maria, quite far out in the valley. On the way encountered some light lift but as I was still above everybody else decided to continue to glide. With a kilometer or two to go I had caught up with the leaders, thanks to being able to fly a more direct line, and started to look for some good lift. To increase our chances I diverted slightly south from the others, but didn't encounter anything. Most pilots glided quickly to the slightly larger hills in the south, but that seemed for me just a bit too far. So I turned back towards the plateau expecting to find some lift above the smaller hills on the way. Unfortunately that didn't work, down low the air apparently simply was too stable. Mere minutes later I was grounded (track).

The pilots that made the other hills struggled but then got high again and could glide back to the Magay area and then continued over the plateau to the Quintanilla turnpoint. That seemed to have been another area where several pilots ended up too low. The ones that survived it could then fly back to Valle, via Iglesia. The score is not available yet, but I think some 30-40 pilots might have made goal.

When assessing my flight I cannot think of any other mistake then not using the bit of lift that I found on my glide to Santa Maria. Sometimes a couple of turns (in the lift) and 50 m of altitude can make all the difference....

Update: Hours later Finnish pilots Karoliina and Make arrive back in town. Karo patiently worked her way out of Santa Maria and made it up to the plateau before the thermals shut down for the day. As Make landed out in the Santa Maria area and Jyrki near Magay, Karo now leads the Finnish pack! Still no official results but I think some 35 pilots may have made it to goal.

General Repetition

2010-01-24T17:23:00.000+02:00

On this last day before the Monarca Open 2010 we had an excellent final chance to practice. Norwegian's Ronny et al. (picture below) set a short task so that we would be home in time for the registration. It was a typical (but short) Monarca task: a 3 km start cylinder around Magay which also served as first turnpoint, then over the Mesa plateau and across the valley to Ramon, back to the Iglesias on the plateau and then landing in Valle de Bravo.

The start was set for 12:30, which was perhaps a little early but even so conditions were good. And soon became downright fantastic. As for the last couple of days it was a blue day (no clouds) but now the thermals were smooth, upper level winds weak, and the famous Monarca convergence was there. This made it possible to race on the way home from Ramon (picture above). The fastest pilots needed approx. 1:25, I myself was also quick in 1:35 (track).

In the afternoon did the registration, after tonight's briefing and opening dinner we are all set for a good week of competitive flying with friends.

Warming up

2010-01-23T21:23:00.002+02:00

In Finland we're experiencing a true winter, after a couple of years of "warm" winters that almost made us forget what the real thing is like. For the least couple of weeks several pilots have enjoyed the ridge soaring possibilities that open up when the lakes and sea freeze over. The frozen lakes have also been put to good use to introduce new students to the finer skills of paragliding. The picture shows a group near Ähtäri that had an excellent day in approx. -18 C.

Me myself and some other pilots have fled the cold, for the traditional trip to Valle de Bravo in Mexico, for the Monarco Open competition. Finnish pilots Karo, Make and Jyrki have been here already for a while, but I arrived only last Thursday night. As usual the place is buzzing with pilots. After some strange weather early in the month, it has now again been flyable for the whole week.

Yesterday made a 1,5 hours flight. The first half hour really needed to get into thermal flying again, little time after launch I found myself very low at the foot of the Penon and a lot of scratching and patience were required to get back up again. I then continued to fly the "task" that the Norwegians had set for themselves. This took me to the Espina corner and then over the valley to Aguila. But there I was on my own and that probably made me leave it to fast, too low. On the way back didn't find any good lift and landed a few km south of launch (track). After a long walk plus a lot of driving made it back to Valle.

Today had a much better flight 3 hours zig-zagging over the Mesa plateau. IWe started at La Case and from there tried to go to the infamous antenna. I made a nice transition to the Magay point but then a relatively strong head wind seemed to make it very hard. It also meant I significant risk to end up in some bad leeside turbulence. I couple of pilots were well on their way but all were very low and I didn't see anyone getting up. So turned back overt the plateau towards Gordo and then noticed that some pilots tried to get to the antenna along the northern ridge. That seemed a reasonable idea so I started flying that direction. When I was 5 km from the turnpoint I did again not see any of the pilots in front of me going up. Moreover I was now getting a bit tired so decided to fly "home" to the landing zone in Valle. On the way found some good lift which allowed me to make a bit of a detour and check out some other turnpoints (track). After 3 hours landed at 14: 30 and then enjoyed the warm weather, some 28 C, with a torta and a cerveza!

Distance in autumn

2009-09-16T10:35:00.002+03:00

It's autumn in Finland but nevertheless we can get some nice flying. Saturday Skyriders organized their annual end-of-season party. With a turnout of some 40 pilots, coffee and cake to celebrate recent medalists, a break in the rains just when we had a fun spot-landing and ground-handling comp, a sauna and swim, and this all topped with excellent food and some drinks it was the best edition of this great event ever. To get a feel for the mood check out some of the pictures (by Janne).

Between many days of unstable and windy weather we had a couple of good ones. And as in our national cross-country (XC) league still several competitors have the glorious top spot within reach there is no lack of motivation to make use of those good days. The XC ranking based on flights anywhere in the world was recently shaken up when Ari, Mladen and Antti did many long flights during the XC Open competition in Piedrahita, Spain. Well done!
In the ranking based on flights made in Finland Mika P. has been leading since mid summer, with me not too far behind. Mika reported some nice thermal flying on Monday, but no distance; his brother though managed a short 10 km flight.

The general weather forecast for Tuesday looked a bit better, but the thermal forecast predicted no thermals at all, stable air. However, as said we're motivated and after a clear, cold night, a sunny clear day should result at least in some lift, somewhere.
So around mid-day I prepared the tow setup at Hyvinkää airfield, and was soon joined by Sakari, Jari and Juha. There were some little cumulus clouds forming so as soon as we we're ready I had myself towed up. Right into a good thermal, actually surprisingly strong at times 3 m/s. Cloud base was low though and the airspace ceiling at Hyvinkää is even lower (4000 ft MSL). I waited for a little while for company but nobody seemed to get up so then I set off in a northerly direction to work my way out of the restricted airspace.
There were quite many thermals, but usually rather weak, with occasional stronger bubbles coming through. I carefully took pretty much every bit of lift that I encountered to maintain as much altitude as possible as lower down thermals were obviously even weaker and less organized. So I was going slowly but making progress. Once I was in the next zone could go a bit higher, actually to cloudbase at some 1300 m. I made short glides from cloud to cloud, but many clouds disappeared before I got to them. Large areas with harvested fields seemed to work best so I jumped a bit around. It was difficult to decide upon the best direction to make distance. Early on going west seemed promising, but little later most clouds to the west disappeared. Meanwhile I'd noticed a bit of streeting along the very light south-southeast wind so I decided to continue northwards.
After 3 hours the city of Hämeenlinna came in sight. I couldn't get much beyond it as there were no more thermals, an airspace ceiling and too large forests and lakes to cross. Besides I was getting really tired, all the thermalling in weak lift required uttermost concentration and was exhausting. So landed after 3,5 hours at the edge of the city. The XC league result was 53 km/points, which is excellent for September in Finland. But 10 points short of overtaking Mika's lead...

20 Days

2009-08-26T10:00:00.002+03:00

Closed my French flying vacation with a nice flight at St. Hilaire, famous for the Coupe Icare flying festival. After the prize giving ceremony of the British Open at St. Jean and a short night, started up my good old Fiesta at 6 AM and directed it towards Grenoble. After couple of hours arrived in Veroppe, home of Finnish pilot Sami. After a family breakfast we drove to the St. Hilaire launch. Over the years I'd been passing by this famous site several times but never when it was flyable. This time it was. The entire mountain was baking in the morning sun, and when we took off around 11:30 we found some lift, despite the air being very stable. That stability combined with the northerly wind make those thermals very narrow and hence turbulent; impossible to stay inside the core. Taking such thermals a couple of meters from a giant rock face is daunting indeed. At times I managed to get a bit above the cliff and then dared to take a few pictures. After a good half hour landed for a last French lunch in the restaurant right next to the landing field.

Unfortunately it then was time say goodbye to Sami and his family, and indeed to southern France. A run of 20 consecutive days of flying in sunny weather had ended. In those 20 days flew just over 48 hours and hundreds of kilometers. In the process extended my knowledge of the area a lot, never before did so much cross-country flying there.

Anyway, jumped into the very hot car and start the long drive to Finland.
I took the route "around" Switzerland, to avoid the Swiss motorway fee, but that was a mistake. The toll charges for the French part from Geneva to Mulhouse were a bit over the 30 euro Swiss fee, and it is at least a 60km detour. Otherwise it all went smoothly, despite warnings of heavy traffic. All the way to Stockholm the weather was nice, and in Sweden it indeed looked quite good for flying. The sunset over Stockholm as seen from the giant ferry to Finland could be called "impressionistic" (picture below). In the morning arrived in Turku, Finland, on schedule and after a mere 2 more hours of driving was back home!

British Open at St. Jean, Task 5

2009-08-22T19:04:00.003+03:00

Despite forecasts of strong winds (explained by Tom Payne, picture) the British Open at St.Jean was finished in style. The winds appeared to be managable, but due to rather stable air a short task of 41.2 km was set. In addition we launched a bit later than earlier in the week. Around the start time cloudbase was just above 3000m. Most pilots tried of course to be at the altitude right at the entry of the start cylinder but most were a bit below that. All raced towards the first turnpoint, north of the landing field and then quickly turned back towards the ridge and launch area. A couple of pilots, led by I think Craig Morgan and including myself, decided to "attack" and bravely raced towards the next turnpoint over La Seyne. This was risky as we would arrive there rather low. I myself thought that with north-west winds we had a chance of finding convergence on the way. In addition I did see sailplanes circling in the neighbourhood of the turnpoint. After taking the turnpoint the two leaders immediately went north towards, trying to fly over the ridge that borders the village. I myself was very low over this ridge and made a crucial mistake when I thought to have entered a thermal, turned, and only went down 20 meters. A hundred meter ahead made the same mistake, and then could no longer fly around to the north-west facing end of the ridge, which borders a large valley (see track). The two leaders and one Ozone pilot that had followed me did make it there and caught a thermal near the "castle" and then could finish the task, presumably rather quickly (the provisional score shows Craig coming in third at 1:08:54, exactly one minute after the provisional winner, Bayon). A couple of hours later several pilots are still enjoying the excellent evening conditions.
In an hour so the results should be clear and the prize giving ceremonies can start....

few more pictures

British Open at St. Jean, Task 4

2009-08-21T19:07:00.004+03:00

After two cancelled days, today we had another great day of flying, and a 69 km task. The course was interesting with turnpoints in the valley, on the main ridge as well as on the Morgan at the other side of the lake.
Returning from the Morgan was probably to most crucial transition, quite many didn't get up when back in the St. Jean area, others had to use a lot of time.
For once I got this right, realising that high up the winds were north I used a good thermal in front of the Morgan to get up to 3400m and then glided quickly along a convergence line.

As in the days before the comp the line bend a bit, and in my favour. So I could fairly easily get to the next turnpoint in the valley again. There the sailplanes showed another thermal and after that it was quite straightforward to connect back to the ridge and fetch the southermost turnpoint. On the way back I tanked up height in the strongest thermals. In front was another cloudline but the upper winds had shaped the clouds into strange formations so I wasn't sure that would work. Actually it worked very well and I arrived over the last waypoint and goal with 1000m surplus altitude.
So could have finished 5-10 minutes earlier, now my time was 2:48, probably good for a 30-something place. Luc Armant once gain won the task, in 2:02, but today nr. 2 was only a couple of seconds behind. At the Morgan I was still "only" 3km behind those leaders, but they fly so fast that I have no way to keep up.

Update: results and my own track are now on-line.

British Open at St. Jean, Day 5

2009-08-20T19:32:00.003+03:00

Unfortunately we had another day cancelled. This time the conditions on launch were quite strong already when the first pilots arrived; the chairlift here is comfortable but a bit slow, taking some 25 minutes. The forecast was excellent with light southerly winds, good thermals and a high base. The winds however, obviously were quite a bit stronger. A task was set but around briefing time local pilots were seen flying backwards right in the valley in front of launch.

Meanwhile Ozone's David Dagault was reported to have launched from Col de Bleyne for a record long flight attempt, and he blasted right over us a bit after noon. By then he had covered 80 km and was very high going straight North.

Little later Benôit Muriel, from the Gréolières club, agreed with the Meet Director to act as a proper wind dummy and took off. He needed quite some time to get up in the broken thermals and windy conditions. But then he slowly managed to get south, and higher. The task was postponed in the hope of slightly more moderate winds later in the day.
When an hour or so later Benoit reported 10km/h winds at altitude a new task was set and at 15:30 the start window was finally opened. But after only two pilots had launched it was closed again as the conditions at launch were very strong again. Moreover clouds in the valley started to look dangerously large. Some 15 minutes later the task was cancelled. Like most pilots I launched and flew half an hour and then landed just before it started to rain. Still 20 minutes later, I'd gone for a run, it really started to pour, accompanied by strong gusts.

British Open at St. Jean, Day 4

2009-08-19T15:08:00.000+03:00

Day 4 was cancelled due to thunderstorms. We went up the hill and got ready. A short task was set but before the window could be opened the first thunder could already be heard. The Meet Director cancelled the task and we all rushed to fly down.
The forecasts for the next days are good again so we expect to continue to race tomorrow.

British Open at St. Jean, Task 3

2009-08-19T10:17:00.002+03:00

Aided by yet another good looking forecast the task committee of the British Open planned an interesting course for day 3. The 70 km route would take us out in the valley for the start and first turnpoint, then south along the mountain, back out into the valley a bit before crossing the lake to the Morgan. From there we had to take the peninsula in the lake and then return to a final turnpoint in the valley just south of the goal field.

The air was quite stable, and hence the thermals over the mountains were fierce. I saw Benoit cravette; it seemed worse than I'd experienced yesterday but in the end he managed to clear it and continue, actually made it into goal. A few pilots reported strong conditions over the radio.

It was the last part of the task that proved tricky, coming back from the peninsula one had to find some lift fairly quickly. I took a more or less straight line to the lower hills in the valley where I'd seen some pilots climb up, albeit slowly. Alas, when I arrived there I couldn't find anything and soon was on the ground, after 53 km (see track). Some 10 minutes later a group of 7 or so arrived and got up right over me. Some of those, and several others, dived for St. Vincent and soared there for a long time hoping to get up again. I think only one pilot of that group managed to get out of there (Pat Dower). Yet others flew back to the Morgan and typically got up there but then had to fight quite a bit of headwind on the way back.

In the end Luc Armand again won the day, and again very fast in 1:47 for an average speed of 35 km/h. And as in the other the days the french were heavenly represented in the top 15 of the results.

British Open at St. Jean, Task 2

2009-08-18T11:11:00.002+03:00

Task 2 of the British Open called for a complex criss-cross route with the start and first 2 waypoints in the valley. The leg between the 2nd and 3rd waypoint was very tricky, very few pilots managed to climb out once low there. Pretty much half of the field bombed out there, including myself.
The cloudbase was very high again at 4000m so once pilots made it back to the Dourmillouse ridge the rest of the course was not too difficult, despite strong winds from the northwest. A bit over 30 pilots made the goal, after 77.6 km; some came in very low and had to land in one of the fields next to the designated landing field in Seylonette.

There were rumours of free beer in the goal, which is why I decided to walk there after having landed nearby. The beer was not there but it was nice to see the heroes come into goal. Once again Luc Armand won the task, and like yesterday the French pilots did very well. Several of the Brits manged to wedge themselves between the frogs though (results).
I had a good start and was gliding high towards the 2nd waypoint when I suddenly, without any of the usual warning signs, hit huge sink which cravetted my wing badly. It took me quite a while to sort it out, meanwhile loosing a lot of altitude in that sink area. As a result I then had to scratch that difficult area between turnpoints 2 and 3. I managed to ridge soar for a while but never managed to really get abo ve any of those smaller hills.
The weather for today, and indeed the next days, continues to look good, so there should plenty of chances to improve one's rank!

