Nice thread Adrian.

It's always nice to go home. Feels good.
Glad to see you are representing team norcal!!!

The fog has been bad here in the valley as Tom said. I was flying my extreme flight extra in it at the weekend and I pulled up several times and lost the plane. But found it again before it hit the dirt!! haha
Hope the weather clears for you and you get some good flying in..

Chris

After a two hours journey, a group of pattern and helicopter pilots from Hong Kong including yours truly arrived at the flying site in Poon Yu, China. The trip includes an 1 hour and 15 minutes high speed ferry ride that went underneath the Tsing Ma bridge - the sixth largest/ longest suspension bridge in the world. For your reference, the Golden Gate Bridge ranks 8th, whilst the San Francisco Bay Bridge ranks 35th. Amonst the travelers this morning were Team Philippines led by Jayjay Neri, whom I have the pleasure of communicating through RCU pattern forum and private e-mail for quite some time.

Poon Yu is a small industrial town north west of Hong Kong, the flying site is situated inside a theme park that includes facilities for fishing and motor-crossing for motorcycles, the RC club shares its runway with an ultra-lite flying school. The paved runway is well over a thousand feet long, with wide open flying air space. RC flying is growing rapidly in China, and they are hungry for the latest technologies from Japan and the west. Pattern is fast becoming the most popular form of flying amonst aspiring RC pilots.

Upon arrival at the field, the first person I ran into was Akiba-san from Futaba, Japan - designer of the Proline. He is one of the guests/ demo pilots invited by Radar along with other top helicopter pilots from Hirobo. Akiba will be giving demo flights with a 33% Ultimate designed by Chip Hyde, manufactured by World Models, and powered by a 3W 100 cc engine throughout the weekend. After he finished his practice, I had the privilege of discussing his Proline design with him, for which I have the pleasure of finalizing my order for a January delivery. In addition, we also discussed the composite version. According to Akiba, the X-treme version will probably be available before next summer. He further informed me that he will be using the OS 200 FI at the 2007 WC, but indicated the YS Dingo is a much easier engine to handle.

Since this is a Thursday afternoon, not that many competitors has yet arrived. Amonst the early arrival, most of them are flying a World Models design including a number of Zens, Tai Chis and Grooveys. Attached a few pix of our trip, and yours truly with Akiba:-

Even though, yours truly didn't get to fly in the contest, I did get drafted by one of Alex Lau's friend as his first round caller. The person is flying an Oxai Auster Z with a YS 110, and by the end of first round, he is in fourth place out of thirty because of my excellent calling, NOT.

As mentioned before, since Radar limited the engine size to 120, there were no big 2 meter pattern planes at the contest. Listed under is the sequence:-

1) Take-off
2) Split-S
3) Square loop
4) !/2 reverse cuban
5) Double immelmann
6) Stall turn
7) 3 inside loops
8) 1/2 square with 1/2 roll
9) 3 outside loops from the top
10) Split-S
11) Triangle loop
12) Pull humpty, 1/2 roll up, push top
13) Slow roll
14) !/2 cuban
15) 1/2 vertical with full roll
16) 1/2 roll, 1/2 square inside loop
17) 4 point roll
18) Landing

Looks like fun Adrian.
Getting me psyched up for our season to start!!

Chris

During the first intermission, Akiba flew the 33% Ultimate. Since he only has limited practice time, demo flight was only limited to some high/ low speed flying, rolling cycles, slow speed low knife edge flight, flat spin, hovering and torque rolls. Maneuvers which can be easily performed by all of us, just kidding. Even with limited practice, Akiba demonstrated the Ultimate has tremendous amount of potential. Worlds also produced a 42%, for those of you must have the 150 cc and 200 cc version.

During the lunch break, the Hirobo heli team gave us some very thrilling helicopter demo that includes many high G rollng and spinning maneuvers. Eventhough I have zero knowledge on helis, I have noticed their heli was extremely quiet and stable even during the high speed passes. And the pilot gave us a spectacular high altitude auto-rotation to end the flight.

After lunch, I had the opportunity to watch a few of the helicopter pilots from Hong Kong and China competing against each other, and noticed quite a few talented one.

Since I have a dinner appointment back in Hong Kong tonight. I left the contest with my friend Li around 3 for my return journey after saying goodbye to many old and new friends. On my trip back to Hong Kong, I promise myself I will try to return next year for their official celebration to compete amonst all my good friends.

