2016 Jul.

Øyvind Moe: 4708 km in ten days

ASH 31 Mi-Pilot flies from Elverum to Poppenhausen and back

Our Norwegian representative Øyvind Moe recently visited us with his ASH 31 Mi. Not, however, with a car and trailer but only with his aircraft at the most southerly point on his tour of the Baltic Sea. He started from his home airport Elverum in Norway on 31 May 2016.

Overview of the whole route

His ten day tour then took him to Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and finally Germany. After his stay in Poppenhausen, which was also used to do some minor maintenance, he returned to Elverum via Denmark and Sweden.

This added up to a total of 4,299 OLC-kilometers. By measuring the distances directly the total comes to a remarkable 4,708 km. This also shows that Øyvind needed to use the engine relatively infrequently.

With short sentences he describes the individual stations of his trip.

Øyvind Moe’s Foreword:

For most glider pilots the departure airfield and the destination airfield is at the same place except when you unintentionally have an out-landing. When you are comfortable to do cross country tasks of 300-700 km a day and make this a straight flight you will cover a significant distance. This take a little bit more planning, piloting skill and weather understanding. This is touring. With a high performance SLG this is absolutely possible. My plan was a Baltic Sea round trip…

Day 1 - 31.05.2016

Elverum (NO) – Arvidsjaur (S)

OLC-Distance: 589 km / Direct Distance: 679 km

Øyvind Moe: “A little anxious. What to do? Will I turn back at the Swedish border? No, soaring was great for the most part and I was very focused on reaching the destination without any engine help.”

Day 2 - 01.06.2016

Arvidsjaur (S) – Kuusamo (FI)

OLC-Distance: 369 km / Direct Distance: 470 km

Øyvind Moe: “Weather was still good for soaring. The predominant weather situation is moving north-east with my route. Heavy rain shower at the destination when I arrived. Making a final glide to the destination airport you have never been before is cool, but also demanding.”

Day 3 - 02.06.2016

Kuusamo (FI) – Räyskälä (FI)

OLC-Distance: 516 km / Direct Distance: 613 km

Øyvind Moe: “In the last minute I received a rejection of my application to enter Russian airspace, so I made a change to the south instead to the Finnish gliding center. You are specially welcome and you meet a lot of nice people when touring. Sauna in the evening was mandatory.”

Day 4 - 03.06.2016

Räyskälä (FI) – Ridali (EE)

OLC-Distance: 235 km / Direct Distance: 231 km

Øyvind Moe: “Crossing the sea is always fun. Stopping the engine when the computer shows decent altitude when reaching the shore and a little further to pass the sea breeze zone.”

Day 5 - 04.06.2016

Ridali (EE) – Suwalki (PL)

OLC-Distance: 410 km / Direct Distance: 445 km

Øyvind Moe: “Three borders to cross. Nice”

Day 6 - 05.06.2016

Suwalki (PL) – Leszno (PL)

OLC-Distance: 516 km / Direct Distance: 543 km

Øyvind Moe: “Midway from east to west Poland I was lucky to experience wave. No mountains, just flat, but still wave due to an inversion at 1.100 meters altitude with small cumulus and significant wind shift and wind increase.”

This flight of 494.9 km has also been recognized as a Norwegian goal flight record.

Day 7 - 06.06.2016

Leszno (PL) – Huhnrain, Poppenhausen (D)

OLC-Distance: 425 km / Direct Distance: 488 km

Øyvind Moe: “Almost made it to Huhnrain, but the last few kilometers had to be supported by the engine.”

Day 8 - 10.06.2016

Huhnrain, Poppenhausen (D) – Flensburg (D)

OLC-Distance: 264 km / Direct Distance: 446 km

Øyvind Moe: “The weather was a bit more demanding, so help from the engine was necessary.”

Day 9 - 11.06.2016

Flensburg (D) – Alleberg (S)

OLC-Distance: 542 km / Direct Distance: 542 km

Øyvind Moe: “May be the most interesting part, from Germany to Sweden without using the engine. Crossed Storebelt at the absolutely minimum possible altitude. Arrived at the Swedish national gliding center which this week-end hosted large scale models only. I was very welcome with a 1:1 size.”