Hello Singapore! The land of one slope?

[Twyl]

Hi all, my name is Jonathan and I'm addicted to slope flying and gliders in general. I'm currently living in Southern California but have recently received news that there is a 90% chance or greater that my company will be transferring me to Singapore at the start of next year. This is some exciting news for my career, but as far as my hobby is concerned I'm getting a bit depressed. It appears that Singapore has only one slope, the Bedok Reservoir, and that one slope is only flyable four months of the year! Is this truly the case? Is there really no slope, dune, mound of something that faces south that could support a DLG or Alula type glider during the non-monsoon seasons?

Assuming slope flying is really only accessible from Dec-Mar what do slope enthusiast do during the down season? Are there some really active DLG or Thermal groups in Singapore?

Sorry for all the questions from a first time poster here. Up until now I've only posted on RC Groups (Same name), but I really like the idea of the Singapore community here. Any advice or help you guys might have would be greatly appreciated. I will actually be in Singapore on 8/4-5 and although my primary goal will be to scout out housing and other general living and working arrangements I would love to check out where everyone flys.

-Jonathan

P.S. What Tx mode do the majority of people fly on in Singapore? Mode 1 or mode 2 or something else?

[Twyl]

Here's a recent clip from one of my home slopes.

-Jonathan

[Hawkeye]

Hi Jonathan,

Send me a PM and we can chat more.

Im envious of that slope you have there.

You dont by any chance live near La Jolla or Torrey Pines?

[Pang]

Hi jonathan,

Warm welcome. Good to see another slope addict.

We slope at bedok reservoir from Dec-Apr , the best time period is Jan-Feb. During this period we also make numerous trips across the causeway to Sedili in Malaysialy at a sea side slope. During the off season, most of the guys fly powered gliders, Dlgs at various fields around the island. To get our slope kicks in between, we travel to Phuket in Thailand and fly off promthep cape normally ard July/August

We also take part in the typhoon race, a regional f3f race in either HK, Taiwan or Korea towards Oct
Teamf3fsingapore.blogspot.com. There is a also small slope off East coast park, that faces south east, you can do gentle sloping with dlg, alula or weasel. As you can see there are lots of flying for glider fans, you are welcome to join us on our trips.

Sloping at Ecp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUlWi2fpOuI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Sunstorm]

Hi Jonathan;

as Chow Yuen Fatt puts it so eloquently in Pirates of The Carribean; "Welcome to Singapore".

Yes, there is a slope in Singapore and it's the 1 confirmed slope we have.

depending on where you are on the island and depending on the time (usually a weekend), it's mostly 1/2 hr - 1 hr car ride away and another 10 minutes walk up the slope. The lovely part - Bedok Reservoir just sits near an expressway exit. = )

in between, some of the fliers double up as heli / 3d plane / warbird / scale / pylon / dlg / electric glider pilots = )

many glider pilots here. every monsoon season, it's almost like the march of the penguins

we get a lot of stuff from homebrewed depron wings to high tech carbon stuff.

anyway do drop by old holland road on weekend evenings to chat if you can

always good for an expat to know new friends

cheers

[Twyl]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. I seemed to have failed to subscribe to my own thread and was not getting updates to new post.

Hawkeye, I live in Orange County and work in Torrance (LA County) which is a 15 minute drive to Pt. Fermin. Pt. Fermin and Torrey Pines, the slope that you mentioned, are possibly two of the most well known slopes for ocean cliff flying in the USA. Pt. Fermin is actually where the Team USA F3F qualifiers were held. I am very fortunate in that I frequently can manage to get out to Fermin during the week for my lunch break for a short 20-30minute slope fix. While I am admittedly spoiled when it comes to lift, I also know that what makes a slope or field a great place to fly is not just the lift but the community of guys and gals(?) that frequent the site.

Pang! Thanks for the video of East Coast Park. This is very encouraging. Is this site active (wind/lift wise) during the non-monsoon season? I think I read somewhere that the prevailing winds in Singapore are from the south, so I'm hoping it might possibly be the case. I guess what I don't know is how windy or non-windy Singapore is. I have a light 48" (1.22m) Ultrabatic (VTPR?) type glider which I have yet to build but which I think should work well on small light lift slopes like ECP.

I'm still not 100% positive where I will be staying when I am there, but I would love to plan a stop by Old Holland Rd.

Cheers!

-Jonathan

[Ghostfit]

Hi Jonathan,

A warm welcome !

Although Singapore does not have the almost everyday slope conditions as what you have back in your hometown, there are several RC pilots here who places slope soaring on top of all their RC activities, you will not be alone when you're here.

We fly all modes, most of the guys are on either mode 1 or 2 and a few on mode 3 and 4.

Would love to met up with you on the 5 August when you're in town (check your PM).

[buratino]

Hi Jonathan,

Im not a slope glider, but I love your video and a beautiful music, thanks!

[Tuner]

Slope Flying

wow, the video pang posted gave me another insights on rc flying, I didn't knew about slope flying in Singapore. I would like to catch you guys in action. Can someone kindly pm me during one of your regular flights? Thanks.

