World Soaring Masters 2008
The link to this place for direct and fast access should be:
www.F3X.no/WSM/2008
Jojo also have a diary HERE
All pictures unless noted Jo Grini

Be sure to check these blogs:
Mississippi Valley Soaring Association
Louisville Area Soaring Society
NEW THIS PAGE on RcGroups

24.sep 2008 - More pictures
HERE is more pictures of the last day

21.sep 2008 - Last day
Results finals - Results after preliminaries
A kind of short day but a good one. We started early with ground fog and very calm conditions. The differences were still pretty big if you flew over the corn or the air that came from that. Some of us did not did too big mistakes and got to the finals. We had a blast though in some ways most of the final rounds were a landing contest. But we get a good winner in the end and we did have to struggle hard in some of the rounds. All very good pilots in this final. No throwouts in this contest means that many large names dropped right out of the last part. It was hard work about half of the preliminary rounds I would say.
personally I am very pleased. My first flight in the finals was my worst but at the same time my best. I don't know if I have ever followed a thermal that low and far out and still get home. Very happy with that.
A very nice contest indeed and we were "blessed" as they say here with nice weather all weekend. Will have to write more later but thought I would give you all the scores and a few pictures.
David (my favourite spotter in this event) just cant get about it again can he? He is just a busted old man at 38 (he told me to write this with a smile :) David is a great guy.

Pilots and planes in the finals
Bob McGowan - Supra
Borst - Supra
Cody - Espada RL
Mike Smith - Aspire
Murat - Pike Perfect
Wurts - Supra
Ben Clerx - Aspire
Jo Grini (Jojo) - Pike Perfect
Frickey - Pike Perfect
Walter - Supra

20.sep 2008 - Second day (3 days competition)
Results after day two of the competition
Crashed into the Hotel at 23:00 but thought I would give you all a small updated anyhow. Long day again and today was a bit different. Calm in the morning but booming mid-day. So much booming that some of us got a real big surprise. Philip Kolb that had been doing perfect scores found himself in 30m after just a few minutes. Worked hard for 5-6min but landed out. NO throw outs here so that was a hard hit. Lots of other good names also got a hit. The day ended fairly dead with small bumps that moved around. A big front came in but we were lucky to see the sun and got hot weather all day. We had a small discussion on rules but the contest director and jury handled it well and sorted it out. This is a new kind of contest and tweaks will be made for next years rules I am guessing. Format we fly is great and should suit both sides of the pond and down under. Barbeque was done typical American in the evening on site though me and some other very good "abi's" went for a cool Japanese restaurant (so we actually did two dinners after each other ;)
The "Radian" foamy cup was ended today also after 4 preliminary and one final round we got ourself some winners. Very cool to see Little Lee from Louisville do the trick and get a long flight and nail that landing. I got some great video to post later I hope.
Some might wonder what planes are doing well? Well there is a lot of Supra's over here doing well. Lots of Perfect's. Those two kinds are well represented. But in first right now is Cody Remington with his Espada RL (with the new Espada RL rudder)
Me and Larry (my room-mate and good friend) are dead beaten right now but so happy!! Personally I did not get any hits today and moved slowly up the list all day. Even with a hit I would be very happy since the conditions were much more fun to fly.

The winners in the Radian foamy cup! A great show

19.sep 2008 - First day (3 days competition)
Results of the first day of competition
What a day! This is some competition! Not kidding here!
Great format, great pilots, hard air in the morning though stupid air in the middle of the day and out ("Helen Keller air" they call it here).
This competition is done on winches and we launch one by one but as fast as possible after each other. That means when one is half way up the next one has to launch. 12 winches on the line and most groups was with 8-10 pilots. We also launched next group halfway thru the last ones working time so we got a lot of flights in. 6 rounds in total and we are not halfway to the finals yet. There is no throw out and the normalized score you get you have to take into the finals on Sunday. Good concept. Might be good with a throw out but cool. Only drawback we could see with this concept is that one can do a bit tactical since the previous group already shows you the air. But it evens out a bit since we fly so many rounds.
Philip Kolb is leading with a perfect 6000p score. He seemed to have found the groove today. Lots of good flying by so many out there today. To follow a round was off course most fun in the morning or late flights.
Myself? Well I found out after round 4 that I actually had been mounting two similar models but switched wing/fuses... No wonder I thought it flew strangely and had to work harder than normal... bummer. But after the first miss I did great flights the rest of the day.
After todays flights (last flight at about 5PM) we flew a Horizon Cup with the new Helizone Radian electric planes. They pulled 10 pilots from all over the list and flew 2 groups. Was not there for the results sadly so I dont know who won but I do got some cool video of the first one if I get the time to assemble it.
Enough writing as it is late. So much to mention but too late.
More pictures from today HERE

18.sep 2008 - practice day
Practice day and lots of fun to see and hear my buddies in soaring.
Most git some flights in either on hand launching, bungee or TD winches. Thanks to those that brought equipment out there. The AMA winches are up and they seem ready to go. Someone counted 11 world champions out there. Pretty cool. Did I mention Mike's Cuban cigar's?
MORE pictures HERE

17.sep 2008 - evening
Safely in the Signature Inn hotel with all planes! Dinner with Larry, Thomas, Ben and Arend before we hit the bed early.
Practice day tomorrow!

17.sep 2008
Jojo is on his way to WSM (World Soaring Masters)
Currently in an Airbus over the ocean!
Left home 03:15 and was at OSL 05:40 in very good time for my flight to Arlanda 08:35. In Arlanda I got onboard an SAS Airbus to Chicago and should be at O'hare in 8 1/2 hour. Then a short flight to Indianapolis were I will be picked up by Larry Jolly together with the Turkish guys.

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