Hanggliding around the world

Tibet and Nepal

2006-12-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

Nepal and Tibet are 2 incredible countries offering a culture very differnt from a western way of life. People are very friendly and if you are not used to travel, this place will give you a culture shook. But give it some days and you will see people are the same all over the world, they have only differnt ways of approching theire belifs and lifes.
The first picture is of the worlds highest mountain. Mount Everest as I fly by with an airplane, not my glider even though it would be fun to try that some day :-)

Picture 2) is also of Mount Everest, but from the monastry on the tibetian side only 5 km from the mountain.
Picture 3) I couldent help it but, I just loved this sign, some times short versions of words dosent always come out that good, tits in this sign actyally means "Turist Information Travel Service"

Picture 4) Kids are just great, they make the best fotoobjects ever, this kids are from Tibet somewhere where the bus had to make a stop becouse of a flat tire. Smiles are universal, you dont need to understand the language to have fun, smile on :-)

Picture 5) Sunrise over Mount Everest with the panoramic view of the mountains around. Temperature when taking this picture "Very cold!!"

Picture 6) Holy man from Nepal, actualy he might not be that holy since he is charging for the picture. anyway he looks cool. The smoke in the background is from the fires of the cremation of the deads next to a holy river in Katmandu

Flight reports: A very interesting place to fly I been told. My good friend Otto Baste had a expedition down to Nepal around 1994 I think in the Anapurna area. Also the famous Italian Angelo d'arrigo http://www.angelodarrigo.com/ made his flight over everst here in 2004. I did not find any hangglider pilots when I was there, but there are a Paraglider club/tandem operations in the Anapurna mountain range for those of you willing to check it out. You will be flying close to Pokhara and get an unparalleled view of “fish head” mountain and the Anapurna range, price (~$50-$75) for a tandem flight

I think this is one of the "Must come back places with my glider", but then spend much more time here.

India

2006-10-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

After being home to earn some more money, I am back on the road :-) but only for three weeks. At the moment I am in India and enjoying life. Tomorrow I travel to Nepal and after spending some time there over to Tibet. I give a brief report later when I find a quicker internet line ;-) India is by the way an excellent place for flying, even that I am not flying here. Picture is showing Tahj Mahal

Vaga open 2006

2006-08-02T02:06:00.000-07:00

This year I and some friends was organizing the 2006 version of Vaga open and the nordic championship. I did the scooring among other things. It was a huge success with 6 out of 8 flying days and people in goal everey day. For me personally it was not my best competition, since I had a problem with my shoulder and went down to land several days becouse of pain (To much time in front of my computer!). The last days went much better and I manage to fly in goal the last day and almost in goal the day before. Me and my Airborne C4 are getting good friends. I wich I could do the comp over again.
On the first picture you see Jørgen Kjellberg flying in front of the Rondane mountains. For complete results see: http://www.vaagaaopen.no

The 2006 extreme sport week in Voss

2006-07-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

This year's extreme sport week was great . Lots of flying and lots of fun. The first picture is jon Gjerde landing on the raft the last day during the show on Saturday (Picture by: me). The second picture is me taking of from Loenahorgi in Voss with my new airborne C4 (Picture by: Christopher Lyngaas). I have also put out a video from the extreme sport week 2006 on my web page: www.strandli.net. you find it under the video option in the meny.

Winter flying at Sundvollen

2006-02-27T01:21:00.000-08:00

Very unstable conditions in the Oslo area this weekend. I had planned to be instructor for a friend, but the conditions turned out to be way to windy. I went to Sundvollen where it was pretty much no wind when I arrived but turned out to be very windy after a while and with the best thermals cores up to 5 m/s. Really strange to fly in wintertime and expirience so strong thermals. Sunday was simular conditions, but then with a local snowstorm (snowy nimbus :-) Nice to see that spring is ariving soon and the days are getting longer.

Here are some pictures:
http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=1041705

Arvoll - Training hill

2006-02-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

Not much nice weather for flying in the Oslo area this weekend with low cloudebase and snow, but saturday turned out good anyway. I was instructor for a friend of mine ( Carl Arne ) and he got 12 good fligths in Arvoll. I had to do some fligths myself, allways nice to do some launch and landing practice. The picture is of Carl Arne in his Wills Wing super sport.

