Thursday, April 30, 2009

Practice day 2

As usual our day started off with a team breakfast. This time is at the nearby ramen store.

The Hongkong team and Taiwan team arrived subsequently and we head off for lunch together before going to the competition site.

Lunch was stew beef soup.

This was the volcano we have to conquer today. Its over 150meter high and a 20mins climb up.
Debus for the climb


All ready for the trek up

Walk walk walk

Practice - Good winds today, it was free flight for all teams. We took turns to go up and did some practice. It was really an eye opener for us as we saw top class planes piloted by top class pilots.

View from top was magnificent. Slope heaven with so many slopes

Dennis getting ready

Siming setting up while HK team member looks on.

Weiyao and siming having a go.

Gliders galore

Miraj launching

Landing zone behind.


Group photo for the day

After a hard day, we went for dinner at a Korean restaurant. Ginseng Chicken!


Opening ceremony / Pilot Brief
At night back at the hotel, we had a opening ceremony and pilot brief. We were explained the rules and schedule. Each team then introduced themselves and went on to draw the numbers for the flight sequence

Artist
Before the brief we had a chance to see the Artist, a new F3F machine made in Korea by JK.
Mr. J K himself showing us the Artist

Hitec
Hitec is one of the main sponsor for this year's Typhoon Race. Their latest brochure showed they latest telemetic 2.4G system

New 2 cell lipo compatible servos

Pilots brief

Opening address by Contest director Mr. Kim
Mr Kim preparing the flight draw

Hong Kong team

Korea team

Taiwan team


Singapore team

Group photo

Flight draw

This was our flight draw for tomorrow
Pang - 4
Dennis - 20
Siming - 22
Weiyao - 26


Tomorrow is D day, we headed back to have a early rest.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Practice day1

We started the day with breakfast at a small coffee place before heading to the flying site which was 1 hour's drive away. We were told there were 3 main flying sites in Jeju, depending on wind direction.
The flying site was one of the many volcanoes on jeju island. Luckily for us, we could drive up all the way to the top. The view from the top was beautiful.
Mt Halla in the background, 1,950 metres high and the highest mountain in South Korea.
Volcano crater where they do DS
After a short site survey, we quickly proceed to assemble our planes.

Testing wind speed
Assemble planes

The wind condition was fairly light and smooth, measured 3~5m/s. We took turns to test our our planes at the slope and shared the airspace with a few paragliders. The landing was fairly ok, coming in from the right side just like in bedok, only thing was the zone was littered with volcanic rocks, so had to be careful not to hit them on landing. Dennis was first with his vento, followed by the rest of us.




As for the two new planes that were suppose to maiden, Siming 's mini blade had c.g off and it tip stalled heading down the deep slope. It scared us a few seconds, luckily it was retrivable. Weiyao' new vento had binding aileron wipers so maiden was delayed.

Sandwich lunch

After a short lunch however the wind died down and changed direction, wind was then blowing from the back. We waited awhile before we decided to shift over to the other side to try. A long walk and climb up we found the paragliders were already there. Although the wind was now better and more consistant, we could not fly as the other side was all covered with trees, no space to land.

Long climb up to the other side

Covered with trees, we cant land
Group photo for the day
We then decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.

Dinner was at a small cosy resturant. Hope there is better wind tomorrow.