British Open at St. Jean, Task 1

2009-08-17T10:22:00.003+03:00

Yesterday the task committee of the British Open planned a fast route of 59.9 km. The conditions were a bit less strong than the previous two days. Also the air was a bit drier so there was less shadow caused by clouds. With good thermals over the main Dourmillouse ridge and bands of convergence in the valley this allowed for a fast race.

Some 30 or so pilots timed their start right, and quickly took the first turnpoint over the landing field in front of the ridge. Some then went right back to the ridge to climb back to the ceiling of about 3500 m, others glided straight to the next turnpoint which was at a corner of the ridge, some 10 km south. That last group got there first but very low and several bombed out soon after. Those pilots that had tanked up altitudenow easily took the turn point and could glide almost straight to the next turnpoint, over a lower mountain in the valley. This was a second place that saw many arrive low. It was possible to climb out of the area but it could be slow. Once high again the rest was fairly easy: out to the Morgan on the other side of the lake, get high again there, and then glide to Seyne and from there back to the landing field. With the goal at 1300 m and some sink along the way it was important to start the last glide with a bit of extra altitude, or to take a small detour over the foothills, several pilots came a few km short.

Ozone's Luc Armand won the day in an impressive 1:39 hours closely followed by other French (local) pilots. A bigger group arrived some 15 minutes later and then slower pilots trickled in.

I myself had a good start but took an alternative route to the 3rd turnpoint; instead of going back to the ridge I followed a cloud line accross the valley and only then turned north for an easier glide with less of a headwind. As such the idea was not bad, but it made me fly alone. I now ended up a bit behind others that had taken the simple approach as a group. From there on I managed to fly the remainder quite quickly, but slowed down a bit on the last leg to ensure arrival in goal (see track). I needed 2:25 good for a 44th place.

The Exploration of St. Jean

2009-08-16T10:08:00.003+03:00

Today the British Open will start, here at St. Jean de Montclar. Used the previous three days to make three different flights throughout the competition area. It is a very interesting place to fly as the local conditions can vary tremendously from one place to the next, and also from day to day.

On Thursday it was fairly easy to go into the large valley and find lift, places where lift could be expected indeed offered it. The dominating westerlies were quite strong so it took a while to cross the valley, but otherwise it seemed "textbook" flying. I ended up very low at, or rather below, St. Vincent les Forts but managed to work my way up there. Started my glide back to the landing field at St. Jean a tiny bit too low as the valley wind was from the south, so came in a 100m short, a useful lesson for the comp (see track).

On Friday there was almost no lift at all in the valley. On all edges of the system there were nice clouds with the cloudbase raising up to almost 4000m. In the direction of St. André there was cu-nimb (thunderstorm clouds) so I stayed clear of all clouds and topped out at 3700m, don't think I've ever been that high. But the strong lift (notice the "smoke thermal" in picture) under those clouds was accompanied by vast areas of strong sink. I surely never experiences uch big areas with sink. So flying became a bit of a jojo experience. In a couple of minutes up from 1500 to 3500 and in the next few nminutes down again to below 2000m, desperately searching for lift. I ended up low in the neighbourhood of Seyne where I found some lift, but the strong valley wind broke it up too much too my taste and I landed a bit north of the village, some 6 km from the "goal" (see track).

Yesterday then was the best day. At first it was very stable, and early large clouds shaded a lot of the area so the devise was "wait, wait and wait". The previous days I had been amongst the first to launch but this day I wanted to launch late and see what the, now numerous, other comp pilots would be doing. People launced in batches, but most managed to slowly climb up to the Dourmillouse and then it seemed easy to stay high. I choose my moment of truth carefully and that payed off as I got up quickly. I noticed a convergence line and decided to circuit the valley counter-clockwise. The first 25 minutes I could mainly follow the bended convergence and then contineud to jumo from cloud to cloud. Base was high again at some 3500 m. Crossing the valley back I was a bit too optimistic and ingnored some lift halfway that I should have used to top up. Now I ended up a bit low in the foothills but those worked as expected. I had to scratch a cliff for a little while but then I good thermal came through that took me back up to base. And then it was easy to race the ridge north. I then continued to passed St. Vincent, but not quite over to the Morgan, today I surely wanted to make the landing field and be in good time for the registration (see track). Not far from the landing field I encountered a large area with 4 m/s lift, after six!
As registration was slow, I was glad I had only some 15 people in front of me in the queue, I was happy to have landed in time.

As comps go this one will have a bit of relaxed feeling as the weather here is "late". We will have briefings at 10 or 11, then a task briefing at launch around 1 and perhaps start flying at 2 and racing at 3. With retrieves expected to take less then 30 minutes we'll all be back at a decent time despite the late flying. Yet, as demonstrated by the last three days, tasks will be very challenging and varied, far from simply racing the bowl.

...and back, almost

2009-08-12T20:17:00.003+03:00

After yesterday's trip to St. Vincent it was time to attempt the out and return flight. Today people launched a bit later, we actually moved to the west launch. The air was much more humid and cumulus formed early on. Except at cloudbase winds were south-westerly today, with the help of clouds and wind I dared to take a shorter route and made it to St. Vincent in just over 2 hours, almost one hour faster now.

I immediately started the return trip to St. André. Initially I could simply follow the clouds with occasionally thermals being marked by the numerous sailplanes and the odd glider. South of the Dourmillouise massif the southwest flow was strong and progress slowed down. At the last valley crossing I bombed out, some 14 km short of the goal (see track). The reason was probably that I earlier should have followed the Montagne de Chevel Blanche westerly ridge, instead of trying to go straight over. I also could, and should, have waited for company. Flying with a group always works much better once things get difficult.

It seemed that two italian pilots with competition gliders made it all the way back, as well as at least one (french?) hang glider pilot. Well done!

Tomorrow it's time for an easy day, probably at St. Jean, the venue for the British Open next week.

St. André - St. Vincent

2009-08-12T09:11:00.004+03:00

Gorgeous, it was. The weather, the views and the flying on the 11th of August. After a week in Gréolierès had moved to St. André les Alpes, known for strong conditions and great cross-country potential. Around 10 the navette took me and a bunch of others to the south-east take-off. Many opted for an early morning flight but those with plans to go far waited for the thermals to kick in. A bit before noon the first pilots managed to stay up and soon the sky was filled with gliders of all kinds.
I'd planned to fly North towards St. Jean and St.Vincent, the area where the British Open will take place next week. Once a few gliders were really getting above the launch I got into the air, climbed up and started to follow some early leavers. After some 5 km I joined a group of three others and from there on we kind of flew together. Going north the mountains get ever higher but luckily the thermals took us even higher. After a couple of tricky crossings we reached the Dourmillouse massif which appeared to be a kind of gliding highway. I could simply race the ridge for the last 10 km! Numerous sailplanes that passed under, above, and between me and the ridge provided for some additional excitement.
At the end I cranked up a bit more height and went into "wait and see" mode. One of our group continued north across the lake and when I saw that he managed to get up on the other side I decided to follow. Some others seemed to go down at St. Vincent. My crossing was not so successful and I had to work hard to get up a bit. Once I thought I could make it back to the St. Vincent ridge I decided to do that and land after an intensive 4 hours in new territory (see track). A local pilot, Pascal, was kind enough to provide a ride to Digne from where it was easy to hitch-hike back to St. André. Thanks!
Most of the time I had my hands full with controlling the glider but during some glides I (barely) managed to make some pictures.

Intensive practice in the southern sun

2009-08-08T09:45:00.003+03:00

Mika S. and myself had a great week of intensive practice, here in Southern France. We drove down to Gréolières, stopping in the Netherlands for a brief family visit. On Monday the mistral caused wind over the back on every site, so we used it to rest from the long ride.

On Tuesday the weather was "on" and we made two long flights locally at Gréolières, doing small out- and returns to the end of the ridge at Coursegoules and small triangles. Especially the afternoon was great, smooth bouyant air, we landed only at half past seven!

Wednesday we went to the nearby Col de Bleyne site which is a better starting point for cross-country flying. Mika started early and after a bit of work got very high. Meanwhile local experts were launching and showed us where to fly. I had hoped to fly to St. André but the west wind was far too strong. So after battling that for an hour or so I turned east and flew to Gréolierès and then on the Coursegoules and back to land in Gréolières. Mika returned to Col de Bleyne and fetched our car.
In the afternoon we went to Monaco where Mika made the nice evening glide over Monaco to the beach (in the picture).

Thursday was similar, but the predictions were a bit better. The locals were now serious about attempting long flights and took off at 10:30 in what seemed weak conditions. I waited a bit, which probably was a bit of a mistake. This as later the strong north-westerly kicked in and I couldn't get passed the Teillon mountain and had to return. Those that left early got more west earlier and then only had to fight a cross wind, not a head wind. Of course in the late afternoon did another good 2 hours.

For Friday the forecast offered some clouds, the whole week had been blue, with a small chance of thunderstorms. Hence I was at the Gréolières launch early to make most of the morning. A southerly wind made for very strong conditions that were truly turbulent above 1500m. When I noted that I stayed a bit low and tried to make some photos of all the pilots in the air; some worked out, and many didn't it. Around noon everybody came down to land.
Not so Mika who had been doing some work and only then got to launch. He was joined by two locals and they enjoyed strong, but now less turbulent, conditions and actually managed to fly to Bleyne and back. Mika just returned when I started an afternoon flight. With the thermals now getting slightly weaker again, and a huge cumulus nimbus building over the mountain, the air became a bit more messy again so after an hour we decided to land and go for some ice-cream in Tourettes-sur-Loup.

Kiikala - Hyvinkää

2009-07-19T14:49:00.004+03:00

Saturday morning a small group of enthusiasts gathered at Kiikala airfields to enjoy a quite rare day with light winds. We started towing early to give fresh and less experienced pilots a chance to fly in light conditions. After a couple of hours the thermals were gaining in strength, as shown by Juha N who in the maiden flight of his new Rush2 managed to get and stay up for a while. Little later Mika S and myself decided it was time to get ready for cross-country flying.
Mika had planned to fly to Nummela or Hyvinkää airfields. As both are located withing restricted airspace he had programmed the various areas into his navigation instrument. And checked the ceilings for the days with flight control. I simply looked at the map and decided to shoot for Vesivehmaa airfield, a distance of approx. 134 km.

As happens quite often, we turned out to be a bit too optimistic. In a band laying over the southmost part of the country there clearly was a drier, or more stable, airmass in which very few cumulus clouds appeared. We could see that some 20-30 km to the North much better conditions were to be found.
So it was not a big surprise that in our first couple of tries we could not really get up. At best I encountered a waekish thermal that drifted quite fast, the north-westerlies aloft seemed as strong as predicted. However, the same winds brought the "good" weather slowly closer. Once I was up for the third time I found a strong thermal that took me up to cloudbase, albeit that the cloud desintegrated once I'd reached it. It looked too difficult, and probably futile, to wait for others to join me so I set off towards my far away goal in the north east.

The first couple of hours the flying felt really difficult, largish areas with strong sink were interleaved with thermal areas, but in those it was hard to find the narrow cores that were needed to really get up. Once found those cores were excellent, often 5 m/s up! The route however, was perpendicular to the main flow and hence I had to hop from (sometimes invisible) cloud street to the next. The same north-westerlies pushed me all the time towards the restricted areas.
But after a while I managed to get into that better airmass and this made things a bit easier. Now there were more clouds, that lived longer and formed clearly visible streets. I used one of those streets to fly straight into the wind, hence positioning myself into a more favourable location for the next few jumps.
But after some 4 hours of intensive flying I'd only come to withing 69 km of the goal, and was getting rather tired. When in front of me there was a large area with no clouds, and to my right a beautiful cloud street to the Hyvinkää airfield, I decided to change my course. Soon I was spiralling down to the airfield where I saw some other paraglider pilots packing up. After almost 5 hours I was welcomed by Ari and Kimmo (in the picture) who had been flying tandem passengers all day.

Although the going had been really slow the track shows nicely how one often had to make significant route adjustments to make progress. Some pilots call this the "chess" aspect of cross country flying. One has to think and look ahead to avoid getting stuck. This day had almost all possible challenging factors: a strong cross wind that required many "jumps" from lift bands (cloud streets) through sink areas, many lakes that cause areas with no lift, largish wooded areas with no landing options, and airspaces that should be avoided or where one has to stay below a ceiling altitude.

Little later Mika called us and informed that he was some 10 km west of the airfield. Once we'd packed up the Hyvinkää towing gear Kimmo brought Mika and me to the Hyvinkää station where we only had to wait a couple of minutes for the next train to Helsinki. Meanwhile Juha K saved our day by driving my car and Mika's keys to Helsinki, thanks!

Rain refugees

2009-07-12T19:26:00.004+03:00

After a thunderous Tuesday night some of us simply had had enough. When Wednesday was cancelled because of the ongoing rains Juha K., Sebu and I executed a wild plan we had researched the previous night: rent a car and drive to the closest flyable place (with dry air).
As we could take turns the 800 km ride to Nice went smoothly and as we passed Monaco just at the right time Juha and Sebu could fly down to the Rocquebrune beach. We then hurried to Gréolières for famous pizza at the Barricade.

Thursday we had some good flying at Gréolières, once we managed to get high Sebu and I flew the ridge all the way to Coursegoles and back. We landed for lunch and in the late afternoon had another, shorter, flight. The next morning we heard that some local heros (David, Luc, and someone else) had flewn a 195 km triangle!
We ourselves on Friday probably took off a bit too early in Gréolières and never really got high; a bit of overcast seemed to dampen the thermals too much. But in the late afternoon we had a fantastic flight in a nice clear sky and strong conditions at Gourdon.
Meanwhile we had met a nice group of Swedish pilots who planned to attempt the classic flight from Col de Bleine to St. André on Saturday. At the launch we went together through the route details and then waited for the thermals to turn on. I took of first soon to be followed by Sebu, Juha and 3 Swedes. At a crucial point all but me and Juha did not attempt the glide north to the next ridge, but continued westwards which is a bit of a dead end. I easily got to the other side and up again but a bit furhter along the route encountered ever stronger headwinds. I probably should have gone over the mountain again a bit earlier instead of trying to fly around it. Nevertheless a very nice flight. Once on the ground I was very lucky to get a ride back to launch. Hence I could make a second flight, now back to Gréolières. There were a lot of clouds now and I could pretty much just glide home, at times having to pull big ears to stay below the clouds.
Sunday morning we had to get up early to drive back to Slovenia, so we could not fly, but our escpade was really worth the effort (and expense): 4 days with good flying!

Rain... and cancelations

2009-07-07T10:44:00.002+03:00

Day one of the Nordic Open ended early as the leading group in task 1 flew right into a huge shower that was waiting at the first turnpoint. At launch it had looked liked a quick task seemed possible, and very soon after a short briefing the 130 pilots took off to work their way towards the start cylinder. At launch there was little wind, and quite often from behind, so some of us had to wait a bit. I myself had to wait for some gliders right below me on the hill to get away before I could launch.
Soon the sky was filled with gliders; and clouds as the weather was clearly over developing by now. After that start time a front group glided quickly towards the next turnpoint closely followed by a second group that contained mainy Finns and other pilots that could not get of the hill as quickly.
But within 15 minutes these were flying in the rain and soon the front pilots reported dangerous conditions which prompted the afety director to cancel the task. Many just managed to glide back to the head quarter landing zone but nobody managed to pack before the rain hit that area. Later in the afternoon the hotel area was covered with gliders that were dried in the sun.

