Soaring Trips to Exotic Places

A soaring trip to Grass Island (Tap Mun) on Sunday, 9 February, 2003 was organized. It is an HKRCSS event. Totally 20 r/c soarers and their guests joined the trip to this remote island. The trip started early in Sunday morning as fellow soarers converged in Wong Shek Pier in Sai Kung for taking the 10:30am ferry to Grass Island.  The surrounding scenery is one of the most beautiful in Hong Kong. People visiting this island would definitely be impressed with its tranquility, and most importantly, the island boosts many grassy east-facing slopes. The wind coming unobstructively from Mirs Bay can provide r/c soarers  with endless lift. We arrived at the slope at about 11:00am. Some overnight campers were already there. The slope is facing east to the direction of Mirs Bay with a stony beach below. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the wind was very light, guessed to be around 2 km per hour. So only high performance or floaty gliders can manage to stay airborne. Surprisingly, for wind speed as low as this, most gliders will be grounded if we fly in other slopes, such as those in Fei Ngo Shan or Clearwater bay. But we still manage to fly in this wonderful slope - it is definitely one of the best slope available in Hong Kong! We had about one and half hour of fun flying there before going down to the village restaurant for lunch. We came back up to the slope after lunch and soon discovered that the wind was picking up at about 15 km/hr. Wow! It's wonderful! So we immediately started flying all other aerobatic models. Onlookers to this remote island were fascinated with the ability of our powerless gliders to not only stay airborne for such a long duration but also to their stunning aerobatic capability. After two hours of intense flying, some fellow soarers decided to explore other possible slopes in the northeast coast of the island. They climbed up and down to a slope near Lung Keng Kan and soon discovered that the wind direction was changed to southeast, that made the flying off the northeast facing slope very difficult. With some successful soaring off a cliff and a dangerous if not difficult pickup at the cliff's edge, we really have good fun up there. A police dog from a nearby police station was so happy to see our present on the island so it decided to follow us all the way up and down the slope. The dog was particularly so excited when Stanley was landing his MiniNYX and he decided to greet the plane with a bite - well almost if not Stanley ran faster than the dog!. By 4:40pm it's time to pack up and left this beautiful place. We managed to reach the pier to take the 5:00pm ferry back to Wong Shek Pier. What's a wonderful trip!

The happy guys are on a boat ride from Wong Shek Pier to Grass Island. They are looking forward to visit the island, some of them have never been to the island before

On the slope. Wow! plenty of landing area - but mind you that there are campers around!

Y.C. and Ken are showing their soaring skill

Ah So and Ah Lok had a midair. Are they arguing who is responsible?

MiniCorado is taking the advantage of light wind to explore the virgin slope

The soft ocean breeze provide the r/c soarers with plenty of energy to expanse

Guys, are you satisfied with the local seafood?

Daniel, take it easy, sure plane recovery is not difficult here.

Fellow soarers are impressed with the natural beauty of this remote island

Oop! Chung, it's dangerous to recover your plane in this vertical cliff. Take care please!

Many of the east-facing slopes in the island are soarable

Let's have a group photo for memory

A group of four r/c soarers has paid a visit to Cloudy Hill in Tai Po on 15 March 2003. The trip began when the pilots gathered at the entrance to Fung Yuen Road near Tai Po Industrial Estate at 11:30 am. There is a narrow but two-way road near Fund Yuen Road that is leading up to Sai Lo Tung. After parking our cars in a small car park in Sai Lo Tung we picked up our models and equipment and started the ascend. The first kilometer of the mountain trail is relatively flat and easy, however, the last kilometer is a steep climb which demands a certain degree of physical fitness. We reached the top after about 45 minutes of demanding hike. There is a TV transmitter station at the top. We came to a mountain ridge after passing through the station. The ridge has many east to southeast-facing slopes, some of them are VERY steep, almost vertical. To the east of the ridge is Tolo Harbour with a bow shape valley below, sure the slope can generate wonderful lift! The landing is very challenging because the available landing area on the ridge is so little. You have to make a downwind climb and a very precise touch down. Overshooting or undershooting on landing will have a consequence of extremely difficult or even dangerous pickup. Some of us have reservation of flying here, they would  rather like to fly on the narrower southeast-facing slope near the TV transmitter station. Some are willing to take the challenge. The reward, of course, can not be easily described - just amazing! "Never get my Sting running in speed like a formula one"!

After a few hours of slope soaring, we started the descend at about 4:30pm just enough to have a refreshment in a local coffee shop before sunset. What's a wonderful trip!

Mak, with all his possession, is ready to take the hike up. You can see the TV transmitter station in the mountain top from here.

The first kilometer hike is ok, but the most difficult part is coming... Make sure to take a rest and drink enough water!

Over the top after passing the TV transmitter station you will see a ridge with very steep east-acing slopes.

Stanley is preparing the Sting for launch. It's just so wonderful to fly the Sting is this monster of life-generating slope!

Willy is preparing his Graupner B4 for launch

Y.C. is a bit annoyed by the bush in this tiny place of landing spot

Shooting Star and MiniCorado are just too friendly to each other

See a movie for landing a MiniCorado

On March 22, 2003, a group of  seven r/c soarers gathered in Pak Tam Chung, Sai Kung early in the morning. Their goal is to explore the east-facing slope in the mountain range behind Ko Lau Wan. The group took the ferry from Wong Shek pier to Ko Lau Wan which is a small fishing village in the north-east coast of Hong Kong. After about 20 minutes walk and an easy hike up, we arrived at the slope at about 11:30am. Surprisingly to us, we are not alone! Three fellow r/c soarers were already flying their aerobatic models there. We didn't expect that there is another group of soarers knowing this remote soaring site well. The surrounding scenery is so beautiful. Sharp Peak is not far away to the south. Grass island is just few kilometers away to the north. The blue sea below was so charming. There are rare maritime traffic in this part of the territory. The slope has a 45 degree face full of green vegetation. There are plenty of space in the hill top for headwind landing, unfortunately there are also scattered rocks around. The most concerned for all of us, of course, is the wind speed and direction. It was blowing at an average of 12 knots from the east - what a wonderful day for slope soaring. We unpacked our models and equipment immediately. Sting, Sierra, MiniNYX, Shooting Star, Hawk, B4, MiniCorrado, Prodij, ASW28 were seen occupying the vase airspace soon.

There are plenty of green vegetation on the slope. You can see very rare  maritime traffic in this remote part of Mirs Bay

You can see the stony coast and the beautiful Sharp Peak. The east-facing slope is over 1 km long.

The slope is not too steep and recovering a plane shouldn't be too difficult. But mind you that a lost alarm must be installed. We were close to have the first plane missing there, luckily with our team effort we finally got it

Slope racing here is good fun. The lift is fantastic. I guess if we can hold a F3F race here with proper wind condition, we can easily make a record of local best

The slope is wide and open. There are plenty of space to land your bird

A group photo with Sharp Peak in the background. Willy is the camera man

If you have soaring experience to places not list here and would like to provide and list your information here, you are warmly welcome! Please send us the pictures and information about your trips. Thanks.