Norway - Flying at Sundvollen

2006-01-30T03:24:00.000-08:00

So finalelly after weeks of not flying and getting used to cold weather again I got my old glider (Wills Wing Fusion) back in business. I went to Sundvollen 40 min drive from Oslo. When I arrived it was a lot of hanggliders there, and almost no paragliders. normally its the other way around. 30 minutes later the paragliders arrived to. Both the Oslo and Lier HG club was there with their students, and most of their students got some heigth flights. I got myself a nice sledgeride in the smooth winterair. Its always nice to get in the air, even if it is only for some few minutes.

Back home and happy new year everyone.

2006-01-03T03:34:00.000-08:00

A year goes fast and everything has an end, so have my travel around the world, for this time :-) It have been a year full of adventure and fun, but also a year of great loses and year full of new friends. Here is a short resume of the last year:

Photograps taken during the year: 12 000
Hours of video: 30 (my videocamera got stolen!)
Hours used to transportation: > 1500
Weigth of total equipment carried: 35 Kg (Way to much)
Hours in the air with HG: 115

Would I do it again? Anytime, Of course!

To all of my friends out there and back home:
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! and happy flying :-)

Brasil - Rio de Janeiro, Xmas and Wills Wing T2

2005-12-26T05:12:00.000-08:00

After traveling from Foz de Iguazu (one of the worlds greatest waterfalls on the border between Argentina and Brasil) to Curitiba (Traveling with the jungle train) I end up in Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro is the most spectacular city I ever been to. Not because of the arcitectur and the city in it self, but because of the beautifull setting with the step granit peak mountains, the green forest areas, the blue ocean with miles of white beaches. And of course the possibility to fly above this amazing place :-)
Picture 1: flying on the other side of the bay from Copacabana beach (the beach above my helmet)

So after settle in at the hotel I call up Alan Morrison (local pilot) and we agree to go hanggliding on the next day. Alan is the same person who reasently set the new XC- record from the city of Rio (take-off from the Pedra Bonita launch 87 km).

The next day I meet Alan on the beach / landing area of the main flying site in Rio after a interesting taxi ride. (Picture 2) The taxi driver was more interested in telling me about the ¨local girls¨ and their attributes than driving me to the right place. So after telling me all the wonders those girls can do, I have to call up Alan and give the phone to the taxi driver so I am sure that I am going to the right place :-)

On the beach there are normally a lot of people flying and this is the place where they do a lot of tandemflights (http://www.tandemflight.com). This day is not good for flying at this sites so we end up going to the other side of the bay from Rio.

This flying sites is lower (280 mosl) but is more north so its perfect for this day. Alan lend me his new Wills Wing T2 154 and he flies his Gostbuster (rigid wing). So after a minute on the launch to get the feeling of the glider I launch and feel straigt at home! This glider is just pure fun to fly, I never flown a topless with this kind of handling (the Airborne C2 is close but a litle stiffer). This glider is even easyer to fly than a Wills Wing XC. The T2 have a nice stall charistics, easy to land. When I landed, it was turbulent on the landing, but good handling made it easy to control it down. Flying it in thermals was really straight forward. And the glide, was really good. Fineally Wills Wing have a glider wich can compete with Moyes and the others on glide.
For more pictures from Rio click here: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=979523

Argentina - Flyranch and Buenos Aires

2005-12-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

After a 20 hours bus ride from Bariloche I arrived in Buenos Aires and spend the day there waching the local people dancing tango in the streets. The next day Flavio Galliussi picked me up in the center of Buenos Aires since he arrived from a hangglider competition i Cordoba.
My plan was to be here flying for 6 days.

The flyranch is located 65 km south and 40 -50 minutes car ride outside Buenos Aires closer to the city La Plata (see airpicture below). On the picture I am flying a Wills Wing Falcon and its a great glider. Its strange to fly it in thermals since I am so used to hisiding, but after a couple of minuts I was up in 1300 mosl. Cloudbase was higher that day but I did fly in a open harness with not much cloths on so ended up going up and down all the time to get the heat back.

At the flyranch I was flying different things for the fun of it. The first picture I am flying tandem with Flavio. We are flying a Airborne Fun and I liked it, but it is hard work to fly a tandem glider. Flavio use this tandem for training students which seems to be working great.
On the last picture you see a student landing on a evening fligth.

I was also flying a Dragonfly, to see how dificult it is to fly it, since I like to learn to fly one. Intresting thing to fly since its needs a lot of stick control togheter with the pedals to get a cordinated turn.