On Monday, day 2, the forecasts and sky didn't look very promising but we were transported up to launch nevertheless. Thanks to an extra bus the logistics were even more efficient but nevertheless when we were all there it had become clear that it was impossible to fly a task. At the same time it was decided to also cancel day 3 as the forecasts promised even worse weather. Right when the briefing was over with the friendly folks of the Ljublana airport called in to warn us of a strong front approaching fast so we could not even fly back home.
Jouni (thinks he) needs all the excercise he can get before the X-Alps so decided to run down and then maybe home and I was silly enough to join him. Even though we took an easy pace my legs are of course very stiff, after 25 km of running on sandals.

Nordic Open 2009 ready to start

2009-07-05T09:06:00.003+03:00

It's another Sunday morning here in Preddvor, Slovenia. In half an hour we will have the first morning briefing for the Nordic Open 2009 paragliding championships. Most of us arrived here on Thursday and Friday and despite the daily over-development we could get in a bit of practice, yesterday actually allowed for some good thermal flying.
The weather gurus forecast more over-development for the coming days, with showers and the possibility of thunderstorms. So it quite possibly is going to be difficult to have valid competition tasks; but at least we should be able to fly.
And it's very nice indeed to see lots of old friends; last night we had an opening dinner and although the food quality was undoubtedly way below the most pessimistic expectations, the traditional spirit and comradeships of the Nordics was bountiful.

Super Camp

2009-06-30T20:38:00.010+03:00

Super! Indeed, it is hard to find the right superlatives to describe the 2009 Finnish Free Flying Camp. As usual the country's paragliding enthusiasts gathered to celebrate and honour midsummer, at Jämi airfield. And as usual the first two days (20-21 June) were rainy. Between the showers some powered pilots managed to fly and when late Saturday evening the sky cleared out Juho tried to fly the Jämi ridge, so despite the weather those days could be bookmarked as flyable.

On Sunday morning we were welcomed by a perfect blue sky and the early hours were effectively used to tow some less experienced pilots and flying students. Soon the air became thermic though and it was time to plan a cross-country flight. We set out to fly an ambitious triangular course, via Lavia to the Hämeenkyrö airfield and then back to Jämi. It turned out that the winds aloft were a bit stronger than predicted and that southwest flow made the task a notch too difficult. I myself almost managed a slightly smaller triangle but bombed out in the last leg, some 5 km from the goal.
Other pilots decided not to fight the headwinds and flew downwind; Mika for example flew a nice 35 km to Parkano.
Several of us had to go back to work then but many lucky ones could stay. The weather only got better all the time and pretty much all pilots managed ever longer flights. On Thursday Jussi and Vesa got clearance to fly through the Pori airspace towards the famous Ytteri beaches on the west coast, and ended up just inland of the beach to be warmly welcomed by the masters of the estate where they had landed.

The same evening I managed to get away from work again and do three nice evening flights, with the last one taking me up to over 1000m AGL, and this at half past 8 in the evening! All evenings were really nice, with such clear skies it really is light throughout the night.

Friday was another good day and we planned another, larger, triangle: via Parkano to Hämeenkyrö airfield and then back to Jämi. I was the first to get towed up and managed to work my way up in the early weak thermals. I waited for a while but it seemed nobody was going to join me so I set off for Parkano. As the thermals were not that strong this first leg took a while, but up to some 5 km before the Parkano turnpoint it had been fairly easy to make progress. There I got pretty low but found good lift over some fields. Once back at cloudbase it was easy to glide to Parkano. The straight route south to the next turnpoint was not an option as there was an enormous blue hole (an area without any clouds, hence presumably with no lift). So I flew back to the same field where I caught the same thermal, now a bit higher.
From there I tried to fly the western edge of that blue hole, but as I was doing that it seemed to expand westwards. It turned out that some time later I actually was back at Jämi.
By now I had been almost 4 hours in the sky and decided to check out if I could get some company at the airfield. I didn't see any other paragliders but did notice that a nice cloudstreet was forming in south-easterly direction towards my turnpoint! So I went for the first of those clouds to find a nice strong, yet smooth, thermal. And then two sailplanes speeded towards me from the north; company after all! I tried to make some pictures, but fiddling with my camera really detoriated my thermalling accuracy and hence the sailplanes were coming up quickly towards me. So put my hands back on the brakes to control my wing and steer into the thermal core. Almost at the same moment the sailplane pilots decided that they were high enough and continue to race southwards (presumably towards Räyskälä, where the Junior World Gliding Championships take place).
A bit later a started to glide along the cloudstreet that took me to within gliding distance of Hämeenkyrö airfield, the turnpoint. But by now this was firmly in the blue hole area and it seemed highly unlikely that I could get up there. As the flight back to Jämi seemed easy and quick I decided to call it a day and fly back. After a whoppy 6 hours landed right where I had started my tow (flight track).

Saturday more people turned up, including hangglider pilot Ville. The predictions still forecasted easterly flows, and Mika suggested we all try to fly to Merikarvia, right at the coast. This time Juho was towed up first and soon was high and started to work his way westwards. I was next and also got up but noticed that the clouds were gathering together in big lumps that caused enormous areas along the route to be shaded. Not good, and not the situation to fly a direct course. I decided to try to southern edge of the cloud constellation to ensure I would have sunny fields within good reach at any time. This worked well. Once I was at the end of the clouds decided to glide furiously towards a largish area with similar fields. The sink on the way was as bad as I expected, or worse. Above those fields I found some boyant air, but no real lift. I tried to scan as much of the area as possible and then noticed some gulls that started to thermal low. They saved the day as I could just get to that spot and join the thermal, that eventually carried me all the way to cloudbase again, now at some 2300m.

From there on it was fairly straightforward to fly to the coast, but it remained important to go around the large shady areas. The equally large clouds only lifted in very few and small spots, so every now and then some serious thermal hunting was required. Using this strategy I actually managed to approach the coast quite high, and greatly enjoyed the very rare opportunity to fly out a bit over the sea! I could see from the waves and foam that there surely was a good seabreeze down there but at my altitude of some 1000 m there was almost no wind at all. Time to take out the camera! Little later I went back to the town and landed in the local baseball field, indeed in a 8 m/s headwind.
Just when I started to pack I noticed Mika approaching from the south. As his radios were without power my attempts to provide him with information on the conditions at landing were useless. In fact he had not noticed me at all and in the end landed a couple of hundred meters north of me. Little later we celebrated our success at the terrace of the local kebab restaurant. This was actually next to the church, a very large wooden construction and apparently indeed one of the largest in the Nordics.
Later we heard that pretty much all pilots had managed to get up and away and many broke personal records for time, altitude and distance! Indeed a super day.

Sunday morning those that had been all week flying their socks off decided that the bed and shower at home were more attractive than another hard day of flying. Me and the others that had been grounded during the week did not want to miss the opportunity of another good day and set out to tow in very different conditions. A drier air mass was flowing in from the north west, causing much more gusty conditions and snappy narrow thermals in the airfield area. Only on my third tow did I manage to follow one of those up. The now much stronger winds made me drift to the southeast and I decided to go for the short classic flight to Sammi, a mere 15 km away.
With an eye on the upcoming Nordic Open championships I decided to try to practice a "final glide", i..e. to start to glide to the goal at just sufficient altitude. I wanted to that at 1500m but around 1300 m I hit an inversion and the air became very turbulent. As I'd drifted a bit more closer I decided to give it a try. As I'd expected I ended up a bit short, making me a little more confident about guessing those final glide altitudes. Nowadays we of course have our instruments to do most of that work, but as my XCTrainer was in service I had a good chance to hone my own skills.
Two other pilots took off much later, enjoyed quite much better conditions and could fly all the way to the Tampere approach area.

In the end we had 7 consecutive days of excellent XC flying, none of us could remember a similar period. For example Mika reported 19 hours in 19 flights over the week; I did 11 hours in 3 days. And the weather is still very good! Some of us managed to upload some flights to our own Finnish section in the XContest.

For me it now is time to prepare for the Nordics though. Got my XCTrainer back (excellent and fast service from Aircotec) and now should clean and check my gear a bit and then pack...

More pictures

A busy summer weekend

2009-05-31T19:05:00.002+03:00

After that first nice spring weekend May did not provide us pilots with the usual record breaking conditions. It was rainy, windy, or both, or then sunny but too windy. But this last weekend was nice again, with challenging "dry" thermals in a perfect blue sky.
On dry, "blue", thermal days the ceiling of the boundary layer with thermal activity is lower then the height at which the humidity in the air would condensate so no clouds are formed. Apparently these conditions are more difficult to predict as the forecasts for this weekend have been too pessimistic by quite a large margin.

On Saturday the usual group of enthusiasts/optimists gathered at Kiikala airfield. It was surely gonna be sunny, and me and some others simply didn't believe the forecasts of "no thermals, with a ceiling at 900 m MSL". I was towed up around 12:30 and immediately found some lift. Weak lift as expected, but lift nevertheless! Slowly I got higher and once I got to about 700 m the lift got a bit better. I boated around a bit waiting for company but it seemed too difficult for the others to get up. So despite the low ceiling of about 1100 m I pointed my glider south and started to glide towards Hanko.
Hanko is a regular goal, it is a small city on the tip of a long peninsula in the very south-west of Finland, famous for its beaches and summer life. Usually it is impossible to get there as on practically all thermal days one has to fight sea-breeze. But optimistic as we are we of course did believe the prediction of little or no sea-breeze whereas we didn't believe the forecasts claim of "no thermals" ;)

And sure there were thermals! It was actually quite easy to find them; almost in perfect text-book fashion there were thermals heated by fields, triggered by rocky hills or small lakes. Often weak, but at times with strong cores. The main trouble was the elusive nature, the cores didn't stay put at all and often I lost it and I had to hunt for the core over and over. Twice I got very low but the textbook tactic saved me. With some 25 km to go I could clearly see that smoke stack of the Koverhar steel mill and most of the time it went straight up. As Koverhar is right at the coast that looked promising, no sea-breeze!
But some 5 km later I got some really good lift, too good to be true compared with the rest of the day and got up to over 1500m. I suspected this to be the sea-breeze front and indeed once I set of for the next glide there was nothing but a south-westerly head wind and otherwise smooth air. So a little later I landed in the area of Bromarv (see track). Thanks to Karo and Make for a long retrieve! On our way home we enjoyed a nice dinner on one of Ekenäs (Tammisaari) many summer restaurant terraces.

For today, Sunday, the forecast was even worse: warmer more stable air, no thermals and a southwest meteo wind picking up in the afternoon. So of course we went to Kiikala again. I was expecting a very similar day, but it turned out quite different. At the airfield the winds seemed very light so with Juho we planned a small triangle of about 45 km. We were to approx. 15 km due south-east then 15 due west and then back to the airfield, 15 km northwest.
I was the first to get up and this was much easier than on Saturday with clear defined thermals that were not as narrow. Initially the ceiling was again at about 1100 m. I waited a bit for the others at the north end of the strip but when I saw that Juho and Jukka were clearly cranking at the south end I went there and joined them in the same thermal. We rode it up all the way and then I started to glide to the south-east. This first leg was quite easy we found some thermals along the way. A couple of times a moved around a bit in front to explore the area and to check if we still had a group.
A bit before the turnpoint, one of the junctions of the new motorway, we had a good thermal and before we reached the top I decided to fly out, take the turnpoint and then came back to the thermal. Somehow Jukka lost it here, but I don't know exactly how.
Juho and I now started to work our way west. This was against some headwind and apparently we were jumping invisible cloud streets, as we now had strong sink between bands of thermals. But it went all fine up to the next turnpoint, another junctions. There were some good fields bordered by rocky areas and small lakes, but we didn't find anything to take us back up, even to we together scouted quite an area. Minutes later we were both on the ground, approx. half a kilometer apart, after some 34km and a good 2 hours of intensive flying (see track). Thanks to the triangle task we were close to the airfield though so Leevi and Pekka were soon there with a welcome retrieve.

All in all a wonderful weekend, over 5 hours in the air, with only the minimum 2 tows, and almost 100 km total distance.
We now also have a Finnish league in the XContest and this weekends flight surely help to motivate all to try hard ;)

Spring is here!

2009-05-01T21:50:00.005+03:00

A couple of pilot friends started already yesterday, but for me it was today: the opening of the Finnish summer flying season. We gathered around noon at our Kiikala airfield and quickly prepared the towing setup. Juho K. was the first to go; he had to search a bit but just before coming in to land found a nice thermal. The same thermal caused quite a strong backwind at our start so the rest of us had to wait a while.

It is very typical at our airfields that thermals are triggered somewhere near the middle of the fields, especially if it has 2 runways that cross each other. No matter where, i.e. at what end, the start is set up, you will have wind from the back. Patience, and timing, are important, the trick is to be ready to launch when winds are nil, or light from the side or front. Often when you start the tow in a clear head wind the thermal is behind you and most of the tow will be through sink which when sufficiently bad will leave you with far too little altitude to fly back into that thermal.

I was next in line and lucky to time it right as I hit a nice thermal right near the end of the runway, at the end of my tow. Conditions were very nice, with thermals that took me up to about 1600m at 4m/s. Only close to the strong inversion at that altitude was the air truly turbulent.
As the winds up high seemed light I decided to try a smallish triangle, as an exercise. The first leg went very nice but the second leg into the wind was much more difficult than I'd expected. Sink was quite strong, but the real problem was that below 900 m the wind had picked up. On what would be my last glide I slowed down to less than 20 km/h once I was a bit lower, while still in 5m/s sink. I only just made it to the field above which I'd hoped to find a thermal. I arrived with only 50m altitude, too little to search for a thermal. A bird showed me one nearby but I was too low to go there. So after exactly one hour I was on the ground (flight track). Very happy though as it was my first flight in months, and after several weeks of bad flu my first day out. Even the walk out to the main road was a joy, in sunny warm weather. On a hill close to where I landed I saw a colony of wood anemones, a sure sign of spring in Finland.
Efka had planned to fly the calmer late afternoon and picked me up along the route, thanks! After a detours she'd also found Juho who had flown a more straight downwind track and had landed some 20 km from me.

A taste of alpine flying

2009-02-22T18:26:00.003+02:00

Last week our family spend the traditional Finnish "skiing" vacation in style: we were in Chamonix, France.
Joanna and the children challenged themselves on the various slopes every day, enjoying the sun, the huge mountains and the stunning views. Whereas I myself managed to fly all but one day, typically in very light conditions.

The weather was characterized by northerly winds, causing the main Planpraz site to be in the lee. This was not a problem, but it may have caused the thermals to be "broken"; in any case they were very small in all dimensions. Nevertheless the flying was nice and interesting. I'd never started from really snow covered slopes; here there was actually a ski piste prepared just for us pilots!

On Friday there were no clouds at all and it turned out the best day of the week with somewhat stronger and slightly larger thermals. I made two flights, in the first one I had a nice thermal bubble right after launch and I could turn up to above take-off and the lift station, but then it was again over. Inspired I went back up for a second flight. Now only got bits and pieces of boyant air straight after launch, but once I was some 600 m below take off found a good thermal close to the mountain. I had to do figures of 8 in it, but it did carry me a good 150 meter back up. A bit later found a similar but shorter-lived one (or then I simply found it near the end of its lifetime) and then it was time to land; after 30 minutes, the longest flight of the week. Working such patches of light lift makes for excellent practice and in those settings it is great fun!

