Norwegian hanggliding is the weblog of hangglider pilot Øyvind Ellefsen, born 1972, now living in Oslo, Norway.
Website content
Mostly hanggliding related blog entries, but you might find some articles about the internet, computers, Linux, weblogs, and other fun or interesting links I come across. The archives include much of the history from ’98 and to date. Use the search function if you are looking for something.
Hanggliding
I decided to start flying hanggliders while I was living in Tromsø, having nothing special to do on my spare time, I decided to try something out of the mainstream. Tromsø is the largest city in northern Norway, way north of the polar circle. It’s not ideal for flying, with 8 months of winter, and a wet and windy summer. I started the course February 1996, and spent the next year trying to fly whenever possible and sometimes when it was clearly not possible to fly…
In May 1997 I and some pilots from the club traveled to Vågå in southern Norway to fly thermals and XC. I was still a student, and got my first real thermal flights. I was hooked, bought a newer and much better glider, and decided to move south so I could fly more. From October 1997 I have been living in Oslo. I flew my first XC flights in the summer of 1998, and I have been a competition pilot since 1999. I learned to fly Paragliders in 2001, but found it too slow, boring and dangerous.
Hanggliding competitions
In 2000 I joined the National Team for the Pre-Worlds in Spain as a team recruit, and I’ve had a place on the team since. I’ve been traveling to Australia almost every winter to fly the competitions in Dec/January there, as well as frequent travels to southern Europe for international and European championships. I’ve also participated in 6 world championships in Spain 2001, Brazil 2003, Australia 2005, USA 2007, Italy 2011, Australia 2013
Other flying
While competing in the 2005 Flytec US Open at Quest Air in Florida I took lessons on the Dragonfly with Bobby Bailey. It was very rewarding learning to fly something new, I bought a share in a Dragonfly tug in Norway and do towing here.
I also learned to fly Sailplanes while living in Australia in 2010, and have done some XC flying in sailplanes in Australia and Norway.
My main focus is competition flying, but I also do volunteer work for the federation and clubs;
- Hanggliding instructor
- Tug pilot
- Active CIVL alternate delegate for Norway
- Leader of the CIVL Hanggliding committee.
- Representative for Norway in the Nordic hang and paragliding committee
- Former boardmember for the national HG/PG federation
- Former leader of the HG Competition committee
- Former member of the CIVL Working group on records and flight verification
- Former vice-president in the Norwegian NAC
Professional life
I’ve been making a living in the IT industry since 1993, primarily in data communications. My main focus is service provider and large enterprise solutions from Cisco Systems, but I’ve got broad experience from Unix, Wintel and general IT infrastructure solutions.