For more info about the Flyranch check out this page: http://www.flyranch.com.ar
Pictures from the Flyranch: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=977078

Argentina - Patagonia - Buenos Aires

2005-12-22T04:54:00.000-08:00

On the way from Ushaia to Buenos Aires, I did some stops in El Calafate, El Chalten and Bariloche. The nature in Patagonia is just amazing so I have to show some pictures :-)

Picture 1 is from the Parcue nacional Los Glacieres and the Perito Moreno glacier one of the earth´s most active icefields

Picture 2 is from El Chalten and in the background you see ¨Cerro Torres¨and a 20 km out and return walk in the valley behind me.

Picture 3 is of Mount (Cerro) Fitz Roy 3441 mosl and it´s pure granite and a eldorado for climbers. On the picture I am one the way to the lookout point for the mountain 22 km of walk out and return and 900 meters of altitude to climb.

Antarctica - The white wonderland !

2005-12-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

Antartica is an amazing plaze! It's the world's coldest, windiest and driest place, but still it's full of life and a endless beauty.

If you think about flying here, think again! Antarctica has kabatics winds which can start blowing in seconds and the strongest windgust down here has been measured to about 270 km/h. And if you will land on dry land, remember every bit of land which is not covered with snow, is inhabited by thousands of animals or birds. Landing on snow and ice is possible, but risky!

On the first picture I do a tandemflight with one of the "local penguines" :-)

I have been lucky to go sea kayaking in Antarctica and I had some amazing moments on the water, between gigantic icebergs, glaciers and massive mountains. As you can see on the picture, a drysuite is highly needed, since you will not survive more than a couple of minutes without it in the water. On this trip with a Russian expedition ship, there was a photographer (http://www.jimmynelson.com) taking pictures for a Dutch magazine, so in February I might end up being in a magazine.

On the boat we had a foto competition, and guess who was the lucky winner of the best picture! Below you see my winning picture! It is 2 Adelie penguines swimming and jumping. And as you can see, nice water down there!

Of other things I did down there was swimming, and yes it was cold. Taking tons of pictures (upload more later) Walking on the Antartic continent made me a member of the 7 continent club.

PS If you have not guessed it yet, I did not fly down in Antarctica, it is an arranged picture and I am hanging of a cargo crane and the bar is a kayak padle. Nice picture :-) Anyway, I am probably the first man ever in a hangglider harness in Antarctica, and the Russian captain was wondering what the hell this crazy Norwegian man was doing in his cargo crane in a hanglider harness ! I upload more pictures later, now I have to prepare for a 19 hours buss drive! I am slowly going towards Buenos Aires, where I am going to fly for 7 days or so.

Antarctica - here I come!

2005-11-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.
- John Steinbeck.

Well, in some days from now I am going to be on my first expedition to Antarctica, where I am paddling sea kayak among others tings, first Hanggliderpilot to the Antarctica? :-)

Chile - Patagonia: Torres del Paine and Isla Magdalena

2005-11-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

If you like to do hiking, this is one of the great places! And here you also find the biggest Condors, which i saw several of (Got some nice pictures, I will upload them later). Its should be possible to fly here, at least outside the National park. The condors was thermaling big time! but then again, its extremly changing weather here so you have to be carefull!

In the picture you see the upper part of the french vally, close to the british campsite.

I spendt 4 days of hiking here in some of the nicest areas i ever been to, and ended up walking/climbing 70 Km.

Later on I got the great pleasure of visiting, Isla Magdalena outside Punta Arenas. The penguine you see on the picture is a Magallanes penguine. As you can see he was a little sceptical to my camerea :-)

Chile - Easter Island

2005-11-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

I love big birds and of course when I went to the Easter Island I found this beaty, a hawk from Easter Island. They were all over the place and it was stunning to se how good they where to chase the small birds, fly thermals and the strong wind. The picture is taken in the volcano crater where the famous Maui statues of Easter Island is made. Easter Island was really famous for its cultur after Thor Heyerdal was there with his expedition in 1955-1956 and later with his book "Aku Aku, the secrets of easter Island" This week its 50 years since Heyerdal arrived to the Easter Island. If you are thinking about flying here, you probably be the first one (I spoke to some of the locals and they havent heard about anyone). But for paragliders its no good place, its blows a lot. but for hanggliding it should be good, there are some places there wich is just perfect! If you are allowed to fly there is another question since most of the island is a national park.