Finally bagged

2009-02-07T18:35:00.002+02:00

Yesterday's last task in the Paragliding Worlds was stopped, to allow helicopters to rescue two pilots. As nobody had reached goal yet this meant the task was invalid and did not change the score. Those unfortunate pilots are both reported to be stable into recovery.
I was just about sufficiently fit to fly in the morning and was amongst the first to take off for the 85 km long task. Conditions were blue, with light winds, and relatively weak thermals but significant turbulence in the sheer layer. I was in the leading group to cross the valley towards the Elefanten turnpoint behind Valle. We ended up very, very low over the foothills at the other side and me and several others were forced to land while the other 8-10 that were only 10 meters higher managed to get slowly up.
Teammate Ari never heard that the task was stopped and flew into goal thinking he had won the day and that all the other top guys had bombed out. Some indeed had, like me, but most of course landed when the task was stopped.
So the comp ended in this strange way, but in the evening we had a nice price giving ceremony, and a good party. Collectively we flew more than 125 000 km to determine that Andy Aebi, Elisa Houdry and the Czech team are the new champions.

For Finland the results are mixed. Ari ended up in excellent 15th place, no Finn ever ranked that high in the Worlds. Jouni had a bad first week with tree landings etc., but showed good form in the last tasks. I flew a couple of good tasks, but had difficulty adpating my speed to the field and the conditions, and was nailed down by illness. One comp we will all get it together, and we now know that we have what it takes to challenge the very best in the world.

As was expected the local organization was downright perfect, and the hospitality of the town and its people just wonderful. This combined with the great weather and flying conditions makes for a perfect comp setting.
The accidents were sad as always, but nwo finally seem to have triggered a serious discussion about various safety issues that I expect to result in some actions in the upcoming CIVL meeting.

Another long dry run

2009-02-06T02:28:00.000+02:00

For me it was another day in the sick bow but for those pilots that were fit the task committee and the weather conspired with a very difficult 100 km course.
The forecast predicted stronger winds, drier air and high thermal tops. And indeed the few clouds that were seen early on dried out soon, demanding pilots to fly in the "blue".
Despite it all some 40 pilots are reported to have reached goal. Ari and Jouni were amongst the first 10 or so!

Decision day

2009-02-05T02:11:00.000+02:00

Today was a decisive one at the worlds. The task committee had set a very original 106 km challenge. The start already sifted the armada as it was a 6 km exit in front of launch but now with the next turnpoint as Llano in the south.
My own decision was to refrain from flying in the hope of a quicker recovery from the flu.
The course took the pilots back to the antennas and from there to the Elefanten point. There were many possible routes for this leg especially as the cloudbase was really high. Urban took the most westerly route and won the day by at least 15 minutes.
"Only" some 50 pilots made goal today, fellow Finnish pilots Jouni and Ari were fortunately amongst those happy few. Although they were a bit slow we might well climb a bit in the nation ranking.

Fast and lonely

2009-02-04T16:07:00.003+02:00

Yesterday-s task 8 of the Paragliding Worlds called for 114 km of flying. The fastest pilots completed the approx. 100 km speed section in an incredible 2,5 hours!
I was still weak and decided not to use the early window opening and instead launched in the ordered way, that is late. Unfortunately conditions at launch were weak so the ordered launch took a long time and I was really late in the air. As a couple of other late launchers dropped out early I flew the whole day completely by myself with no help of any other pilots. In fact most of the time I didn't even see any others, not even in the distance, weird! Flying alone is much slower and after 4 hours and 75 km I was so tired I decided it safer to land.
Finnish team members Jouni and Ari came into goal, again around 30-40 place, some 20 minutes behind the leaders.

High an dry

2009-02-03T03:05:00.003+02:00

After the rest day on Saturday we did not fly a task on Sunday. Instead we commerated Stefan Schmoker, the pilot who sadly died in an accident on Friday. We flew more or less straight from launch to Valle, with flowers which we dropped over the landing zone. In the evening there was also a mass in the main church.

Today it was back to normal again with a whoppy 97,4 k task, mainly in the flats but with a last leg over the Mesa back to Valle. Initially the conditions were quite turbulent but after the start thigs got better. There were fewer clouds today, and more interestingly, the thermals topped out at some 3700m later in the day; very high that is.
For whatever reason I suffered from influenza with fever last night and throughout the day. I decided to try to fly but very carefully, staying clear from the traffic around the start and also otherwise ensuring at least double the normal safety margins. It was definitely tiresome byt after a total of 4,5 hours of flying I landed in goal; needless to say very happy! My time of 3:34 is of course not very good, approx. an hour after the leaders, but goal is goal.
Teammates Ari and Jouni also made goal and quite a bit faster. Ari had early on a very clear lead and took a route back over Espina. Unfortunately for him the predicted notherlies higher up were not really there so he had to fight the normal southwesterlies for some 30 km. Needless to say that cost much time, but he finished approx. 40th. Everybody else took a more direct course, ove the flats and the smaller hills which worked quite reliably. Jouni flew conservatively and came into goal as 60th or so. All in all one of the better days for the team as a whole we expect to climb up in the team ranking a bit.

Tonight it will be an early night for all of us and hopefully we'll be fit to fight again tomorrow. We have four more tasks to improve our scores...

Today managed to upload my track in the local internet cafe. Some day we'll try to upload our tracks to the XContest.

Tragedy of an epic day

2009-01-31T01:46:00.002+02:00

Sadly one pilot incurred a fatal accident early in todays 6th task of the paragliding worlds. He was seen in a bad cascade hitting the vertical rocks behind the Penon peak.
The day started beautifully with a start over the Slater hill. Today the cloudbase was higher and I glided back in front of the Penon and then to the launch which was a turnpoint today. From there quite many flew into the rough thermal where the accident took place. I was there earlier and didn't have any problems. Quite opposite, at that point I was joining the leading group. Together we climbed and drifted to the next turnpoint. There we were almost at cloudbase and then glided under the clouds towards Agila. We were shooting for the Magay mountain and many managed to just overfly it. Others were a bit lower but could get around it. Unfortunately my serial wings performance was in this case just that crucial bit worse and I arrived too low to get up at the side of the hill. Hence landed in a small peach orchard.
After a nice walk got into a retrieve car that continued to pick up many others that hadn't made the glide either.
A bit later we heard the tragic news. It's sad that this so far perfect comp had its first accident on the last day before the rest day. And even more sad for all that it was a fatal one.
Ari kept his excellent form and came into goal nicely. Jouni also encountered turbulence in the Penon area and decided to land when he was low after clearing a collapse.
Tomorrow we have a much needed rest day. Hopefully we Finns can put ourselves together and all start flying as good as Ari!

A long run

2009-01-30T02:47:00.002+02:00

Update: I wrote the first version of this entry on my phone while waiting in the goal field. Somehow the wrong picture got inserted above. Ari made lots of really good pictures that we'll try to upload on Saturday, which will be a rest day. The Team Leader of the Swiss, Martin Scheel, has also many good pictures on his web site.
Jouni indeed was in the trees again, but this time got his glider out of it allright, albeit that we got half a tree into our apartment. He'd done approx. 90 km before ending up in those trees, and many of those with a broken stabilo line, which made it difficult for him to fly straight.

Today the task committee finally came up with something really difficult: a 114 km task via Lapila to a point behind Valle and then once more over the valley and the plateau to Penon and then out to Llano before returning to goal in the main valley near Ramon.
Me and several others landed in the goal field on the way to Penon, after some 60 km. Despite the early landing I felt that my flying was much better than the previous days.
Conditions seen more stable then expected and 30 minutes before the task deadline there's nobody in goal yet.
But at least one pilot ben be seen gliding to goal... And a group of 20 or so following in the distance.
Turns out that Ari is in that group! Nicely in approx. 25th place. Jouni is reported to be in the trees again, but allright. Hopefully his wing is ok as we have no more spares.

The good and the bad

2009-01-29T02:58:00.003+02:00

Today another not so good day for me. Somehow was well established in the gaggle 2 minutes before the start but after those 2 minutes somehow 200m lower. Conditions were rather turbulent and staying aloft while avoiding all the other gliders took me too much energy. We flew to the antennas and from there to Monarca. Around the antennas I started to fly a bit better and decided to try a short cut to Gordo. I knew that this was risky; it worked on the first training day but it isn't sure. I lost a weaker but decent thermal halfway and then came some 100m too low at Gordo and only could try the back side, and low. That didn't work so that was it for me today.
Locals offered me a quick ride back to Valle where I could watch the pilots come into goal. Ari was in the first group approx. 5th! Jouni flew his old glider now and nicely made goal in approx. 30th place. It was a good day for the Brits with Jamie and Russell both in the top 6. They landed together in "tandem" on their identical Ozone Mantra R09 wings. I think Andy Aebi from Switzerland was first, but as the speed section ended at the other side of the lake it was hard to tell.
Many pilots are starting to feel tired, the flying is intensive and the days long. The Finnish team heads out for an early dinner (by Mexico standards) and then plans to sleep as much as possible....

Bombed out

2009-01-28T01:56:00.004+02:00

Today's task 3 of the paragliding worlds was a 94 km course with a start over Magay and then a leg south to Aguila and then over the plateau to Saucos and zigzag via Gordo to goal.
The air seemed drier today there were no clouds yet at start time. Today I had a very good start and was amongst the first to hit the thermal over turnpoint 1. We then glided back to the Mesa, some of the hotships could glide right over it, but most of us thermalled up on the "lee" side, which worked quite well. A big group then glided towards Aguila . I should have worked up a bit more altitude before that glide as I couldn't cross the smaller hills halfway and had to work quite a bit to get up there. Luckily I wasn't alone, many people ended up struggling low at Aguila . In the end I took the turnpoint low close to the ridge, on the backside of the actual mountain, and then dived into the little valley. There I and a few others found a good thermal that took us up to 3000m again and back into the race. I glided straight towards take-off, expecting a good thermal halfway. I fellow pilot missed that one, and landed literally seconds before I found it, some 80m above the ground. Like yesterday an congregation of sparrows indicated that something was there, and soon I was going up with 4 m/s back to 2800m. Then glided to the front of launch but now it was my turn to miss a thermal and after quite a bit of struggle landed right next to the road. Just when I had packed the retrieve car stopped next to me, perfect! As you can see I was not alone to bomb out. It was a difficult day and many pilots ended up in the fields. Nevertheless some 50 pilots or so made goal.

Just as I'm writing this Ari arrived here at the championship HQ and he thinks he was among the first 30 in goal! Jouni tree landed approx. halfway the task. He is fine but his glider has some damage.

A hill to far

2009-01-27T05:30:00.004+02:00

On today's second task of the Paragliding Worlds the organizers decided to make things a bit more difficult. This as on day 1 a whoppy 109 pilots made it to the goal. So a task of 91,7 km was set including a tricky leg from Lapila to Aguila and from there back to the antennas and then over the plateau followed by a final valley crossing to goal.
In the (early!) morning Team Leader briefing the organizers got permission from the FAI delegates to use the proven launch procedure where during the first 10 minutes anybody could launch and after that period the launching would be by current standing in the championship.
I myself, and teammate Jouni used this opportunity to launch early as we wanted the ensure a good position at the start, a 6 km exit cylinder from launch. I had to clear a knot after launching but then quickly got up and was the first pilot to establish a nice holding position above the wall just at the edge of the cylinder. Before long that area was of course crowded with almost all 148 participants, plus the marshalls and media tandems. There were also clouds and everybody was trying to avoid bumping into each other and from flying into the clouds, while at the same time trying to stay high and close under those clouds.
At start time the whole armade glided towards the first turnpoint. Quite some pilots had managed to get higher between the clouds and soon formed a leading gaggle. I was not so high and wasted some time trying to get higher after a few km. Such a fairly small gap quickly resulted in me flying far behind the lead all of the course. Especially the second half of the leg to Aguila took me a long time. I then flew all alone back to Piano, where I catched up some pilots. Then it was a bit slower again to the antennas, where I found a last good thermal. I glided towards Gordo but didn't quite get there and had to land 10 km short, after more than 5 hours of flying. Much later met with Ari and Jouni who had made goal, but in the end of a second group. The leading group had split on the way back with one group taking a more direct route which turned out faster than the route over the mountains. Results are not in yet, but it is believed that at least 80 pilots made goal, so we can expect an even longer task tomorrow.

Of Ups and Downs

2009-01-26T01:02:00.001+02:00

Update: Ari actually placed 2nd! on this first day. Jouni was 79th and Robert 98th. Finnish pilot Heimo happened to be in Valle last week and made some nice pictures of us in the opening parade, and of Ari landing into goal.

The last couple of days the Finnish team at the Paragliding Worlds experienced a variety of ups and downs.
On Friday the Swedes had set a 53 training task. Not all pilots flew that task but Robert was 2nd to make goal! Ari and Jouni bombed out. Jouni used the opportunity to train walking, a good 10 km.
Friday night Robert and Jouni turned ill and stayed in bed most of Saturday. But we managed to participate in the nice opening parade.
Resting payed off as we were a bit weak but fit to fly the first task today. Conditions on launch were gusty and this slowed things down. Launch order on this first day was by world ranking order and this caused Robert to be really late at the start.
Ari was on time though and flew fast with the leaders and then choose a good line over the Mesa towards Ramon and then on to come in goal in an excellent 3 place!
Jouni and Robert were much slower but both made goal so overall the Finns opened the championship well.

Hot Practice

2009-01-23T03:09:00.002+02:00

After a long, but smooth, flight and a couple of hours drive we arrived last night in Valle. After a good night of much needed sleep we woke up to beautiful sunny weather, just as it is suposed to be! First thing to do was to move to Posada Doris, where we stayed last year, and which was much nicer than the place we had booked from home.
After the standard Valle breakfast we took a taxi to launch. Jouni is really serious about training for the X-Alps, so jumped out and jogged the last mile up the hill. At the launch we greeted many friends; there were some 60 pilots there. I also just managed to say hello top Heimo before he took off. He is visiting Valle this week as a "tourist". Most competition pilots waited till about 11:30 before taking off.
My plan was to fly a couple of hours and get used to the landscape, the strong conditions and to the abundance of gliders around me. The meteo wind was notherly which is opposed to the thermal induced southerlies so much turbulence was to be expected. It turned out not to be so bad, but I made sure to stay far from any tricky place.
After launch quickly gained height above the launch and then waited a bit for the other Finnish pilots. When I saw a couple of gliders getting up over the Mesa I started to work my way to Penon, Mesa and then onwards to the antennas. Near Magay was a bit low but then it worked really well and I reached the antennas more easily then I'd anticipated. I was a bit alone there and decided to wait a bit, slowly gaining more height. A couple of pilots dove over the ridge but seemed to go down very fast. Many others didn't quite fly to the antennas but turned back towards Maguay. I decided to try to make it to Gordo. And that actually went quite well. The clouds over the high plain were low but it all worked quite well. As I didn't want to tire myself tomuch I then turned North over the lake towards Valle and went to the Valle launch, which every now and then is a goal point. I boated a bit on the ridge there and then slowly let myself drift down to the landing zone. After some 2,5 hours itwas nice to pack the gear while sunbathing!
Ari landed almost at the same time, but Jouni flew quite much longer and landed a bit further away and then walked at least 10km. He wanted to train more "walking with glider" for the X-Alps.... Tomorrow we willhave the first official training day for the Worlds and I expect we' ll try to fly a task.

Taking off

2009-01-21T05:26:00.002+02:00

It's 5:30 in the morning and a good snow storm makes the idea even more surreal, but we're taking off in a minute. We are Ari, Jouni and Robert, the Finnish team for the paragliding world championships that will take place the coming weeks in Valle de Bravo.
Ari and Jouni are true Valle veterans, they were amongst the first European pilots who "discovered" this wonderful place some 10 years ago. Both are also experienced competition pilots. And will bring brand new competition gliders.
For me it is the first categeory 1 competition and I'm very exited to participate. I'll fly my trusted Ozone Mantra M2. If all goes well we should be able to practise Thu-Sat; we surely can use some good air time!

