34 year old dude from Norway, loves hanggliding and all that is fun :-) Can be reached on phone +47 928 62 877, but I prefere writen messages, so please write email (estrandl@online.no).

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Bogong Cup 2005

Finally, here are the Norwegian results of the Bogong cup 2005 :-)
14. Jon Gjerde (well done, Jon)
41. Otto Baste
42. Stein Edgar Strandli

Totally there were 55 pilots in the competition with some of the best pilots in the world participating.

Bogong Cup is one of the best competitions I ever been to, very well organized and a beatiful place to fly. Carol Binder and Heather Mull had done an excellent job getting sponsors and organizing everything.

Flying! The tasks were from 75 km to 145 km and the weather was generally great except from the last 2 days which were cancelled. I had my first flight with Johnny Nilsen's brand new Airborne C2 the first competition day. The C2 was a very nice wing to fly and I felt at home in the wing straigth away. First competition day was also my first flight with the wing and I made a solid 45 km with it on a difficult day with a lot of cirrius clouds. No one came to goal that day and I made a 31st place.

The next day the task was 125 km and we launched at Mt. Emu. The day was very good and cloudbase around 2500 m. I ended up in Happy vally after 95,6 km flight before the 3rd turnpoint.

Day 3 we went to Mt.Buffalo with its ramp on the edge of a 200 m free fall and almost 1000 meter down to the landing, very nice place except that we were 55 pilots rigging on a mountain inbetween trees and on mountain edges and there was very little place for everyone. The task today was 145 km and I got away in a gagle of 10 pilots, made the first 2 turnpoints and then the difficult part started; I got really low and got a thermal 50 meters above the ground on the final and then back up to 2700 meters, glided out the heigth and didn't get any more thermals before I was on the ground. In distance I only came approx. 60 km. One thing I learned during the competition is that you need to fly really fast to manage these big distances, and to fly fast you need to do the thermalling very good.

day 4 was not a good day for me, spent more time in the toilet than in the air. Bombed out after 30 min flight, started in very weak conditions and we were some people who bombed out.

day 5 flying at Mt.Mystic. Stomach still not very good, but getting better. The task was around 125 km and the conditions were very hard. Spent 1.5 hours just to get away from Mystic and when I flew over to Mt.Buffalo there was no lift left (Mt.Buffalo is a early place to fly from). We were some pilots that had to land out in the vally again. Jon Gjerde tucked at one of the turnpoints, but managed to get away with it just hanging on to the bottombar with both feet in the sail, he flew to goal that day!

day 6, another day at Mt.Mystic got a good start and went off for Mt.Buffalo again, got good height in the valley, but ended up very short anyway only 15 km.

day 7 and 8 cancelled

Totally the competition was a really good experience and I got a total of approx. 16 hours of flight during the competition.

Pictures from the prize ceremony and Mt.Buffalo: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=601514

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Made it to Brigth, Nice place bad weather.

Yesterday me and Niklas went to Mt.mystich, non of us did not fly becourse of the strong winds up there, and i was not to happy to start with the new wing in the bad conditions. On our way back down, i saw a 2 meter long black snake, I hope i dont meet one of those things one the landing field, becourse it was realy fast! The weather forcast is not good at the moment rain and tunder for the next day, it migth be good befor Bogong cup starts.

Monday, January 17, 2005

Great flying with Bob Bailey and his dragonfly

Yesterday me and Otto went flying together with Bob Bailey in his dragonfly. I got some great videoshoots when lowflying in the river and canals around Hay, chasing birds and other pilots :-). We got also some great shots of airtowing from the air, I will see if i put some of the film on my webpage later.

At the moment i am in Tocumwal in the gliding senter, great place, and i continue to Mt. Beuty and Bogong tonigth.

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Going to Bogong

Today me and Otto is traveling down to Bogong, Otto is stoping in Tocumwal at Tove's place and he is going to fly some gliderplanes and Dragonflyes. I will continue to Bogong for the Bogong Cup which starts the 22 january. I have rented Johnny's Nilssens Airborn C2 so now i should be prepared for the competition with a good wing, hopefully i will testfly it tomorow or this evening.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Video from the ceremoni to Robin

Hi, the video is now public and at can be found on my homepage:
http://www.strandli.net/strandli/strandli.nsf/viewBlob/robin_memorial/$file/robin_memorial_256.wmv



Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Tragic days in Hay

Right before i arrived in Hay my good friend Robin, died in a tragic Hanglider accident. All the pilots here are deeply shockt and the Norwegian Team has desided to not fly in the rest of the competition. We had a beutifull ceremoni in the evening of the 10. Here you can see some pictures from the ceremoni: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=584767

Me and Ot2 have made a video from the ceremoni, which we will put on my page later today.


Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Bought a car, on my way to Hay for the World Championship

Today a bougth a car to get around in australia, its a nice old Toyota tarango, with bed and everyting in it, all i need now is a roof rack and i off I go to Hay where the World Championship is held. Looking forward to get airborn. And for those of you wonder, I am not partisipating :-)

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Australia, finaly

Finaly i came to australia after 28 ours of flight. Nils Aage manage to fix mee a Hangglider down here in no time, so now my prim target is to get mee a car to drive around with. I also got a australian phone number, so for those of you who need to get in touch with me can call me on +61405746697. I have been playing tourist her today and looked at flying foxes (big bats) and big spiders and the opera in sydney, great place.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Made it to London, Australia here i come.

Today was stress! 2 days 1,5 ours sleep. but i manage to get to airport in time, stuffed with GPS's to the Norwegian HG team in oz. see you there.