Video from Vertigo 2005

2005-11-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

Miran Kreuzer from http://www.needacloud.com/ have made a video from the Redbull Vertigo 2005, and its really good. You can find it on his webpage or download it directly on this link (size 25 Mb) : http://www.needacloud.com/needacloud/videos/2005_vertigo/vertigo2005.wmv

enjoy :-)

Chile - flying in Santiago

2005-10-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Nice to be here in the Santiago area. I got the good spring feeling and its always nice to do some flying. Here in chile there are about 20 hanglider pilots and 300 paragliderpilots I been told. Most of them have base here in the Santiago area. There are also some few hangglider pilots further up north in the La Serena area. Augusto Olivares http://www.parapenteonline.cl was nice to rent me his glider (Wills Wing Ram Air 154) and drive me to their flying sites outside Santiago. Augusto has been flying hanglider for 20 years, but is now only flying paraglider and works as a instructor as well. At the flying site I met several other pilots, and had a good time flying with them. This flying site is owned by the pilots them selfs and they have their own clubhouse here. There are a "higth limitation" in the area since the airport is very close (see some of the pictures. Ps, I dident zoom to get the airplane that close!). There are several flying sites next to Santiago and in spring / summer time good possiblilties for XC flights.
More pictures from flying in Santiago: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=918705

On the pictures you see 1) Me and Augusto and one of his kids, 2) One of the Local pilots launching, 3) Me and a paraglider (Notice the mountainrange in the background, its passes rigth behind Santiago and is flyable all the way), 4) Launch and one of the local pilots.

Chile - finaly am here and flight info of course!

2005-10-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

After 4 days of drive true the salt/sand desert and the altiplano of Bolivia in a 4x4 car I reached Chile and San Pedro de Atacama. This areas is just amazing, and would be fun to fly here some time. The only problem is that the area is high, around 3600 meter of average but then again you can land almost all over the place. There where dustdevils all over and it is the first time I ever seen a "saltdevil". At the picture you see my own way of getting some airtime in Bolivia without a glider :-)

The Atacama desert in Chile is a exelent place to fly and reaches from the Andean range to the pacific coast. Here you can see some pictures Max Spiess have taken from the coast area of the Atacama desert:
http://www.ozreportradio.com/misc/chile/100_0494.JPG
http://www.ozreportradio.com/misc/chile/IQQ2004%20Gone.jpg
http://www.ozreportradio.com/misc/chile/100_0474.JPG

The coast town Iquique offers some of the best flying for paragliders and hanggliders in Chile. You can take a look at the web page of the local paraglider club:
http://www.parapenteiquique.cl/

Tommorow i go flying here in the Santiago area, Max Speiss have arranged whit some other pilot to lend me a Wills Wing Ram air. more info later....

Bolivia - Fligth info and guess what, I got robbed, Arrrg!

2005-10-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

Bolivia is a very nice contry and there are lots of places to fly. There is possible to fly rigth next to the Lake Titicaca (altitude 3810 mosl) in the city of Cobacabana. for more info take a look at this webpage: http://www.geocities.com/jallallaparapente. Close to Suckre they hold this year in september the first paraglider competition in Bolivia ever. Sukre Is also the place I got robbed. A ashole stole my bag and a lot of my stuff is now missing. I still have my harness, but I am low on flying clothes, and I dont have a videocamera anymore. I have spendt some time in La Pas to get my new passport, and the Norwegian General consulad was extremly quick to give me a new one, only 2 days! Well I am not out of La Paz yet since there is some strike on the railway I am supposed to take to the salt dessert and then to Chile. Mayby I am lucky on friday and get out of here :-) I havent found much info about Hanggliding here, the only info I got was old and not very relevant, but the country have some good places to fly.

Peru - Condors and Eagles in Colca Canyon

2005-09-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

I love things that fly and most of all I like the big birds. So here are a couple of fotos of The masters of thermaling :-) The birds you see soaring is Condors, vingspan of this birds in Colca Canyon is about 3 meters on the bigest ones. In Chile they are up to 4,5 meter vingspan. This is the second largest vingspan in the world, only the Albatros have larger vingspan. But the Condor is the biggest / heaviest flying bird. One my shoulder you see a Andean Eagle.