Lokkilok organic T-shirts

2009-01-03T15:40:00.002+02:00

We start the year with some blatant commercialism: Lokkilok now offers really nice, cool, organic, T-shirts imprinted with the Lokkilok logo. All of the profits (approx. 20% of the revenue) are used to support this blog and paragliding activities; notably to help pay for participation in the upcoming World Championships!

Pictured a new Airwave FR

2008-12-12T23:14:00.002+02:00

Where I spotted a new Ozone Mantra on Monday, today met Bruce Goldsmith who unpacked a brand new prototype of the new Airwave Magic FR, version 4. In the very light conditions at Gourdon even Bruce could stay up only for a couple of minutes, but that included a bit of thermaling close to the launch so I managed to take some pictures.
I myself went back to Gréolières hoping for stronger conditions, but it turned out quite similar. Managed a 20 minute flight without ever getting above the launch, actually most of those minutes I tried to work a patch of light lift right in front of the ruins, only some 50 m above the landing field. I did a second flight but by now it was 3 PM and there was almost no lift anywhere, so I was quickly on the ground. Nevertheless a very nice day in the sun!

Snowed in

2008-12-11T18:42:00.004+02:00

Well not quite, but almost. Today a second day of continuous rain here in my private training camp in Gréolières. Last night the locals informed me that all the rain comes down as snow on the, higher, back side of the Cheiron and that the ski resort is open for business.
I believe that being in shape is an important factor in (competitive) paragliding as flights can take 4-5 hours and although the physical effort is rarely huge it is not negligible. I did fly a couple of times with a heart rate monitor and for me the physical intensity of flying is about the same as for walking briskly. To keep in shape I go running on a daily basis, usually for 50-60 minutes. In addition I walk a lot, and every now and then do really long walks. The rain now prevented me from doing any of that and the Worlds are getting ever nearer. So lots of reasons for me to check out the local cross country skiing possibilities this afternoon. In short: excellent!
There was lots of snow, at least 1 meter, and more coming down all the time. The cross-country ski lodge (Maison du Fondeur) rents nice equipment for a very reasonable 8 €/half-day. Due to the snowfall they had not been able to prepare the tracks very well and therefor waived their normal track fee (6,5 €). The 6,5km "blue" track was in quite good shape though. I did the course twice as it was so much fun, and so beautiful. The first 2,5 km was mainly uphill, so soon I was really warm. The second part then was flat and downhill, but without ever being very steep so it was easy to steer through the many curves. Especially as I had the whole track for myself; the only other skiers I saw were two Swedish women, I guess there's a reason it is known as ski nordique....

Spotted new Mantra

2008-12-09T19:53:00.003+02:00

Today the Gourdon region was overcast, but a steady easterly seemed to make some flying possible. Alas, once at the upper launch I decided that the wind was too cross, and went back to my car next to the lower launch. Just there Ozone's Dav and Russ were unpacking a standard Mantra M2 glider (I myself fly one) and a couple of prototypes of the new version. Soon both were in the air trying to get up a bit and doing comparisons between the current and new version; and a little later between different variations of the new Mantra.
The new version is very similar but with a sleeker shape and profile. It clearly performs better, and from what I could see handling and stability remains at least as good as the current M2. It clearly has quite a few more internal structures and the profile with brakes applied seemed quite different to me. Below Dav is scratching it in the Gourdon X-Mas landscape (more pictures). Write to Santa soon!
After two short flights even the Ozone boys had enough, and we all left. Later in the afternoon did a nice quicky at Gréolières.

Training at Gourdon

2008-12-08T18:09:00.003+02:00

After a short visit to family in the Netherlands to celebrate Sinterklaas I continued southwards to Nice, Sunday afternoon. At the airport Ben, the proprietor of my favorite Gîte du Cheiron, joined me and together we drove up to Gréolières.
This morning woke up to a crystal clear sky and set off to Gourdon. My goal was to get airtime and to try out, and adjust, my new Impress2 harness. When it is on at Gourdon it is easy to topland and make adjustments, or simply take a break. I was the first up there and did some 20 minutes of ground handling, to get some feel for my new setup. In addition I wanted to wait for some more pilots to be around. The harness seemed fine, albeit that looking up while ground-handling had became a bit more difficult as the back of my helmet bumps into the aerodynamic tail of the harness.
At 11 the first 2 gliders were in the air, and I was quick to join them. Things were working nicely with light ridge lift interspersed with good thermals, some surprisingly strong, up to 5 m/s. Soon the shy was filled with some 20 gliders, and this on a Monday morning! The ceiling was at approx. 1500m, which allowed for a bit of cross-country flying. At first I focussed on getting into my rhythm after a 10 week break, and used to the harness. With the new harness, and after this long break, I didn't feel for taking my camera along which was a pity as the super dry air combined with the snowcapped mountains for truly incredible fine scenery.
The harness felt just right, the settings I'd made while hanging back home seemed spot on. Likewise the speedbar settings were nice, with no slack at all. I can now go from 0 to 75% speedbar in one step and need the 2nd step only for the last 25%. I glided over to the next mountain with ease and a while later glided back. Then got low and had to work quite bit to get up again.
It was then that I spotted a pilot who had landed/crashed near one of the cliffs. I'd seen him earlier but he had seemed picnicking or so. But now he clearly needed help as he was trying to crawl. I tried to get up to topland and get him some help, but couldn't quite get there. Luckily another, higher pilot, understood the picture and managed to topland and get somebody to check him out. I then landed in the landing field and a bit later a rescue team came to pick him up. I think he only had a twisted ankle, perhaps badly or broken. But although close to the top of the ridge he was in a difficult spot to get out from.
That pilot was not lucky but I had a great day, 2.5 hours of flying in perfect conditions. At higher altitude it was of course quite cold, with snow on the tops (mobile picture below is the Cheiron), but in the landing field, it was t-shirt weather!

Cool winter flying

2008-11-24T20:00:00.002+02:00

On Sunday several people enjoyed a nice, but cold day. Friends from the Jyväskylän region reported about a nice day of practice on the local hill, before their pilgrimage to Aldogonales, Spain, next week. We are supposed to believe that the snow guns were no bother at all, just providing a refreshing shower.

Another group gathered at Hyvinkää airfield to attempt traditional towing. The club's towing car wasn't quite up to the task as it is not fitted with studded, winter, tires. But they got a replacement car and had a couple of nice flights. Instructors Mika and Mladen did a tandem when all of a sudden a cloud formed at very low altitude. Luckily it was only some 10 meters thick. It is always special to fly above some cloud, and makes for extraordinary scenery.

A new look

2008-11-15T00:22:00.003+02:00

If you read this you already noticed the new look and feel of this blog. This blog now uses the same style as the Lokkilok business site. At the same time the address was changed to a simple http://blog.lokkilok.com; the old address should still work, but you may want to update any possible bookmarks and subscription.
A similar face lift was applied to the Lokkilok blog on technology Between the keys, and to the blog on other non-flying topics named La Testa Millimetrata.

Happy reading!

Before (the) dark

2008-09-22T11:53:00.003+03:00

After a week of greyness the sun was out yesterday! And we were keen to make the most of it as of tomorrow the nights will be longer than the days...
Co-instructors Rami and Mika had already set up everything when I arrived at an ungodly 7:30 at Hyvinkää airfield. There was a strong wind gradient, which is quite usual in autumn and winter under high pressure conditions. Also the wind was a bit cross, but it luckily it was not too strong for our students. We towed the students as much as we could, and once it started to be a bit thermic took a couple of flights ourselves. The air started to be buoyant here and there and at the same time the airfield surface became a bit turbulent, of course. So at 11 we decided to break for lunch. Rami suggested we all move over to the nearby Kärkölä field, a dirt road between (harvested) wheat fields. I was a bit skeptic, expecting too much thermal turbulence, but if that would be the case we knew it would soon calm down this late in the season.
It turned out that conditions were just perfect for teaching. Moderate too light, and straight, winds, and some nice weak thermals. It was often easy to talk the students into thermals and every now and then they had 10-15 minutes flights! I did a couple of flights myself, the best lasted over 30 minutes and took me all the way up to the very thick inversion at 700m. All in all it was a truly beautiful day; some of our students (and of course the instructors) had the stamina to go on into the twilight and made some 20 flights!
Mika and Rami made a bunch of pictures; especially the landowner would like to have some air shots of his harvester.

Camera in grey

2008-09-14T22:11:00.004+03:00

After a week of strong winds today was a bit calmer. We used the opportunity to resume instruction to our paragliding students and went to Nummela airfield. Although the sky was completely covered lift was abound and even the rookies had extended flights. Sakari, an experienced pilot, came by and had a nice half hour flight.
The grey weather provided a good test environment for my new camera, a Panasonic DMC-FZ28. After a lot of research on the internet I concluded that it should be about the right camera for me: a lot of zoom power but still just about small enough to take along. Today I didn't take it on any flight, but used it to make some pictures and video snippets of our students. When students launch and land I have my hands full with radios for instruction and air traffic, so only took pictures from quite a distance using the maximum 18x zoom. The picture above shows Antti landing, taken from an approx. 150 m distance (unprocessed).
So far I'm quite happy with the results and very happy with the "usability", I could easily handle the camera with my gloves on. Obviously I have to learn and practice with it quite a bit more, but the "automatic everything" settings indeed seem to work very well.

One more day

2008-08-25T10:15:00.003+03:00

Sunday had one more excellent day at Gréolières, in fact it turned out to be the best flying day of this trip. After doing some chores in the morning I launched slightly later than usual at around 11:30. By this time there were already some nice little clouds and at least one glider was high up the mountain. The light southerly meteo wind combined with the normal south-east valley wind to create big strong thermals so I quickly reached the summit of the Cheiron. The cloudbase was a bit low still, but I set out towards Coursegoules. At times it seemed better to head out in front of the mountain as the cloudbase was a bit higher there. Just before Coursegoules I turned back as the clouds were a bit too low there. I then tried several times to fly south towards Gourdon, every time getting a bit higher over Cipieres and a bit closer to Gourdon. The cloudbase was rising but the headwind was increasing too. Nevertheless on my last try I could probably have crossed the last ridge before the Gourdon plateau (see track); I was quite much closer than a week ago (cf. track). But as this was my last day I returned to Gréolières (picture) and landed after almost 3 hours of intensive flying to pack up, clean up, and head out to the airport. When I drove out of the village at 17:30 there were still several gliders sky high!

For maximum contrast with this excellent week at the Mediterranean the airline offered a rye-bread hamburger with potato salad which set up my stomach, and at Helsinki-Vantaa airport it rained with a cold northerly breeze to boot. Surely made me longing for the next trip!

A tricky trip completed!

2008-08-23T09:36:00.003+03:00

Friday we went again to Lachens to attempt the flight from there to Gréolières. This time the wind was a bit more south-west, there were a bit more clouds and the base was a bit higher. Most importantly the guys now knew the route a bit better and had a better idea about the valley crossings.
So Juha continued in very good form and made it very nicely, in fact he arrived high at Gréolières and went on along the Cheiron mountain to the end of the ridge beyond Coursegoules and then came back (see track). Congratulations! Tomi made it approx. halfway and landed close to Col de Bleine. Jori and Jarmo did not get high right after take-off and as the wind changed to west soon after had to land at Lachens.
In the afternoon we all had another nice flight at Gourdon, the site wasn't suffering from the westerlies at all and offered surprisingly strong thermals and a somewhat unusual high ceiling. All in all we had a terrific week with lots of flying, sun and warmth every day, and of course good food!

A tricky trip

2008-08-22T09:19:00.004+03:00

Wednesday the weather reports forecasted strong westerlies, and when I returned from the local Gréolières bakery to our gîte at 8 AM we already had our first wind gusts. So we decided not to fly. Instead we went to St.André to meet up with the pilots that are flying the last round of the British Open there this week. To our surprise it was calm in St.André and a task was set. It was nice to see some 130 gliders take off and struggle along the ridge. We spent some time in the local paragliding shop and then saw the first people come down in the landing field next to the shop. That seemed a bit too fast and indeed, the task was stopped due to strong winds. In the end we left St.André with one new harness and one new helmet :). On the way home we went to see the ever beautiful Gorge du Verdon, and had a refreshing bath in the fast flowing Verdon river. And then had a walk around the little alpine town of Castellane, before heading home to Gréolières again.

Yesterday the weather was perfect again. We left early for the Lachens site. The idea was to fly from there back home via the Col de Bleine, a flight of 27 km. The weather surely was "on" in Lachens, and soon the boys were exploring the Lachens mountain for lift (picture). Initially the inversion was a bit low, but soon it raised and cumulus started to form. So after a little while all four left the mountain and glided towards Col de Bleine. It seemed that they all didn't cross the valley in a suficiently direct way and hence Jorma, Jori and Tomi landed near Seranon. Juha catched another thermal low there but then did choose a too difficult route and landed near Andon. Nevertheless nice 1-2 hour flights for all.
In the afternoon we all flew another 1-3 hours at Gréolières in very buoyant conditions. After a shower we analyzed the day a bit over dinner and decided to try the same trip again today (Friday).

Busy days

2008-08-19T20:56:00.006+03:00

We Finnish pilots have been very busy the last three days. On Sunday we first climbed up to our "home" launch at the Cheiron mountain here in Gréolières. We took off in good conditions but fairly soon the forecasted west winds were causing quite a lot of turbulence and we decided to land and have lunch. Later we went to check out Gourdon. Conditions were a bit weak there, but Tomi got into the air quickly and had a nice flight. The rest of us were too late as the wind changed again to west and even north-west, i.e. over the back. This was the trigger to execute the next step of our plan, which was to drive to the famous Rocquebrune site above Monaco. In the summer flying there is only allowed in the evening as the landing is on the beach, which is crowded during the day. A bit surprisingly the wind at Roquebrune was from the north-east so we had to launch from the rarely used east launch (see picture above). But that worked quite well and Tomi, Juha, Jarmo and Jori all had a beautiful flight. Which was crowned with a nice dinner at the beach restaurant.

On Monday we again climbed up to our home launch in the morning. This time it worked better and we all flew some 2 hours (picture below with Juha in front of Cipières) before conditions became strong and lunch sounded inviting. After lunch we set out for Gourdon again where we enjoyed an abundance of lift. In fact we all had to pull "big ears" every now and then in order to get down a bit to avoid flying into clouds.

Today we went to the nearby Col de Bleyne site with the goal of flying from there back home to Gréolières, a short but not so easy 11 km trip. Juha made "goal" and Tomi got quite far, whereas the others "bombed out". It was good we were out early as the wind turned west again, making any further flying unsafe. So once we were all together again we drove to the beautiful Valbonne village for a walk and lunch. In the late afternoon we walked down to the Loup river in Gréolières for a refreshing swim. Nevertheless back at the top of the steep trail, with 260 m altitude gain in 28 C, we were surely in need of a shower! And hungry, of course...

Going places

2008-08-16T22:34:00.001+03:00

Saturday was really nice here in Gréolières. Together with Åke from Sweden walked up to the launch around 9:30 then relaxed for a while and took off after the local students and tandems. Thermals were strong and abundant and soon we reached the top of the Cheiron mountain. We had in mind to fly to Gourdon, but the southerly head wind seemed a bit too strong for that. On my second attempt I had a bit more height and found a much better line and it looked like I could make it but I didn't see any gliders over the Gourdon ridge. And as the winds were quite strong I deduced that conditions must have been too demanding at Gourdon.
So flew back and up again and now made a trip along the Cheiron to the east, to the village of Coursegoules. This was really easy: I never needed to turn in thermals but could simple fly a bit slower and then faster in the weak sink. On the way back curved over Cipieres and then flew back to Gréolières (see track) to land after 2 intensive hours. By now the balise (meteo station) at Col du Bleine reported already winds of over 40 km/h. Indeed the landing was already demanding, and it was very "interesting" to see Ozone's Dav land a recent Mantra R proto.....

