AeroModeller – June 2018

(C. Jardin) #1

Free Flight Duration


HOLIDAY ON ICE 2018,


GJOVIK NORWAY


MIKE WOODHOUSE COMPETES IN THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY CONTEST OF THIS FF EVENT HELD ON A FROZEN LAKE


16 AeroModeller - June 2018

N


orway for the 30th HOI.
Sadly, this anniversary year
was the concluding event
of the series. So as much
as this is a report of the last
event, as a farewell piece there will be a
little nostalgia.
Before writing this I thought that I
should read the report that I made some
30 years ago back in 1988. Why did
we choose to go all those years ago?
That fi rst trip included the late Gerry
Pink, Bernard Asslett, Dave Oldfi eld and
myself. Over the years a number of other
UK fl yers have been and had ago. Back
in 1988 we had all seen the pictures of

the fl ying of models on the ice and it
looked good; we wanted to have a go. I
got hooked and since then I have made
it every year. Three others have also
recorded a complete set and they are
Bror Eimar (Sweden), Ossi Kilpelainen
(Finland) and Vegar Nereng (Norway).
The reason for the end was down
to a steady drop of entries, an aging
organising team plus erratic weather. In
the early days the weather was always
good in that although we were fl ying in
zero-degree temperatures there was
little wind and the surface of the lake
was AOK. In recent years the event has
been cancelled at various times due to

lack of ice, high winds and bad surface
conditions. This year it was cold, the
coldest we had experienced - very cold,
being minus 20C. Gjovik was resting
under the heaviest snow fall since 1895!
With a heavy wind drift at the start the
contest was an endurance test! One
diff erence this year was that the lake was
frozen for its full length and the ice was
so thick that we could actually park on it.

Challenging Conditions
The fi rst job, once the gear had been
dragged out by sledge into the centre,
was to clear the snow away in order to
get down to the ice to fi x the stooge.

HOLIDAY ON ICE.indd 16 26/04/2018 14:

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