Peru - The Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

2005-09-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is one of the really nice areas to fly in Peru . One the picture, you see a part of the Sacred Valley. Very strong thermals in the area when I was there. There is a paraglider pilot in the area who gives tandem rides, But no hanggliderpilots, theyre all in Lima. You can check out his page(Richard, an american pilot) here: www.belezapura.com To tell A litle bit more about the Sacred valley: its not far from the town Cusco (Nice but turistic). Between Cusco and the Sacred valley there is a higland flatlands area 3600 mosl, the valley floor is around 2200 mosl and mountains in the area is up to 6000 mosl, so there is nothing wrong with the view while flying there :-) If you follow the Sacred vally east (against amazonas) the fields will be replaced with jungle and the valley narrows up, then you end up close to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is also a magical place and its possible to fly from there but its not legal anymore. Landing in the area is small and there is gigantics trees around (Helicopter paddoc). There is also possible to land on the other side of Machu picchu but this is on the riverbank some few places. This is only possile in the dry season (June is a good month). Both landings areas is in a pretty narrow valleys so i gues it can be very turbulent there. I got some contacts in the area and I might come back in some years and try to do some flying and filming there if they get the licenses and sort things out with the goverment there.

My plan in some weeks is to travel to Bolivia and then Chile and I working on some flying in Chile. There should be some really good sites there I been told. In the the north areas there are some really great coastal cliffs. More info later..... Any People from Chile reading this please contact me if you have some info to help me!

Ecuador - flying tips

2005-08-31T13:31:00.000-07:00

I been turist here the last month and there havent been much flying latetly. But for giving you some relevant info about flying in Ecuador i have collected some information. So if you want to travel to Ecuador and fly here is some tips:

The best places is on the coast and there is a hostal there for pilots (Hostal Volandores). the place is Crucita - Manabi. They rent gliders here (Hanggliders and paragliders) Contact info: tlf (593) 05 2 340 200 Email:hvoladores@hotmail.com

Bañjos - nearby valley, nice area to fly with great volcanos. see contact info above.

Quito - the capital of ecuador. People fly in this area and it looks really nice but it was to windy when I was there and the and you have the airport nearby. They fly from the back side of the nearby volcano.

Equador is a beutyfull country and is higly recomended, there is possibilitys to fly a lot of places there, but I was to busy to travel around so now flying for me there. I spendt some time in the jungle here and in the Galapagos island and in the higland area doing hiking. The picture is showing Chimborazo Ecuador´s highest mountain 6310 masl. There is a road almost up to the ice edge!

Peru - Lima

2005-07-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am in Peru. I spent some time in Lima and hoped to get some flying there. Unfortunately the very friendly pilots down here didn't have any glider to lend/borrow me. There are only 6 hangglider pilots in Peru, and one of the gliders I was supposed to use had some broken wingtips and spareparts is coming next week. But I got in there air anyway. One of the pilots have a tandem paraglider so we flew for a while. It's a really nice coastal site and you fly rigth next to the big hotels and soar on them. Fore more info about flying in Peru you can visit the following pages: http://www.perufly.com/ and http://www.incasgliders.com/

Pictures from Lima:
http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=784596

The next week I will spend in the Huascaran National park and walk in the mountains. Its a very nice place and offers good flying possibility, unfortunally there are only paragliders here so no hangglider to use. There have been done some intresting fligths in the area, for example in 1977 Rene Ghilini flew from the sout peak of Huascaran (6768 masl) and later there have been paragliders flying over 80 km here. The montain range in the park is around 200 km long and is a part of the Andes. Huscararan is the highest mountain in the tropical area in the world and this is also the place of the fantastic Condor with wingspan up to 4 meters.

Honduras - San Pedro Sula

2005-06-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

After being a tourist in Guatamala for a while and learning Spanish (trying to :-) in Antigua, I went to visit some hangglider pilots in Guatamala city. On Friday morning at 4 am I met Lenin Conde in my hotel and we went to get our gliders at Mario Tobar's place. Then we headed for the road and met some other pilots later on the way to Honduras. To get across the border is a intresting event, 20 people waiting 1,5 ours to get a simple stamp in their passport and you have to pay 3 dollars for it if you are a foreigner. Around 2 pm we arrive San Pedro sula and we went to our hotel and later we prepared the landing field. The "competition" was more of the friendly type, a spotlanding competition. We used sawmill leftovers to create the spot and choped down some trees with the machetes to make space to enter the paddock. After that we went drinking and checked out the local nightlife in San Pedro Sula. We ended up in a place called Mantra and for around 10 $ you had free bar all nigth. Then came Saterday and after breakfast around 11 we went up the hill to fly. Mario Palacios (http://www.hanggliding-guatemala.de/) lended me a Seedwings Viagro 14 full matrix sail and I used some time to inspect the glider before i flew it, better safe than sorry! a very quick ving and almost unstable with full VG, but that is proberly becourse of the settings of the sprogs on this glider and that I felt i was to heavy for it. Otherwise a OK glider easy to land and start (10 cm of VG needed to get it stable). That day we where 12 hangglider pilots and 4 paragliders pilots.