After a quick lunch it was time to fetch Jori, Jorma, Juha and Tomi from the airport. Once back in the village we of course went to the famous Barricade for a really good pizza!

Blown out!

2008-08-15T21:19:00.003+03:00

This morning notorious optimistic pilots executed the plan that was designed last night at the Gréolières patron party: head out in the morning and try to fly Gourdon. So I collected Åke from Sweden, Simone from Gréolières, and John and Kerstin from England into the minibus and then we drove through Cipières to the Gourdon launch. Alas, our optimism did not suffice to counter the cold fact that the wind was already from the north-west, over the back. In addition huge clouds were building quickly and the front that was predicted to sweep by seemed quite a bit ahead of schedule. So back we went. Simone, John and Kerstin would pack and then leave for nearby St. André where the last round of the British Open 2008 will commence on Sunday.

I myself used the afternoon to check out a couple of the other sites in the neighborhood, Col du Bleine (picture above) and Lachens. Once I was at the top of the 1700m Col de Lachens, the post-frontal mistral was blowing with full force, it was actually difficult to stay put! The mistral did nicely clear out the sky so in the late afternoon it was all sunny, and hence nicely warm. So on the way back home I drove via Andon through the Loup valley and stopped near a trail that led to a very nice bathing place (picture below). All in all not a bad day at all, and there still is the village party to come!
The forecasts for the next days look very promising so we should have some good flying ahead of us.

Gréolières at Night

2008-08-15T13:54:00.004+03:00

Yesterday arrived once again in lovely Gréolières, in southern France. Lokkilok organizes another guided paragliding trip, 4 Finnish pilots will arrive tomorrow evening.
After some hassle with my easyCar reservation for a minibus I got here around noon. It had been sunny all morning but right then a cloud cover moved into the area. Couple of people were flying though, so I quickly organized myself and started the 35 minute walk up to launch. The first time it always feels a bit hard and now it was midday hot and humid to boot. Soon after I'd reached the launch the local tandem pilots arrived with their clients. Soon after they'd left I took off. There were only small pockets of short-lived lift and after some 20 minutes I landed. In the landing I was welcomed by more locals who suggested we go back up again, now with the 4-wheel drive navette that was bringing more tandem customers up. As soon as we were on launch it started to rain a bit, and within a minute that drizzle turned into a hail storm. All but one local pilot and my ran back to the only larger tree for cover and then requested for the navette to bring them down.
But we that sat it out could fly down some 20 minutes later. The hail had lasted only for 2 minutes and we simple waited a bit for the ground to dry and the thermal breeze to pick up again. The flight down was short though as there was almost no lift and still areas of strong sink, probably left from that hail storm. With hindsight we probably should have waited a bit longer.
Back in the landing field the locals all talked about the ball that was going to take place in the evening. It turns out that every year around the 15th of August Gréolières has a week of music, dancing, games and parties. It is apparently an old tradition to celebrate the patron saint of the village. So last night a good band was entertaining all: children, teenagers and adults alike with all kinds of music, from tango to hardrock. The same band has come for this festivities to Gréolières for 30 years! Tonight they play again, whereas tomorrow there a DJ and a local heavy metal band will take care of the music.

Perfect!

2008-07-30T20:46:00.004+03:00

Perfect it was indeed, this day of flying with friends at Kiikala airfield. After Sämpy did a bit of work on a second towing car we decided around noon that it was time to get flying. I planned a out- and return task of approx. 76 km from the airfield to the little town of Pohja and then back. The idea was to fly downwind early in the day and then fight the headwinds when the thermals would be stronger and the cloudbase higher. In addition the sea breeze front might help a bit on the way back.

I took the first tow around 1 pm and quickly got up to cloudbase, which was near 1800 m ASL (Above Sea Level). I waited a bit but didn't see anybody quickly joining me so decided to glide south to the next cloud. There were good thermals to be had on the way south but there were a couple of bands with different winds , causing quite much windshear. So at times it was hard to stick with the thermal all the way up. After a while I got into the right rhythm and got Pohja in sight. The air was quite clear and the scenery as good as it gets: lakes, forests, fields, and the coastline all in one view! (picture above)
And it was possible to see the Hanko peninsula. Flying to Hanko is a wish of many, and I did consider it for a couple of minutes. But I saw that the clouds near the coastline were much lower and moreover that last line of clouds was slowly moving north. So I sticked with our task. I got a bit low just before the turnpoint but there was a good thermal where I expected it and so got high right over Pohja.

The way back was actually easier then expected. There was more lift now and it was a bit more organized in clear lines. So although at some altitudes the headwind was up to 15 km/h after a good 3 hours of flying I was close to Kiikala again (picture below). Only then did I notice some of the other pilots: Jonas, Sämpy and Sebu, who all had flown a part of the route. Around the airfield I had to pull big ears, do spirals and turn in sink in order to get down and land after 4 hours of flying. The others landed within a couple of minutes, all very happy indeed! We all upload our tracks to the XContest (my flight as Google Earth track).

Pictures from Macedonia

2008-07-28T21:35:00.003+03:00

Webmaster Sami has added lots of good pictures to his album on Facebook. Picture 26 is I think the first picture from the Nordic Open 2008.

Thank you Sami!

Sad final

2008-07-27T00:17:00.005+03:00

Update: the results are available at http://www.nordic-open.eu/results.html.

For this last day at the Nordic Open a short 40 km task was set, due to almost complete overcast. Sadly Finnish pilot Joni crashed fatally on a ridge. The task was canceled to enable helicopter traffic, but rescue attempts were in vain. Hence the results after task 2 remained as final. Ronny won the Nordic Open 2008 and our Karo (who in the end was able to retain her points for Task 2) was the best female. Congratulations.

Naturally the spirit at the comp is low and the prize giving ceremony and closing party were cancelled and replaced by a sober briefing with a moment of silence. The thoughts of all the pilots and organizers are with the family, relatives and friends of Jony. We can find some consolation in the knowledge that Joni was passionate about flying but we will miss a very joyful, friendly and helpfull pilot friend.

Still no task

2008-07-25T10:23:00.001+03:00

Yesterday was the third day that we in the Nordic Open couldn't fly a task. The previous two days were spoiled by thunderstorms. And dominated by complaints and discussions about the airspace violations of Day 2. In the end the organization choose for a strict interpretation of the rules. Pilots that were less then 100m too high only received a warning others got 0 points for the day. For the Finnish pilots this meant that Jouni and Javis were no longer penalized but Karo now lost all her points and lead of the females.

Yesterday we went to another launch, behind the town of Prilep that we visited the other day. The last few km to the launch were dirt road and the trip up the mountain in the army trucks was exciting indeed.
At the top we enjoyed nice views over the valley, as the rains had cleared the skies. But an abundance of clouds, some with showers, kept our hopes for a task low. Some of us however used the opportunity to practice ground handling and indeed some soaring. A bit later the wind picked up and the day was cancelled. Only minutes later the wind was too strong for any flying. The forecast for today looked a bit better but we walked through the rain to the briefing.

Rain points

2008-07-23T10:30:00.001+03:00

Yesterday we went up the hill but soon it was clear that we would not fly. A front with strong storms was moving in, right on time according to the forecast.

The penalties for airspace violation were the talk of the day. On task 2 many people went clearly above the allowed 3200m. The organization allowed for a generous 2 % error and then spent the whole day checking all the tracks. In the end 24 pilots lost all points for the day and 3 were penalized 10 %.
Finnish pilots Ari, Jouni and Javis were among the unfortunate. Karo got the 10 % but nevertheless now leads the females!
Defending champion Ronny also got 10 % penalty but leads the overall results by 100 points.
Looks like the weather won't allow for a task today, yet....

High and hot

2008-07-22T10:42:00.002+03:00

So far we had excellent flying here in the Nordic Open 2008 in Macedonia. Sunday the task was to zigzag in front of the east launch and then fly south, for a total of 78 km.
I launched early and immediately had to struggle very low, but managed to find some bubbles and get back up. I started a bit late but the conditions were very good then and I could catch up a bit. Gradually it became clear that instead of the promised north wind we head to combat southerlies. In the final glide everybody made the same mistake to turn into the flats toward the goal too early where the headwind now was really strong, and thermals really weak. So nobody made goal. Defending champion Ronny got into the speed section cylinder of 1 km and won the day. I did 72 km for a 12th place.
The retrieval with army trucks worked well, with a cooling wind and nice views of the gorgeous sunflower fields.

Day 2 we launched from the tricky west side but most flew straight into a strong thermal. Many were quickly reaching the airspace ceiling of 3200m. The task was to fly east over the plain and then north and back with goal again into the flats, a 65km journey.
This time it was not a race but scoring was on individual elapsed time. So we pilots were more spread out then usual. The thermals were strong and the cloudbase high which allow the fastest pilots to complete the task in 1:48. Ari was the fastest Finn at 1:51 for an 8th place. I got myself into trouble a few times and needed 2:30, for a 34th place. Fellow Finns Jouni, Antti, Mladen, Javis, Kasperi, Make and Kimmo also made goal and Karo and Esa did some 50 km. All the results are provisional though as many pilots violated that 3200m ceiling.
The conditions were so good that several pilots flew back to launch and from there 10 km North while pulling "big ears" to stay below the ceiling. And then landed on top near a refreshing lake!

Ready to go

2008-07-19T20:05:00.002+03:00

As was to be expected my glider bag didn't arrive with me when I finally made it to Macedonia. So I spent Saturday watching people having fun in beautiful skies (picture).
Luckily my glider did find its way here to Krusevo last night so today I could practice.
The Swedes designed a nice 65 km task with legs along the mountain range as well as an out- and return leg over the flats. After 4 hours of very nice flying I arrived in the goal, apparently as the 15th or so pilot.
Tonight we complete the registration and have the opening party and then we're more than ready for the Nordic Open 2008!

A flat tire

2008-07-17T15:08:00.004+03:00

Update: once in Budapest I was informed that I'm actually on standby for the, overbooked, flight to Skopje. Sigh... Time to read up about the EU passenger rights! Luckily there is free and good wifi here at the airport.
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"A flat tire" was the standard excuse for coming late too high school. In the Netherlands we actually rode bicycles to school, for me it was 12 km one way and flat tires did actually happen.

Well, today it wasn't actually flat but according to the captain of the Finnair Airbus 320 it was severely damaged and had to be replaced. Of course this was figured out just when I and everybody else had boarded this morning on the flight to Prague. I always wonder why nobody notices these things in the many hours that the plane is standing at the gate.... Anyway there was no other clever route available so I ended up in Prague more than an hour late and of course missing my connection to Skopje, Macedonia. Czech Airlines has me rebooked via Budapest but I need to wait 5 hours in Prague and another 4 in Budapest and will get there first after midnight. And from the airport it still is some 150 km to Krusevo, the venue for the Nordic Open. But hey, perhaps this time my glider comes along and I'll be able to fly a bit tomorrow...

Warming up for Macedonia

2008-07-16T09:50:00.004+03:00

This year the Nordic Open 2008 paragliding contest takes place in Macedonia. The Nordic Open is a very popular yearly event, this year some 130 pilots will combat in the skies above historic Krusevo. The majority of participants are from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, but are joined by large groups from Macedonia itself and nearby Serbia with additional pilots from Slovenia, Bosnia, Hungary, and several other countries even Australia.

The Finnish contingent counts 19 participants, this event also is regarded as the Finnish Championship. In addition quite a few more Finnish pilots will be helping out with the organization, and do some free flying of course.
Unfortunately here in Finland the weather did not allow for much practice, a large low pressure system sits rock solid over Northern Europe and brings winds and rain. Many Finnish pilots left for Macedonia already last Friday. We that stayed here did a couple of tows at Hyvinkää on Monday, under an overcast sky and found only small patches of very weak lift, at best. A week ago we had some good thermal flying at Kiikala, but with little possibilities to go cross-country. And that's all for July so far....

But tomorrow I'll fly into Skopje to meet up with many other Finnish pilots at Krusevo, the venue for the comp. The forecast:

Time to go and pack sunscreen!
If at all possible this blog will be updated daily for the duration of the event.

Winds, clouds, and a couple of good flights

2008-06-30T10:21:00.003+03:00

The last three weeks pilots in Finland were pestered with unstable weather with over development pretty much every day, and on top of it strong winds prevailed. Nevertheless, at times there were some areas with clearer weather and last week saw a couple of good flights.
On Thursday Ari "303" Sahlström was reported to have flown some 140 km from a private winch field in Vampula to Hämeenkoski. Winds were really strong that day and rumor has it that the in the upwind part of his thermal circles Ari was flying backwards (relative to the ground).
Next day hangglider pilots Kari and Vesa flew almost 200 km, from the Kauhajoki airfield to Hankasalmi. Kari told us that the first 80 km were flown in string winds with broken thermals under a blue sky, and that they were mostly only between 700 and 200 m above the ground. They then reached another airmass with good clouds and with a base of over 2000 m. He thinks that with a slightly different route for the last part they could have gone a bit further still.
I myself did only fly on Saturday at the Yötä Myöten ("throughout the night") event organized by the hang- and paragliding club in Jyväskylä, Pitkävuoren Liitäjät. Luckily I arrived early in the day and could fly for a good hour. I tried to fly to the North where the sky looked good but was to slow and got locked in between cloud streets that rained on both sides of me. With no landing possibilities in the open corridor north and a cloudbase of only 1100m the only option was to land on the last nice field and pack up quickly, just in time before the rain (see track).
Later this week a high pressure system is expected and that should give us some better conditions. Also this week the European Championships (in paragliding) commence in Serbia. As far as I know without participants from Finland, but I'm keen to follow the results from the Dutch team, as well as various other friends. Wish you all good flights!

A Screaming Finish

2008-06-07T21:31:00.002+03:00

The last day of the British Open in Pedro Bernardo offered all the excitement and drama that one could hope for. A northerly wind over the mountains and the forecast of cloudcover in the late afternoon prompted the organization to set a task of a 63 km with a first leg south into the valley system followed by an out- and return leg along the valley. The idea was to keep the pilots closer to the village for a quick retrieve to ensure a timely prize giving ceremony.
Today the launch conditions were much better than earlier in the week and soon after the window was opened most pilots were in the air. Only to find that one had to struggle quite a bit to get and stay up. The northerly winds caused turbulent, broken, thermals that were not easy to catch. The start line was some 10 km from the mountain and in due time people glided across the valley. Where they soon found out that lift was very hard to come by. I myself had left the mountain a bit low and had decided to go for the small hills a bit east of the route, whereas most people aimed for the village that was baking in the sun. I arrived very low on that hill but did find some lift and carefully drifted with it up the hill where it gradually gained strength. Fellow scandinavians Mads and Tor flew into "my" thermal some 150-300 meter above me and got up quicker. The pilots over the village were really struggling low with people landing every now and then. Some tried to come over to us but from that low altitude could not make it and landed too. One even had to land in between the trees on the slope and had to spend the afternoon clearing the glider out of the tree. Meanwhile we had drifted into the start cylinder a bit early so after the start time, once we had some safe altitude, had to fly out some 100 m and come back. The gaggle over the village still had to focus so much on staying in the air that several forgot later to get out of the start cylinder. These poor fellows flew for hours to find out around the first turnpoint, at 32 km, that their instruments didn't automatically switch to the next turnpoint, which made them realized they'd missed the start....
My little group had grown to 6 with 3 more pilots joining us from above and together we made it quite quickly to near the first turnpoint (picture above). In that neighborhood we had to search a while and that gave the fastest 15 or so pilots from the "village group" a chance to join us. From then on it became a furious fast race to goal with everybody trying to do only the minimal amount of thermalling. Just before the 2nd turnpoint we were all a bit low and the pace slowed down somewhat; an opportunity for a few more pilots to catch up from behind. But the thermal we found there turned out to be pretty much the last one of the competition. Once our instruments showed that we in theory could glide to goal we started to glide to the goal.
I carefully kept an eye on my estimated height of arrival. For most of the time it showed some 60 m, but at some point it started to drop to 0 and then -70 m. When I then hit a small but good thermal I decided to do 3 turns and to gain some 60 m height. I actually gained 80 and then screamed on to goal at full speed. Like many other I made it (see track), but barely with only 20 m to spare! The whole group landed closely after each other, I was 19th with a very good time for 801 points. Below Joakim (SWE) welcomes Stein-Tore (NOR) into the goal field. Many of the pilots that were very low early on eventually made goal, but as said several of those had missed the start. But even these admitted that they had a fantastic day flying over 4 hours in the sun; the predicted overcast was nowhere to be seen.
Several people that had trouble earlier in the week made the goal this last day which made up for all the frustration from before.
Craig Morgan won the week in convincing manner, he had been leading out most of the time. I ended up at the 23rd place overall, a good result. More importantly I learned to fly with the leading group several times and for short periods even managed to pull the field. This racing in the flats, combined with the level of the other participants, was the perfect setting to gain competition experience and confidence. Let's see if that shows in the Nordic Open this July.
The evening was characterized by speeches, lots of free beer and small amounts of food and various announcements that the minibuses for the airport were to leave 6 AM, no make that 3 AM!