[chiadennis]

Unfortunately in Singapore we don't have high wind areas that provide good slope lift.
Our one and only slope opens only seasonal during the NE monsoon which is in Dec - Mar. For some of us slope addicts, we make our way up to Malaysia or Phuket. In fact we going up on such a trip to Phuket end of this month. Some of us have even taken part in Asian F3F competition (Typhoon Race). Last year we had privileged to witness the world record time been broken.

[Twyl]

wow, the video pang posted gave me another insights on rc flying, I didn't knew about slope flying in Singapore. I would like to catch you guys in action. Can someone kindly pm me during one of your regular flights? Thanks.

I really liked this video too. My first slope experience was along a beach front along the western coast of Japan with an Ariel, a 1.5m HLG (not a DLG but a javelin style launcher with a finger hole). The "slope" was not as well defined as the retaining wall at ECP but it was hardly any bigger. I really am interested to know if the conditions Pang was flying in in the video is common during the off season (i.e. when Bedok is not active) or not.

Unfortunately in Singapore we don't have high wind areas that provide good slope lift.
Our one and only slope opens only seasonal during the NE monsoon which is in Dec - Mar. For some of us slope addicts, we make our way up to Malaysia or Phuket. In fact we going up on such a trip to Phuket end of this month. Some of us have even taken part in Asian F3F competition (Typhoon Race). Last year we had privileged to witness the world record time been broken.

I saw some post of one of your trips up to Sedili in Malaysia, and the site in Phuket looks pretty neat as well. I can't believe how ridiculously nice that mountain slope in HK looks. I have seen the world record clip on youtube (I think?) and wow, what incredible skill. One of these days it would be fun to fly there.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]114773[/ATTACH]

That ocean looks absolutely gorgeous! Nice pink plane too Is that Sedili?

-Jonathan

[randomtask]

Hi Jonathan,

DLG is really gaining quite a following here in Singapore. There are guys in Old Holland Road flying DLGs and we have quite a solid group in the east too (http://www.daddyhobby.com/forum/show...l=1#post565469).

Cheers,
Adnan

[James Lee]

Hi Jonathan,
there's a handful of us who winch launch too. There's also some scale slope soaring at Bedok Res when the wind direction and strength are right.

I'm ready to be corrected, but the one thing we don't have a lot of here are competitions. Just bunches of guys who enjoy keeping our planes up in the air. Have not seen gals with gliders though... will be gled to be proven wrong!

[Twyl]

Hi Jonathan,

DLG is really gaining quite a following here in Singapore. There are guys in Old Holland Road flying DLGs and we have quite a solid group in the east too (http://www.daddyhobby.com/forum/show...l=1#post565469).

Cheers,
Adnan

Thanks for sharing Adnan, that is very good to know. While I am currently a slope nutt, my roots are most definitely HLG and I think it would be very easy for me to get into DLG. When I say HLG I am referring to the old school ones with the finger holes in the fuse that were launched javelin style. I grew up in Osaka, Japan and the nearest ?real? slopes from where we lived were 3-4 hours away. Our home slope though was a river levee/dyke which had rather marginal lift even on the best of days, however what it did have was a large ball field out in front of it where we spent many many hours hand launching our gliders as hard as we could searching for those magical thermals. I even had a finger hole installed in my 2m Gentle Lady and had a blast tossing that around too. My dad was very big into HLGs and even though we were in Japan and the movement was primarily taking off in the States, he was always in communication with the folks that were leading it and quite literally in the mix of things himself. Here?s an article he wrote that chronicled the beginning of HLG which later give birth to DLG.

Here?s an old picture of me flying a Skeeter off our levee/slope in Japan. The Skeeter was normally built as a polyhedral HLG but my dad modified this one to have a flat wing and ailerons, and of course a finger hole.


Note the glove with the cut off index finger for better launching


Here?s a larger picture of my Avatar also flying the Skeeter.

Hi Jonathan,
there's a handful of us who winch launch too. There's also some scale slope soaring at Bedok Res when the wind direction and strength are right.

I'm ready to be corrected, but the one thing we don't have a lot of here are competitions. Just bunches of guys who enjoy keeping our planes up in the air. Have not seen gals with gliders though... will be gled to be proven wrong!

Thanks James, competitions are always great as they tend to provide a lot of guys with the needed kick in the pants to get their projects done, new planes built, and actually showing up to hang out with the rest of the gang. In regards to the gals I?m right there with you and eager to be proven wrong. Soaring is one of those sports were brawn really has little to do with how well you fly, and it?s a mystery why there aren?t more female RC glider enthusiasts.

Cheers!

-Jonathan

P.S. Is there an edit function to these forums or any way to go back to fix or update older posts you made?

[Kantankerous]

Jon, conditions aren't perfect here and the mob will make you feel at home. BUT bring something with a motor though, because slopes are seasonal, thermals are weak and good company alone does not loft a plane

A motor however...

@ James

not seen gals with gliders though... will be gled to be proven wrong!

Did you mean geld?