Flying in was nice in Honduras, quite surprisingly the big clouds above (seems like nimbus) dident lift much at all. there was no problem flying up and in then get out again of the clouds.
Both days I flew there it was really the same way, very hot around 39 Celsius and humidity around 1oo prosent, it sure felt like that anyway :-) The launch was intresting and being in the tropics is nice since you can pick mangos in the nearby trees! Landing was relly crowded with people when you landed and tonns of kids come running towards you to help, when you had landed.

Not many tourist flying in Honduras I was told, I was the first European Hangglider pilot to fly there. There were also some Paraglider pilots from Columbia, Costa Rica and one of the pilots from Colombia was from Germany(living with a Colombian pilot). In Honduras there is not many pilots at the moment only ONE hangglider pilots.

Other intresting event in the aera was a aeroshow close by, so now and then there were some fighterjets flying by.

Picture1: Selfportrait over San Pedro Sula.
Picture2: One of the guatamalian pilots, while i trying to get a close up foto :-)

More pictures from San Pedro Sula Honduras:
http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=756829

Guatamala

2005-06-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am a tourist in Guatamala, not so good flying weather at the moment, lots of overdelopment, rain and big thunder around here :-( Guatamala looks anyway very nice and I have been at 2 flying sites (Lake Atitlan and in Antigua). If you will have a look on flying in Guatamala here is some websites to check out: http://www.hanggliding-guatemala.de/ and http://vuelobruce.tripod.com/ If everthings work out ok, I will attend a competition in Honduras with some hanggliderpilots from Guatamala around the 24-26 of June.

PS. Anyone trying to contact me at the moment, please send me emails, my phone does not work here in Guatamala!

Mexico - Valle de Bravo

2005-05-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

After 5 days in Mexico city, I arrived in Valle de Bravo after 3 hours of bus ride. Valle de Bravo is a very nice place and perfect for flying. Many norwegians are well familiar with Valle de Bravo, but i think I now only paragliderpilots who have traveled here(each year aprox 80 norwegians fly here in Valle de Bravo around february)

Here are some pictures from Valle de Bravo: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=710469

After flying here for 6 days I have greats fligth each day, I also set a new personal altitude record here with 4200 meters. And i can asure everybody that it was VERY cold up there in an open harness.

The wing I rented here was a Wills Wing U2 160, very nice ving to fly.

The last day I flied a Eazy 165 from Icaro, sinse some kids down here stole four battens from the glider.

More info later........

USA - Torrey Pines - San Diego

2005-05-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

After weeks of bad weather, overdelopment, snow in the mountains and park rangers denying me flying in the national parks, I found a relly nice spot at Death Valley, where you actually can launch below sealevel and soar up to sealevel or much higher if the termals are rigth. So after sightsing true Owens valley, Death valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Zion I headed out to the coast again and had 3 days of great flying at Torrey pines in San Diego. Many nice people there and a great flying site (litle bit crowded). Got some good video footage here with me and John Heiney. John was diving in front of my glider and doing a loop over the ocean. He also passed under me, so i could touch his sail if i wanted to (in a short moment). Also fun flying with the pelicans soaring in big flocks rigth next to you.

Here are the Torrey Pines Gliderport link: http://www.flytorrey.com

And here are some pictures I taken while i was there: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=696909

Mexico and Valle de Bravo next :-)

USA - Wills Wing Factory :-)

2005-05-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

After owning many Wills Wing hanggliders, I just had to visit the Wills Wing factory. Mike Meier was very kind to receive me in the afternoon, and I got the grand tour of the factory. It was great to see how the gliders are produced there. I was hoping to get a demoflight with the new T2 from Wills Wing, but unfortunately, Rob's and my schedule didn't fit. Others that have flown it says it is very nice to fly. It glides and handles extremley well.