Waypoints and launches

2008-06-06T22:35:00.001+03:00

Today we walked to the briefing of the British Open under a completely blue sky. It looked to become an epic day and to that end the organization had created two new waypoints; that could be used to set an interesting task. All pilots had to enter the GPS coordinates of those points manually into their instruments. Which already contained the 101 waypoints that were downloaded at registration.
Once we were up the familiar west launch the new waypoints were used to set a spectacular 108 km triangle task. Unfortunately, the light easterly winds didn't allow for the launch window to be opened in time, so a new shorter task was set: a 63 km zigzag course southwards.
When a bit before 3 PM we still couldn't launch the organization decided to move us to the eastern launch. Once we were there the winds were no longer favorable there either and word came in that now it was good at the western launch. So we packed up once again and moved back. Back at the main launch the opportunities to take off were still a bit slim but the window was opened and after some more minutes of waiting Danish Mads Syndergaard showed how to get off the hill. His perfect launch meant that the organization now no longer could make changes to the task and timing. Pilots started to take off in bursts whenever a good cycle came through.
The first part of the task turned out to be tricky, working through scattered areas of lift against a headwind. Once out in the valley beyond the first turnpoint things improved. Two pilots made a brave move and went far ahead of the main leading group. Their move payed off and Craig Morgan (UK) and Cecilio Valenzuela (ESP) arrived in goal in just 2 hours, some 18 minutes before the slightly drawn out main leading group.
I myself had managed to catch up with the main group, then lost them a bit but in the end catched up again (see track) and ended up 14th, a personal best!

Over the plains

2008-06-04T22:52:00.005+03:00

Today the task in the British Open was to fly 75 km over the plains. The previous days were characterized by over development over the mountains, with rain showers in the afternoon. Hence it was a logical decision to try a task out into the plains to the south.
The task was changed once before the launch was opened but due to a clear headwind and a more organized take-off procedure all 100 pilots were in the air earlier than before. The sky look good with plenty of nice cumulus clouds, but over the mountain the now familiar dark monsters were already building up. After the start time a bunch started gliding southwards, while many were still working their way up close to the launch.
The field spread out quite quickly; I myself took a route close along the lower hills to the east which worked quite well. Over the plains the thermals were weaker and at times not well defined. Combined with a bit of cross- and head wind lower down the going was a bit slow. Typically small groups of gliders that got a good thermal would rise to over 2000 m and then overtake a lower struggling crowd. Those would then hit something and overtake the overtakers. The bottom of the large shallow valley was a tricky area to cross. Many were grounded close to the lake and most others had to work for a long time to get out of it again.
I'd gotten a very nice strong thermal a bit before the lake and our group glided out towards the lake, but spread out. I took the east-most route which looked promising, but I ended up a bit alone there. Eventually got up quite well there, but the pilots that flew along the western edge of the lake got up quicker and earlier. From there on flying to goal was fairly straightforward; essentially hopping from thermal to thermal along cloudlines and along a ridge of smaller hills (see track). The fastest pilots made goal in approx. 2.5 hours, I managed to get there just before 3 hours, in 24th place.

Clouds against the clock

2008-06-03T23:08:00.005+03:00

Update: managed to upload my tracks, day 1 (task canceled), and day 2 (61st place). The results for day 2 are also online now.

The first two days at the British Open were all about timing. Yesterday the launch was clouded in early but it looked like it would open up later. And indeed after a long wait a task was set and the window opened at 15:45. It was easy enough to stay up and to make the start and soon a small group of pilots led in front of a larger group. However just when the leaders were about to start their final glide it was clear that it was raining heavenly in the goal area. From a very ugly looking huge black cloud. So the task was wisely stopped and everybody had to land as soon as possible. As nobody had made goal yet the day was unfortunately invalid.
I was in the large group, we all landed some 10 km before the goal. That was the beginning of another long wait, as the organization had some problems with the retrieval system. But in the end we all came home fine.

This morning we were welcomed by a beautiful sunny sky. Much nicer to wait at launch in the sun, as opposed to could windy fog. The clouds were also clearly higher and we could launch much earlier, the window was opened at 13:45. Launching was a bit difficult for some as there were only brief periods with a clear headwind. I myself was luckily to get off the hill amongst the first dozen or so. At the actual start time of 14:30 most of use were close to cloudbase at 2100m and started to race to the first turnpoint, some 17 km to the South. Some brave, and better, pilots went for a very long glide and got low. But this fast opening was clever as only those were in time to make the goal before the clouds again won the day, and caused shadows and even rain.
I flew quite fast up to turnpoint 2, but around there made the mistake to not use a decent thermal but pushed further. The promising area I'd targetted wasn't as good as I'd expected so I lost valuable time when climbing up slowly again. In the end I just made the 3rd turnpoint for a 58 km distance, some 14 km from the goal. I landed in the rain, and the complete final leg was in the shade; many pilots landed between turnpoint 3 and the goal. Luckily the rain stopped while I packed up so I could walk and hitchhike in the sun. Today the retrieve system worked well, but I was happy to get a ride from a very nice local person that took along 2 more pilots a bit further down the road. Thank you! Back home I enjoyed dinner with the Dutch team, who had 2 pilots in goal today.

See Tom's post for a report from the leaders point of view and some good pictures.

Flight planning

2008-06-01T20:11:00.004+03:00

Planning is an important ingredient for a successful flight. It is always good to think a bit about the "road" ahead: what weather, type of landing places, airspace restrictions, etc., to expect. And about some alternative routes at various points. I'm thinking about this on the day I arrived in Pedro Bernardo, Spain, to participate in the first round of the British Open 2008. So how did I get here ?
Well in similar fashion one should plan a bit on where to go flying. What weather and conditions to expect in a particular time of the year, the possibilities to get retrieved, etc. Competitions are good in that usually experienced people have this all sorted out for you. But it just so happened that I left Saturday a picture perfect Helsinki (see picture above) to arrive in rainy Spain. This Sunday was reserved for practice and quite a few people flew a bit before the rains made them hurry for the landing field. Several gliders are now drying in the competition centre (picture below).
I myself didn't fly today. As usual my glider my glider didn't make it to the conveyor belt. So I spent the night in an airport hotel and picked up my glider in the late morning. I missed the window today by a small margin, but didn't miss a great flying opportunity and my glider is still dry. Not really planned for that though...

Snow, sun and fun

2008-05-21T21:11:00.003+03:00

Today made a nice cross-country flight from the Hyvinkää airfield to Karkola. Around 1 PM a group of pilots had gathered at Hyvinkää to make the best of the promising skies. Like the previous days there were clear signs of over-development. This means that the thermals and humid unstable air cause rapid creation of largish clouds already early in the day, to the extend that those clouds grow together and block all sunshine. Unlike earlier in the week it didn't look like it was going to rain so we hoped that the sky would open up again.

Jony was first to be towed up and hit a thermal, but too early in the tow. I was second and had a bit more luck in that I managed to get back into a good thermal after my release. The sky was practically completely covered with clouds, but above 500 m the thermals were good. I had planned to fly to Selänpää, a good 110 km trip. That turned out to be vastly over-optimistic.
Once I managed to work my way out of the restricted airspace the weather started to change. As we had hoped the sky did break up, but this transformation was accompanied by snow showers high up. I could see that the virgae did not reach the ground, but I flew through snowfall several times; interestingly while in clear sunshine! The snow was not only cold but came with strong sink, up to 7 m/s. At one point I was less than 100 m above the ground but hit a good thermal above a hill. The hill was topped with a radio mast that I had to circle around a bit! Some 6 km and another snow shower later I was low again. After 2 hours I was really cold and tired now and did not have the energy to make the most of some lighter lift I found. So landed some 33 km from takeoff (see track). Nevertheless, a 2 hour flight in unstable conditions surely made my day. Tomorrow the weather is probably a bit better again, and we plan to get together earlier in the day....

Warmth for some flying souls

2008-05-15T18:56:00.003+03:00

Lokkilok spent last week with a couple of Finnish pilots in our favorite Gréolières. The weather gods welcomed us with sunny warm weather, that was with us for the entire week. Thanks to a rainy April followed by this warm spell, the spring scenery was absolutely gorgeous. This year was definitely the most beautiful since 2003.
Although the last 2 days were too windy we managed to fly a lot, mainly at the Cheiron, right above Gréolières. One day we practiced some small triangles, which was good fun. Another day 2 of us tried to start a serious XC trip but the strong wind and sink made us change our minds. We also had some nice flying at the famous Gourdon site, where we were lucky or wise enough to be early before it got blown out.
One of the highlights was for the guys to fly over Monaco in the early calm evening.
Those last 2 days were windy, but nevertheless sunny and warm, and we had some good sight-seeing and walking visiting the Gorge du Verdon, Antibes, St.Paul du Vence, and the old-town of Nice.

click here for some more pictures

First XC flights

2008-04-27T18:53:00.002+03:00

Yesterday I flew my first cross-country (XC) flight this season. In Finland, that is. Saturday, quite a few pilots gathered for the first day of flying at the Hyvinkää airfield. After noon the conditions became clearly thermic when a couple of pilots managed to stay up. I launched a bit before 2PM and after boating around a bit decided that conditions were good enough to try to get away.

Hyvinkää airfield is within the Helsinki main airport zone. This means that one can fly away only in northerly directions, and initially one has to adhere to a 4000 feet ceiling. So with a prevailing north-westerly wind, like yesterday, strong thermals that are not to far spaced apart are required.

And strong those thermals were! More interestingly there were long lines of strong lift. Once I decided to start my glide north, I expected to fly into strong sink but instead I just kept going up! The lift line didn't last forever but the next thermal wasn't far away. One more glide later I was out of the restricted airspace and could go higher. I never went higher than 2200 m and that was still over 300 m below cloudbase. Up there it was freezing though, so after some two and a half hours I started to feel cold and decided to look for a nice place to land. I noticed a large gas-station next to one of the national roads, which looked like an excellent place. Easy to arrange the retrieve and a possibility to get some warm food! So after a bit over 3 hours I was on the ground again, some 63 km from the airfield (see track).

Meanwhile Vesku and Samuli did fly approx. 50 km to a field some 25 km south from me. Our good pilot-friend Jony came to fetch us all, thanks! And the day was finished in style with a sauna in the middle of some forest, as our club had organised its annual meeting there. We missed the actual meeting, but were in time for the sauna and drinks!

Excellent April

2008-04-23T20:00:00.003+03:00

After a couple of days with exceptional good flying weather in early April, we now have another very good week.
Friday we had a good afternoon and evening for towing our paraglider students. On Saturday I went to Jämi where it was too windy in the afternoon but in the evening we could open the season there too. I practiced hanggliding for a change; I keep my good old Airwave Klassic (picture above) there at Jämi. In the evening we enjoyed of course a sauna, together with the sky jumpers of the Tampereen Laskuvarjokerho. Their pilot was kind enough to share his hotel room with us, thanks!

Sunday we woke up to a sunny sky again and started to tow in the morning. It was calmer now but with clear signs of thermal activity. I did a hanggliding flight first and already could stay up for a while. A little later I took my son up for a paragliding tandem flight and we quickly went up to 1100m. Where it was freezing cold of course! But the views were nice and I was considering flying cross-country but then realized that we were not prepared for that. No wallet, no phone, no water and not enough clothing. So after boating around for half an hour we searched for some sink and then flew down, landed and warmed up ourselves again.
Later spent another half hour flying the, now weaker, thermals with my hangglider. Once back home had another sauna to truly warm up again, and surely had no trouble falling asleep.

Meanwhile some other pilots enjoyed very good conditions at Kiikala airfield. Below a picture by Kimmo who was at Kiikala for the first time and was up for several hours!

And the good weather has continued all through this week. This weather is so rare in April, perhaps that's why so far not sufficiently many of us have been able to escape the ground suck and get to an airfield. Friday seems to be our next possibility...

Practice, practice, practice

2008-04-16T22:35:00.004+03:00

Today afternoon went to our local "bunny hill" here in Helsinki. The morning rain was gone and the winds were easterly. Moreover the overcast blocked thermals, which in this place is good as it is turbulent enough without those.
This Malminkartano hill is a former dump of construction waste that has been landscaped. It is now an entry in the "our own town" series of the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper. The picture above with our Heimo launching on the main south-east slope made it into the printed paper last week.

Anyway, it is a good but challenging place to practice paragliding skills. Unless conditions are very calm the winds are almost always erratic. But the windsocks are very good, and there are 8 of them! There also isn't that much place to launch and in stronger winds it is easy to get blown over the top. Luckily that is not disastrous, the small bushes will catch you. Unfortunately the front, east, slope is rather forested nowadays. Still 5 years ago it was quite normal to launch straight east, you would easily fly over the then small trees. Within a couple of years the east slope will be "no-go".

After this winter with little flying I like all the practice one can get. Non-pilots, and new students, are always amazed at how much we practice ground handling, and on small hills like this. But every paraglider pilot knows that regular practice makes a huge difference. You get better at launching, so you can launch in less-than-perfect conditions, safely. You also get more precise in controlling the glider, which helps in light conditions, small thermals, tricky landings, etc. Above all practice gives confidence, of the good kind. Unjustified over-confidence is the enemy of safety, but true confidence makes you fly more, and fly more enjoyably. So we practice.

Over the last 5 years or so I've tried to be a bit systematic when practicing. I feel it helps, and makes sense, to make things deliberately more difficult at times; but in safe settings. Things like deliberately launching, or landing, in cross-winds even when there is room to head straight into the wind. So that when I am in situation where there is not such room I know what to expect and what to do. I also like to practice "low-saves", i.e. catching a thermal ever lower and see if I can still get up. And then go down again and try lower. Of course only when this is possible and doesn't impose an extra risk. At most of our airstrips here in Finland there is a house thermal next to the strip, so then there is plenty of place to land in case it doesn't work out.