I'm planning to fly with Alex again next Tuesday or Wednesday before my return trip to Oakland. If I have the oportunity to fly, I will report again. In the mean time, here are some more pix:-

Oops, sorry, here are the pix:-

Time to change the shirt Adrian.. you could have borrowed a few of mine had I know you were going!

sc

I need extra room in my suitcase for all of the parts I bought from Radar.

Adrian,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

You are most welcome.

Anything new?

Yes, my Proline.

Careful how you pack it...

No problem. I'm chartering a Gulfstream G4 for my return trip.

Hi ADRIAN
When come to Taiwan flying with us???

Hi Z-C,

I would love to come to Taiwan some day, why don't you come over for our Nationals next year before Argentina.

Both Alex and Li are trying to convince me to fly for Team Hong Kong at next year's WC. If they twist my arms real hard, they might succeed.

Adrian

Hey Adrian,

Come fly for Hong Kong Team! The is one of the very very very very few ideas of Alex's that I agree with! Even if you cannot be with our team for Argentina, let's go to Cebu in April!

FYI Johnny finished the contest at 6th.....The last day he had the "kyptonite" in his pocket....He dropped the tranny by accident at his hotel room and it quit during the 3rd round while doing the slow roll...The damn plane froze at inverted! Luckily he had previous experience of the same so he fevishly rocked the tranny and luckily all controls comes back, he could finish the 3rd round without any problem. At the final round his engine quit at the 4 point roll, again inverted, so he had to land... Alex calculated that if Johnny could finish that 4 point roll he should in the 4th place as in the 4th round although incomplete his scores already beat the 5th place guys and adding in the K=3 4 point roll he should be taking 4th place... In any case he could bring back the Austar in one piece, missing the landing gear as he gave it to Jimmy Lai who also has an unassembled Austar.

Take care and hope to see you at the "mountain top" soon! If Alex could get his acts together next time you are here you are welcomed to try my Oxalys, even the Zeque if Alex treats me good....

Regards,

Jason

Jason,

Thx for the update. Alex has already call this afternoon and informed me of Johnny's misfortune. If I remember correctly, the 4 point was the last maneuver. Therefore, he could have finish the last two points and still have plenty of air speed to land. I knew I should have stay so I could force him to complete the maneuver before landing, who cares about taking the plane home in one piece, just kidding.

I'm seriously thinking of attending the WC, I'll look at my schedule and make a decision early next year.

Forget about the Oxalys and the Zeque, stick with a XX, Alex needs money for the Altair.

Anyway, I'll try to head out to the club on Wed before my departure. If I don't see you before, good luck with your new toys.

Stay in touch.

Adrian

Oh you are still in Hong Kong?

There's just to many XX here....That's why I got the Oxalys...

If time permit I might go to the field on Wednesday...If I don't, Bon Voyage, and come back soon!

Regards,

Jason

Alex was kind enough to invite me for flying again this afternoon before my return trip to Oakland on Thursday. Since my cousin David and his friend Matty are both aspiring pattern pilots, they decided to join us on our practice session. As a matter of fact, Matty brought along his 110 size Oxai Impression for Alex and I to trim it out for him.

Normally, weather in Hong Kong in November is prettyy nice, plenty of sunshine with temperature hovering in the high 60s to low 70s. I don't know whether global warming has anything to do with it, ever since my arrival, it has been foggy every day with temps sometimes in the high 70s. This morning was no different, foggy and low ceiling. Fortunately, by the time we reached the flying site, the fog has lifted, and I ended up flying five flights on Alex's XX. I finally got used to Alex's throttle curve and the logic behind it. Alex also gave me quite a few pointers on different maneuvers, and I thoroughly enjoyed flying his Naruke built XX, and looking forward to my Akiba built Proline in January.

As for Matty's Oxai Impression, both Alex and I ended up fine tuning his plane. Eventhough, this was my first time flying a YS 110, I was pretty impressed with its performance.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my buddies Alex Lau and Hung-Kay Li for their hospitalities. And to all my old and new friends in Hong Kong and China - "I'll be back".

Adrian

P.S. Hey Alex, you still owe me a pipe.

Here are some more pix:-

Adrian,

Your pipe will be on the way to Akiba...Alex "Command" it as such....Just hope that Hatori have stock as they are out of them about a month ago...

Bon Voyage

Hi Adrian I,m in now.Please notice my user name

Welcome, Dragon.

Adrian

About time you showed up! [8D]


Welcome!