I also met Scott Barret(Airborne) at Wills Wing, he was there to certifi/test Airborne gliders with Wills Wing equipment. They have a relly nice truck to test the gliders with (load testing). Wills Wing and Airborne do some kind of coroparation on making hangliderparts and other stuff.

USA - Fort Funston

2005-04-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

After days with strong wind, I finally managed to get a flight at Fort Funston, one of the sites close to San Francisco. Fort Funston was a very nice place to fly, and a lot of friendly people were there too :-) John's Saturn 164 was a nice experience to fly; big but a lot of fun, especially on a costal site as this. Below you can find some pictures from Fort Funston:

http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=680697

I have tried to fly at Glacier point in Yosemite National park, but there was too much snow in the mountains, the same in the Owens vally, so I am heading for Death vally and then Grand Canyon.

USA -The coast betwen LA and San Fransisco

2005-04-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

Arrived in LA and got myself a rental car, a nice 4 weel drive Ford Explorer and head of to Santa Monica and Venice beach. The next day I went to visit John Heiney and Dino Dinaso. There we arranged a hanglider rack for the car and John have lend me one of his vings (Saturn 164), so now I am ready for 1 month of flying in the USA :-)

After finishing the rack we went up the coast heading for Santa Crus. On our way we went flying on some costal hill and landing on the beach in the sunset, very nice. Dino was playing some trick with me and pushed a snake on me (not dangerous) and he had a god laugh of me, since i trow the snake away, later I hold it in my hands (http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=669394). The next day we continued up against Santa Crus and tried to fly on Marina beach, very nice place. If I remeber correct i think Jonh told me that you can soare 9 mile(US miles) on the beach there on the dunes.

The next day John and Dino went for work since it was not possible to fly, to strong wind.

At the moment I am in San Fransico and playing tourist, some nice flying sites around here. I will see if manage to fly here before I head on to Yosemite national park and Owens valley.

New Zeland - the end

2005-04-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

I dident manage to fly hangglider in New Zealand, but there was a lot of funny stuff to do anyway, here are some pictures from some other alternative airthings to do when the weather is not on your side: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=667909

New Zealand

2005-03-26T00:15:00.000-08:00

New zealand turned out to be really a nice place with fantastic nature. I tried to go flying with a NZ friend (Tom Collet) in Nelson, but the weather deamon was not nice with us.

So what to do when weather is not good for soaring, go to Queenstown and do some crazy stuff :-) as close as you get to free flying and great fun! have a look yourself: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=642770
or look at their website http://www.flybywire.co.nz

Hopefully i be flying in the USA in some weeks

New Zealand next

2005-03-05T04:31:00.000-08:00

Tommorow I continue on to New Zealand to be tourist. I bring with me my harness so if there are any new zealanders who read this and have wing to lend, please send me a mail :-)

Video from Australia

2005-03-05T04:16:00.000-08:00

I have made a new video from Australia. You find it in the video links on my homepage or go direct: http://www.strandli.net/strandli/strandli.nsf/viewBlob/downunder256/$file/downunder256.wmv

The Manilla 2005 hanggliding competition

2005-03-01T04:16:00.000-08:00

Then the flying is over for me in Australia for this time. I ended up on 41st place out of 70 pilots. Task nr 4 I landed on purpose since I did not like the conditions; big clouds, thunder and strong wind. Task nr 5 was better, but ended also up with thunder and overdevelopment. That was not a big problem since we were flying away from the bad weather. The first turnpoint was 36 km away and with headwind most of the pilots ended up inbetween launch and first turnpoint. I almost made the first turnpoint; missed with 2 km and ended on the 31st place. Below are some pictures from the competition: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=622839

When it comes to flying I feel very comfortable in the Airborne C2. After 40 hours I find it very easy to thermal with, it climbs very good, easy handling and glides extremly good.

Several people have asked me how I attach my videocamera to my wing, below you find 2 pictures of the arrangement I use. I normally attach it under the wing wire and if I attach it on the keel I only use the upper attachment (it has a velcro on it and a screw for the cam)
http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=622844

Manilla the NSW HG state titles

2005-02-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

After a great day Stanwell i went to Newcastle and visited the Airborne factory. Airborne was a very well organiced factory and had some great machines to make parts for their hanggliders and trikes. thats why they have their nice finish on their products.

After Newcastle i went to Manilla and the 2 first days was to windy. the 3 day was great. we had a 119 km task, and i made 52 km before i meet the headwind and then mother earth. Good flying anyway with cloudbase of 2400 meters.

