Helicopter…
Category Archives: Hanggliding
Some unfinished video from the Norwegian Nationals
I did some filming the last few days of the nationals, but I had a problem with some of the files that got corrupted. I was about 80% done, and I do not have the time not start all over again, video editing takes lots of time. So here’s the last draft I had rendered.
There is no music, but the “Hælvete!!” from Stein Edgar in the first part of the clip is worth the silence :-) (Turn up the volume for the third landing)
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Fall update, hanggliding course
Fall is here, which signals the end of the season for thermal and XC flying. As usual I’ve been busy with running a hanggliding course for the Oslo club, we have a nice scooter tow operation to train new students. We have 9 students in our course, 7 new, one PG pilot, and one HG pilot that have been out of flying for the last few years.
This year it’s been me doing most of the instructing and organizing the course, Bjørn is working himself to death in his new healthcare job, and Steinar have started playing heavy metal again in addition to building a cabin and fixing MD 80’s for SAS. Luckily I’ve had Benedicte, Terje, Gunnar, Harald, and a few others helping out, so the course have been efficient despite lots of cancelled weekends due to bad weather.
I’ve squeaked in a few afternoons to get some quality time under my Litespeed, but I’ve been unlucky with the conditions at Sundvollen with too much wind on the last two days I tried to fly. Looks good again this week, hope I might be able to get a soaring flight in soon.
Yesterday we actually trained the students in rain, I’ve never flown in this much rain before, but the Falcon’s flew very nicely even soaking wet, so it was actually a good day for the students. The wind was very laminar and smooth, it helps a lot for takeoffs and landings.
This was the view from our training field.
Tronfjell HD video
You can download the full HD video if you want it, around 400MB. Plays best in VLC, most of these HD videos need a quite modern computer to play smooth. Download file here http://www.ellefsen.net/files/tronfjell09.m2ts
Video from Tronfjell
A quick and dirty video from Tronfjell. Some footage from my compact camera, as well as widescreen from the Canon HD. I got two interesting takeoffs on camera too, you can see them in slow motion here.
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Pictures from Tronfjell 2009
Actually all are from Sunday, but it was a beautiful day to fly;
Tronfjell video
Timelapse video from Tronfjell takeoff. Clouds and gliders pass by, 15 minutes compressed to 1 minute.
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The full HD version looks much better, you can download it from here. (150 MB AVCHD format, plays in VLC or Windows Media player)
Last meet of the season at Tronfjell, and Rygge Airshow
Saturday we went to see the Airshow at Rygge airport, it was spectacular with loads of interesting and nice displays both on the ground and in the air. The weather was nice, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Unfortunately the Hanggliding part of the show had to be canceled as the weather did not permit us to move the tug to Rygge before the show.
Georgia posing as a pilot, the F35 is a bit dull full-size model/mock-up. Interesting to see the engines and a simulator on display in the hangar behind though.
Yours truly in front of an aircraft I hope I never will have to wait for. (It belongs to the Airforce SAR wing)
Every year we have the last meet of the season in Norway, at Tronfjell in the Østerdalen valley, near Tynset. It’s a very nice site to fly, and the conditions were fantastic again this year. Audun “El Loco” Etnestad and me drove from Rygge to Tynset Saturday night, and had a great day of flying on Sunday with around 35 other pilots.
Smooth thermals, safe ridge soaring, and perfect weather. A good way to end the season.
I did some filming from the air, and takeoff, have not had the time to see through it yet, might post some of it here later. A few photos from the air;
Video from Ringerud last week
A short clip from flying, and a high-speed de-rigging. Nice to see the cumulus development and clouds drifting by in the background. This is the first video I cut from my new Canon HF200 HD camera. The full-HD version looks really good on my HDTV screen at home, that’s way too big to post here, but I’ve made a more internet friendly version and posted it below.
The trees at launch are getting big again, I need to bring a saw next time. My wingtip did hit the bushes when I took off.
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Driver for Compeo+/6030GPS
The newest instruments from Brauniger and Flytec have a USB interface, and needs a driver to work in Windows/MacOS. I’m running Windows 7 both at home and on my laptop, and had some problems finding the right driver.
If you have problems connecting to your instrument in Windows 7 you might want to try this driver from Prolific. Prolific makes the chipset in the USB to Serial chip in the instruments.
I’ve just used it to download tracklogs with GPSDump and that works fine, but using the firmware upgrade flasher program does not work. For the firmware upgrade I need a PC with Vista or XP and the PL2303drivers supplied by Brauniger/Flytec.
The Flasher program seems to be poorly written in the way it handles the serial port, it’s always been a problem using it with USB-Serial adapters.