Tibet and Nepal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.