Day 4 (competition day 3) was even more fun, cloudbase of 2500 meters and I made nr 41 of 70 pilots. I flew 71 km of a 120 km task.

For more results you kan have a look at the NSW webpage to se the results:
http://www.nswhgstatetitles.com/

Great flying at Stanwell park

2005-02-16T14:08:00.000-08:00

I didnt go up to Newcastle the other day but, i was invited by Paul to go flying in Stanwell park. I t turned out to be a realy good day. Flew for about 2.5 hours and just had fun. Stanwell is a very nice site and the conditions was very good that day. We flew all the way down to Wollogong and then up north again. Cloudbase was only 750 meter asl, but that was more than enough for playing around in the sky, good place to do manuvers :-) Today I continue up to newcastel and mayby Manilla to prepare for the competition.

Back to Sydney, then Newcastle

2005-02-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

After renewing the rego for my car, I head of to Sydney today togheter with Jon. There i pick up Kjell Vidar tomorow and we are going to travel togher for some days. I planed to contiue up to Newcastle, visit Airborne (and Scott) and do some coast soaring, before i travel on up to Manilla.

Finished HG tour in Tocumwal

2005-02-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

Today was the last day and i havent flew the last days since I have been sick. Hopefully I will be ok for the Manilla competition next week. Jon and Otto had some nice fligths again. Jon flew aprox 180 km out and then 10 km back to Hay. Otto flew 1xx km something and landet after 6+ hours in the air, Good work !

333.8 km by Jon Gjerde

2005-02-10T03:47:00.001-08:00

Jon Gjerde did a fantastic good flight today and flew 333.8 km from Tocumwal.
Jon landet 35 km of the side of Forbes. This will be the longest fligth done by a norwegian outside Norway ever. Jon also have the Norwegian record from before (206km). Well done Jon! fligth log of Jons trip you will find here: http://www.kkpg.no/index.php3?id=93&l=2&a=34&user_id=2228&trip_id=73270

Tocumwal, XC tour day 1,2,3, 4

2005-02-09T04:18:00.000-08:00

The first day was canceled becourse of heavy rain the day before, so the airfield where we starts was very muddy. Day 2 turned out ok, I was helping Otto making some movie shots, we got some great shots from the air. After that I went for a XC tour, but i startet late (16:00) so my hopes was not the best. After a nice tow by Grant i went of drifting whit the wind. After flying 30 Km i was feeling wery wet, my camelbag opened in my harness and I had approx 2 liters of Water/Garborater in my harness. So from 900 m above the ground, I was flying uprigth to avoid the rest of the camelback to empty it self in my harness. I landed of course. It was very strange to see the flatlands in these conditions, the area is no longer very dry, but I have renamed it to the "Wet-lands". Even if its wet, its still nice flying here, Jon flew 120 km that day. Day 3 was canceled becourse of a troph passing by (high winds). Day 4 turned out very bad, with rain, but after a while it cleared and we all get some god fligths. Longest fligth was Jon with 60 Km. The conditions was very veek, but always fun to fly anyway. Tomorow looks very promising so stay tuned to see how it turns out :-)

Hangglider tour in Tocumwal

2005-02-02T01:17:00.000-08:00

I am on my way for 10 days of pure XC flying in the flatlands. Together with me from Norway are Jon Gjerde and Otto Baste. Otto made a 300km flight on a similar tour in December, so I hope we get some great distances on this tour as well. The tours are arranged by Tove and Grant in Tocumwal.

Bogong Cup 2005

2005-01-30T16:28:00.000-08:00

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

Made it to Brigth, Nice place bad weather.

2005-01-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

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.

Great flying with Bob Bailey and his dragonfly

2005-01-17T16:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Going to Bogong

2005-01-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

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.

Video from the ceremoni to Robin

2005-01-12T01:14:00.000-08:00

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

Tragic days in Hay

2005-01-11T21:56:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2005-01-05T23:55:00.000-08:00

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 :-)

Australia, finaly

2005-01-04T01:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Made it to London, Australia here i come.

2005-01-01T13:02:00.000-08:00

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.

Wild caos before departure :-)

2004-12-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

As an result of to much stuff to do before departureday 01.01.05, i proberly will sleep all the 23 ours of fligt to australia. I will keep you all posted on this site so continue to look by.