Today the wind was mainly north-east-east and I did a lot of ground handling at the top. In 2 hours I only managed, and dared, to make two actual launches and flights. It required good technique and accurate timing, only after quite some practice I got it figured out. And I've been there many, many times before. What I did was to inflate a bit below the top on the east slope. As I could not really launch there, I backed up backwards and then steered to the right (south) all the time walking slowly with the glider inflated. Once I was on the south side of the stairs, and facing south-east-east I ran forward now with a cross wind of almost 90 degrees and launched. Once clear from the hill I could turn north, back to the slope side and into the wind. And today it was easy to get a bit above the hill again. But it was rough with the wind from this northerly direction, and that did not make it all that easy to stay high. Moving out front as usual only placed oneself into more turbulence, it was best to stay a bit closer to the hill and land on the bottom of the slope. Two hours busy and (only) 2 flights of perhaps 5 minutes each, but lots of fun. And good practice.

The season is open!

2008-04-05T17:20:00.002+03:00

Yesterday morning co-instructors Rami and Arto and myself had gathered most of our paragliding students at Nummela airfield. Very early in the year for us to be at an airfield. After an usual warm and sunny week practically all snow was gone and the field was dry. Only 2 weeks ago we were towing from the frozen lakes!
The prediction was for sunny and calm weather and we hoped to please all students with many flights. Once we started there was a bit more wind than we'd expected but not too bad. And up till noon we towed all students several times. Just when we were all getting hungry some students clearly floated in some thermal bubbles and stayed up for short periods. Likewise the erratic winds at our start indicated increasing thermal activity. Rami decided to check out the weather and stayed up easily. Then Arto towed me up and there were thermals everywhere. In fact surprisingly strong ones. In no time I hit the local airspace ceiling of 2500 MSL.
It was very easy to see the thick air laying above the greater Helsinki region. The air quality in recent days has been very poor, due to road dust (from the use of studded tires), fine soot (from fields burning in neighboring Russia) and pollen.
I glided a bit around the airfield and always found new thermals, at best a consistent 4 m/s up, with peaks of 5 m/s. As usual in spring the thermals were small and stingy, with strong sink adjacent to the thermals in narrow bands. After some 45 minutes I was really hungry and decided to go down. The lower 100 m above the airfield were quite turbulent now, and my rock ' roll in the landing approach convinced our students that we could not tow them now.
An hour later we instructors did some more flying and there was still plenty of thermal activity. But now with stronger winds and weaker thermals, so much more drifting.
After 3 pm I had to leave but Rami reported that later the winds calmed down and they continued to tow students, in the end some 50 flights were made.

No Thermal Winter

2008-03-11T20:51:00.004+02:00

Yesterday on the news here in Finland: for the first time since weather statistics have been collected (so in almost 200 years) the very south of Finland (including Helsinki) did not experience a thermal winter! This is defined as a period of at least 5 days with an average temperature below 0 degree Celsius.
Perhaps that serves as one explanation for the period of silence here on this blog. Other reasons include ground suck and illness. But in recent weeks several friends have been active flying both here and abroad.

Hapa guided a group of pilots to the sunny slopes of the Mont Blanc in Chamonix back in February. The picture above is by Jussi. More pictures (by Haukka) can be found here.

Several of the usual suspects have been making the uttermost of the few instants of flyable weather at the popular ridges at Junkkari, Porlammi, Hango and Suomenlinna. The not-so-steady winds resulted in quite some "tree-points". Finland is lucky to have lots of forest, but most flying sites have a few trees too many. Some pilots manage to do something about that....

Meanwhile I'm busy making plans for the summer, it is going to be full of interesting flying events. I plan to participate in round 1 of the British Open in Spain in early June. The next foreign event is the Nordic Open in Macedonia at the end of July. And at the end of August I'm going to help with a fun flying festival in Gréolières, in France, possibly taking a group of Finnish pilots along. In between those we of course expect many long beautiful flying days here in Finland; the days are clearly getting longer now. Everybody is hoping for a repeat of last year's spring, when we had epic flights in May.

Finns finished before the finnish

2008-02-03T00:35:00.001+02:00

Unfortunately none of the Finns made goal on the last day of the Pre-Worlds. The task was a short 56 km but with a few tricky places along the route.

Jouni was most unfortunate as after a twisted collapse he had 7 broken lines. Luckily he had the altitude and skills to get it all sorted out and land safely in a field.

Ari was in the leading pack but didn't find any lift near the Colora turnpoint. This area was a hurdle for many.

Jari fared better and almost made it to the next turnpoint.

Esa bombed out before the start and just went up again for an afternoon flight.

I myself (Robert) was doing very well up to the Gordo turnpoint but choose a bad line from there and didn't get up any more.

All in all team Finland could and should have done quite a lot better, especially Jouni and me. But we all surely learnt a lot and above all enjoyed the sunny sky, and the friendly atmosphere. We will be back next year, well prepared and with a lot of finnish sisu!

Euphoria and trees

2008-02-02T02:49:00.001+02:00

Another really nice day to fly. The task was a whoppy 101 km. In the afternoon nice clouds formed and some 40 pilots made goal where all were welcomed with cold beer and fruits.

Amongst these happy people Jouni who came nicely back after yesterdays early landing. Unfortunately Ari did not quite made it although he led the pack for the first half of the race. Jari and Esa did over 40 km.

Today it was my turn to have a really bad day. Shortly after launch I had a collapse while scratching low over a ridge. It was easy to clear the collapse but due to the strong thermal I couldn't turn away from the ridge fast enough and landed between the trees. Luckily without any harm. I managed to get my glider out of the trees and hiked up to launch. Once I had cleared all the lines from knots and checked the glider I took off again. And flew through the beautiful sky straight to the goal to meet Jouni and those beers!

Tomorrow we fly the last task and should try to improve our team score. Ari did indeed make goal yesterday, but with my adventure today we probably drop a bit in the nation ranking.

A bleak day

2008-01-31T19:00:00.000+02:00

We're chilling out in the patio of the HQ of the Pre-Worlds. This fourth day was tricky for most but could almost be called disasterous for us finnish pilots.
Only minutes after the start gate was opened Jouni and Esa discussed over the radio the exact whereabouts of their landings.

I myself (Robert) meanwhile was fighting only 20 meters above the ground at the foot of a small hill. Like many others I had lost vast amounts of altitude on the way to the start and first turnpoint. This was aggravated by unnecessary wandering about in sink in the mistaken believe that the start cylinder was 3 km, like yesterday; it was only 1 km so I should have gone straight, and fast, to the turnpoint.
I managed to get up from that tiny hill but with the headwind now stronger I still did not make the turnpoint and once more had to scratch at the same hill. Now got higher and could glide to the turnpoint, one hour late. Even though I glided furiously fast back to the ridge I was low again and had for the third time to fetch a thermal from the same tiny hill. By now I knew how to get up quickly and then could continue fast to the next two turnpoints. But all alone I did not find a new thermal and landed after 29 km (see track)

Jari didn't fly today and at the time of writing we don't yet know if Ari got to goal, 73 km. Hopefully he can save the day for us!

Strong winds

2008-01-31T08:00:00.000+02:00

Task 3 in the Pre-Worlds was a hefty 93 km long. Early after launch it was a bit more difficult than usual to get up as the southwest winds caused thermals to drift quite much. Likewise pilots encountered strong head winds in the first leg to the antennas. Here it was beneficial to be high. The legs into the plain to Lapila and back to the plateau were fairly easy but the final 33 km leg into the valley to goal was too much for most.

Our Jouni led the leading pack but stranded some 20 km before goal. Ari however did very well, he was among the first 20 in goal. At goal pilots reported 50 km winds! Jari and Robert (track) landed early in the final leg.

The competition is now halfway and the Finns now place:

Ari 10
Jouni 41
Jari 108
Robert 109
Esa 142
Finland 8

Breakfast before task 3

2008-01-30T07:30:00.000+02:00

Like every morning the Finnish team in the paragliding Pre-Worlds enjoys breakfast in a local restaurant. A meal with juices, yogurt, fruits and coffee carries a pilot a long way. Just to be sure some add a hamburger or two,

Yesterday a very different 71 km task yielded very similar results. Ari and Jouni once again made it to goal, in the top 30. Robert did 61 km and Jari only a little less. Esa improved and now flew 15 km. The Finnish team could now hold the 8th place.

In the evening I compared and analyzed some tracks and concluded that I should fly still a bit faster and above all more decisive. With that in mind we're off to the launch again!

Windy day one

2008-01-29T01:45:00.000+02:00

Pilots are dropping in here at the HQ of the Paragliding Pre-Worlds. The first task was flown in at times rather windy conditions, which caused quite some turbulence.

Finnish pilots Jouni and Ari (in the picture) flew the 73 km to goal. Jari and Robert landed after a good 50 km. Esa bombed out shortly after the start.

I lost unnecessary much height at the start and then had to struggle a long time to get across the plateau to the antennas. Later I could speed up but the last leg was completely in the shade once I, and many others, got there. After 4 hours of intensive flying everybody seems really tired...

Warming up

2008-01-26T02:48:00.001+02:00

The last two days have been an excellent warm up for the Pre-Worlds for me. Yesterday flew my new Mantra for the first time. A 2 hour flight in the turbulent Mexican air gave ample opportunity to get used to the feedback and to learn how to deal with collapses. Later had another flight in the very smooth late afternoon which gave me a chance to actually look at my new wing.
Today a flew the same task as the competitors in the Monarca Open; and after 60 km and 4 hours made goal and landed in the village!
Finnish pilots Jouni, Arska and Kasperi all made goal today. With two more days to practice we should indeed be in good shape!

A long journey

2008-01-23T05:23:00.001+02:00

My trip to Mexico started early this morning. At the airport changed into a light jacket and sandals. Here in Helsinki we now have light snow and frost but after some 20 hours I expect Mexican sun and 30 degrees. Well not quite as I wont arrive before the evening.

On the picture the ever crucial luggage tags; let's see (and hope) that this will be the first time that my glider arrives together with me at a major comp...

More prep: improving a harness

2008-01-18T21:43:00.000+02:00

After my October trip to France I noticed that one of the rings that conduct the speedbar lines had come loose from my SupAir Vamp harness. The harness is covered in neoprene and that simply seems to flexible to hold such rings just like that. A local sail maker came up with a very nice fix, as shown in the photo above. On both sides of the neoprene a circular patch of cloth holds a heavier patch in place. The heavier patch is also glued to the neoprene. A new ring was then put into this sandwich. The circular patches should not affect the movement of the neoprene and hence not impact the streamlined shape of the harness. This turned out to be quite a bit of work so the sailmaker didn't fix the ring on the other side (which hasn't come loose yet) but gave me a DIY kit instead.

Last week I had a change to test the fix, as well as my new leg fairing, on a couple of flights. And yes it all seems to work fine. And flying with my legs "inside" felt very comfortable indeed. But I have not yet found the ideal setup for my instrument deck yet.
After a lot of trouble with a broken car engine I finally came home from France, almost a week later than planned. Nevertheless, after obtaining some crucial insurance statements today it looks like I'm getting ready for the Pre-Worlds now....

The first group of Finns should be in Mexico now to participate in the preceding Monarca Open and we're eagerly awaiting for their first reports.

Seasonal News

2007-12-25T14:44:00.000+02:00

Yesterday morning we received alarming news. Farther Christmas was spotted in some troublesome circumstances at the infamous "Wall" of Finnish fortress island Suomenlinna, just in front of downtown Helsinki. That site is frequently used by Finnish paragliding pilots, but is known to require significant skill and even more carefulness, as winds can pick up very quickly and large vessels pass closely by causing furious rotors. Understandably Santa must have been in some hurry, and must have compromised his usual careful assessment of the conditions.
It was with great relieve that we only some 12 hours later received joyous reports from Iquique, Chile, where Santa landed safely on the beach and was welcomed by many happy children.

Lokkilok wishes to thank reporters Markku L. and Jussi L. and all others who must have assisted Santa in his yearly epic adventure.
Finally, we wish all our readers Merry Christmas!

Finns flee to Spain

2007-12-12T11:12:00.000+02:00

This time of the year the chances of getting some air under ones feet are slim, here in Finland that is. The days are short, the clouds plenty and very low, and the fields wet and soft. And this global warming thing doesn't really help until it warms up a lot. So Nordic residents get depressive and need therapy in the form of parties, alcohol or just light.
An even better remedy is to flee to a sunny place with good flying opportunities. Last week some 24 Finnish pilots enjoyed the sunny skies of Algodonales, Spain. Those who had to stay at home need more parties and alcohol to cope with the reports of nice 3 hour long flights. This (Finnish) report has a bunch of pictures. This week another delegation of over 10 pilots try to keep up the good spirit in Algodonales.
(the pictures here are by Mika Pousi)

Meanwhile in Brazil...

2007-11-15T14:49:00.000+02:00

...SOL Team pilots Frank, Rafaelo and Ceceu set a tentative new paragliding world record of 461,8 km. Congratulations!

Extreme Parawaiting

2007-11-13T16:16:00.000+02:00

So what do Finns do in November, when it is too windy to fly ? Well surfing of course! November storms sometimes result in a really good surf and that time of the year the sea is usually not frozen over, yet.
Finnish pilot and kitesurfer Hapa and friends enjoyed the conditions at Hanko last weekend....

The next goal: Mexico

2007-10-21T09:37:00.000+03:00

A week ago or so received an email notification about being accepted for the Pre-Worlds 2008. This is a competition that will take place in the famous Valle de Bravo in Mexico, in February. As the name suggests it is a kind of practice event for the real World Championships that will be organized by the same crew at the same place in 2009. For us from Finland the goal fro the Pre-Worlds will be to get as many people as high as possible to secure participation for several pilots in 2009.
Although the area is frequently visited by pilots from Finland I myself have not been in Mexico before. So good preparation is in order. Hence, when my son asked me if we could go to France during his autumn break it was an easy decision to go to our favorite Gréolières. Actually it was quite difficult to get decently priced tickets but in the end we got here on Wednesday night. Thursday we did a couple of tandem flights here at Gréolières, and I did a solo flight at Gourdon. All short ones as we missed the best thermal time of the day a bit. It is autumn and the good window is shorter now. Friday we went to Monaco and did a stunning tandem flight in perfect conditions. We simply engulfed the scenery and forgot to make some pictures! We landed just in time to catch the bus back up to launch to fetch our car. Only in France can they have excellent, cheap, public transport to serve paraglider pilots: the bus leaves from the steps that lead to the beach every day at: 10:00, 11:15, 14:00 and 15:15.
At the Roquebrune launch we actually experienced an interesting phenomenon: there were a dozen or so pilots, all waiting for the conditions to become "good", while as far as I could tell those conditions were just perfect. But you don't launch light-heartedly when the locals who fly there every day tell you that it isn't good. Especially when one of them is the president of the local club. But their explanations about why it wasn't good weren't very convincing and it really looked good to me so after half an hour I had enough and we took our wing out. I said that we were going to try, carefully, just straight out and then down to the beach. And nobody said we were crazy or so, and off we went. As expected it was all just really nice. Once we were on the beach the others launched of course and flew the thermals for an hour and a half or so.... Of course it is much better to e safe then sorry, but it is also silly to get trapped in group psychology where everybody waits for everybody else to take a decision.

Ozone Fest at Nummela

2007-10-07T22:53:00.000+03:00

This morning woken by the sun, and by an incoming text message that urged paragliding students (and instructors) to come to Nummela airfield asap. Before 11 we had a nice crowd there. Initially the wind was very cross and some low fog clouds prevented us from towing but gradually the sky cleared out a bit and the wind turned South, and the towing could begin!
I actually encountered buoyant air and even some small patches of lift, nice! Once I landed I noted that all gliders present were from Ozone, so it looked as if we had some special event going on. I'd to leave early to fetch some scouts from a weekend event but I'm sure everybody got a couple of tows in nice conditions.

Autumn is here...

2007-09-26T15:15:00.000+03:00

...but it is exceptionally warm this week and several pilots have been ridge roaring in the Saimaa lake district.