Sedili Slope trip report

A group of us slope soaring fanatics went up north to Sedili for some crazy slope fun over the weekend last week. It was located at a resort with steep cliff facing the south china sea, this offers us superb slope lift during the northeast monsoon. Normally we make one or two trips there each season.

Directions

The place we headed to is tanjung sutrera resort. Its about 2 hours drive away from the causeway. After crossing the causeway, get on highway 3 towards kota tinggi, drive towards Mersing. After about an hour or so, turn right when you see the signs towards sedili. Follow the signs towards sedili besar, you will cross a bridge then turn into a plantation. Keep driving till you reach the resort.

Packing all 6 glider in the car

There is a great eatary famous for its Bak Kut Teh along the way which we normally stop by halfway towards sedili. Was too busy savouring the food, forgot to take photos of the Bak Kut Teh.
Bridge towards sedili besar

Resort

The resort itself is a quiet and serene place to relax, it offers chalet like rooms and meals are catered.



Most importantly it offers us a great flying site.

Only thing to note is the landing can be a bit tricky, there are no proper landing strip and normally we dive into the bushes to land. This may seem scary at first but it becames easier after a few attempts

Landing area

Arrestor net

Landing 101


Flying

I brought 6 planes along and all of them managed to get flight time. Lift was superb, and got better in the afternoon. Planes could float and fly around faster than our usual slope at bedok.

1. Beevolution - test plane for wind conditions, combat bee , managed a few hits and got hit landed up on the roof.
   
2. Le fish - acro warm up, found it to be way too slow compared to the Voltij.
3. Miraj - great flyer, big presense in the air, managed to practice some F3F like turns. Luv the way it picks up speed when turning at the corner. With flaps on , it could come in real slow for landing.
   
4. Salto - it flew! Didnt flew well at bedok as it had a nasty tip stall habit. It flew much better at sedili, able to go fast, great looks. But during the landing i brought it in abit too slow, and it tip stalled again. Tore one of the wing skin along the spar, tips cracked. Crashed but i m happy it flew like it shld. Will try to get it repaired for the next trip.
5. Banana - proven sloper, fast.
   
6. Voltij - this has to be the best plane for me this trip. Superb acro, fast, knife edge, inverted stall turns, outside loops. I had set it up for 4-axis flying where the throttle stick controls the camber/reflex. Wow what great fun, its like heli flying, i push up and it floats up, go inverted i pull the stick down n it rises inverted. Super cool, i managed to hover and climb up inverted to fairly high. "Portery in motion" as one fellow flyer put it. Simply superb.

Miraj and Voltij.

Damage on the salto

Plane hanger

Flyers enjoying themselves

Full flaps diving in to land

Our VIP
Most of the times we land in hard to reach places in the bushes, Mimi will help us to retrieve them. She is really good at finding planes and retrieving them. Thanks mimi.

Doing her stuff

Seafood dinner
We headed out to the town for a sumptous seafood dinner at night


Another great trip, im looking forward to the next one.

More pics of this trip can be found here.

Sedili Slope trip - preview

Going for a slope trip up north. Last month when we went, the winds were not blowing right. This time round, i'm going back for revenge! lol.

All pack for the trip

Engine troubles - OS 50 hyper

The OS 50 hyper had been properly tuned and running well for 13 gallons, yet out of the blue, the piston ring broke for no particular reason. It happened when i ran dry the engine at the end of the day's flight which i have always done. A 'Ting' sound was heard and i knew something was wrong.

Piston ring broke and chip off abit of the piston

Engine was ran rich and very new

Bearings after 13 gallons

So i spent 50 bucks and got replacements

I took time and carefully changed the parts. Made sure all was working properly before refitting it back to the heli.

I was looking forward to run-in the engine again, but WTF the ring broke on the first crank??!?.
i was very sure the parts was installed properly. This time the damage was worse than the first time, the inside of the crank case got scatched.

Crap, was so disappointed that i decided to try another engine. Just received the new engine in. I look forward to testing the new YS , will be back with review once i get a few gallons in.