Sungei Besi was chosen as the location where the foreign participants had to have their aircraft forwarded for the purpose of assembly and test flight. The aircraft came mainly from Australia, South Africa and Italy. By the 26th July, Saturday 1997 the containers bringing the aircraft should have arrive at the base. Facilities such as transportation, crane services were arranged by the organizers in their preparations. By the 27th July all the participants had flight-tested their machines except for the South Africans whose aircraft had not arrive. The Langkawi Fly-in (Oshkosh East) was the first light aircraft convention and exhibition held in Asia being organized by Le Proton LIMA. We that is Capt. Chung and myself were however deprived of the information until the last minute. For that reason we did not have enough time to prepare my “Challenger II “ micro-light for participation.
So we decided to join Charlie Tan of Aerochute Udara (M) Sdn Bhd as Capt. Chung offered to fly one of his Trike for demonstration purpose. Two Airborne Trikes were trucked to Langkawi and we drove there meeting up with Charlie. We met Wilson Lim of Le Proton and checked in the hotel arranged by them
Partcipants at Sungei Besi comprised of Deb and Wayne in their Australian Light Wing, Dave and Fred in their Thrusters, Nestor Slepcev and Shirley in their Storch, Peter in his Karatoo 6, Jack a Malaysian in his Quicksilver GT 500, Valerio in his Italian Stork.
The problem was the haze, the Indonesian farmers in their usual practice of un-control “slash and burn” policy had fuelled forest fires over vast areas had created a hazard that blanketed the whole area included neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. Visibility was greatly effected and was so bad that you could not see the wind-sock at the other end of the airfield. The 28th July “D” Day was the official flagging off with Dr. Mahathir and other dignitaries in attendance. Not withstanding poor visibility the Rally departed Sungei Besi in the afternoon and headed for Melaka via Kajang, Mantin and Seremban a distance of 61 nautical miles. Upon landing at Melaka they were accommodated in the “Eagle’s hanger a brand new factory of 500 acre. The next day the haze was worse and flying had to be cancelled due to bad visibility as micro-light are allowed to fly only by visual in clear and under good weather condition.
The 30th July, Wednesday visibility was as previous day and they were not allowed to fly into Kuala Lumpur International Airport as nobody wanted to bear any responsibility for their safety or having to answer their embassies.
Charlie Tan with Capt. Chung Nestor Slepcev
Instead they suggested an alternative scheme that would take them to un-control airstrip at Jenderata, a United Plantation private airstrip 170 nautical miles north of Melaka. The plan was acceptable and from there they flew to Ipoh only 40 nautical miles north east of Jendarata. As foreigners they felt un-easy flying over the jungles of Peninsular Malaya as they must have been fed with stories of man-eating tigers.
I understood their feelings as I myself felt the same thing when I flew alone in my “Challenger II” from Mersing in the East Coast across to Batu Pahat in the West over tiger territory. There had been reports of frequent sightings in the areas of Kluang, Kota Tinggi and Kahang; the area I covered. Of course I was nervous and uneasy as I flew over endless green canopy of giant trees that spread like a carpet over the whole area. And the ugly thought of ending up below in a wrong place, wrong timing with hungry tigers eager to have you for meal was not entertaining.
The group landed safely at Ipoh and transferred to the hotel for overnight stay and the next two days were “free & easy" to go shopping and sight-seeing. By then the South Africans had joined the Rally with their Cessna and Piper Cub.
On 2nd August, they were officially a flagged off for the next leg to Kangar the northern most Malay State of Perlis that borders the southern province of Thailand. Kangar is a flat country making up of padi fields as rice is local staple food and the main agriculture crop. However, the flyers got off the ground that day but had to abort and returned owing to poor visibility. The next day 3rd August, Sunday they were determined to fly off if they could see the windsock at the end of the runway. The next destination was to Taiping via Batu Gajah and Pantai Remis. The Taiping airfield located in the centre of the town but had not been in use and partially neglected.
From Taiping they departed for Alor Star via Kulim a distance of 70 nautical miles flying over vast stretches of padi fields. Over Alor Star the scenery was beautiful with padi fields all around is known as the rice bowl of Malaysia. However owing to the haze and poor visibility they were forced to fly at 500 ft above ground level which was alright for micro-light. They landed safely at Alor Star and were entertained at the Kedah Flying Club. They were temporary delayed owing to the haze and they were off again as soon as visibility improved due to rain. And relying on their GPS they arrived at Kangar at about 1630 hours. After landing a full reception was accorded to them with State and local officials in attendance.
The 4th August, they were to arrive Langkawi at about 1100 hours to be in time for the opening speech by the Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir. They left Kangar after breakfast and flew the last 30 nautical miles over water; across the channel and arriving overhead Langkawi at 1,500 ft. We were at the International Airport at Padang Matsirat waiting as they appeared. I was particularly interested in the “Storch” that Slepcev was flying. The “Storch” a high-wing was developed by Slepcev into a scale-down replica of the original Fiesler Fi-155 Storch aircraft. The famous Storch was deployed by the Nazi Commandos in a daring raid to rescue the Italian leader Mussolini from his hilltop prison.
Author with Slepcev replica of the German Storch.
Specification of Slepcev Storch Mk 4 with Rotax 912 engine.
Cruise: 70 knots
Top Speed: 85 knots
Stall speed: 15 knots
Rate of climb: min. 900 ft per
Take off distance: 30 – 50 ft.
Landing distance: 30 – 50 ft.
Service ceiling: 15,000 ft.
Fuel capacity: 75 litres
Empty weight: 289 kg
Gross Weight: 480 kg
Length: 6.8 meters.
Wing span: 10 meters.
Wing area: 16 sq. meters.
Number of seats: 2
The main landing gear is very strong and robust, could withstand heavy landing without any problem. It had excellent all round vision owing to the glass-cage cockpit with clear overhead sunroof. The long range extra fuel tank took the shape of a bomb under-slung in the belly. In World War II camouflage and German markings, it is still my dream-plane and if I could have some hours in it I would be satisfied. Anyway we had the opportunity to meet Nestor and his wife Shirley as they put up at the same hotel. Later we had the chance to examine his aircraft and took pictures of him and his wonderful invention.
The previous day, Sunday had been very unfortunate when a sudden storm hit the island at about 1730 hours and damaged the 3 micro-lights from Batu Pahat. The micro-light a Mx single, a Ralley and a Skywalker were hurled against each other by strong winds and sustained serious damage.
On the 6th August, Wednesday we attended a briefing at the Control Tower with others on procedures and flight safety. After that we prepared our “Airborne” trike with Capt. Chung as Pilot and I sat in the backseat. At 1015 hours we taxied to the main 12,500 ft runway and positioned at the threshold runway # 21 before being cleared to take-off. It was a very short run before we were airborne and allowed to do only one circuit before landing. It was short demonstration and we were happy to have had the opportunity.
Later another bad accident happened when a Malaysian Air Force “Nuri” helicopter performing a “search and rescue” demonstration hovered over the area of parked aircraft. As a result a “Zodiac” experimental aircraft belonging to Rakan Muda was flip-over by the powerful down-draft and completely damaged the aircraft. The 400 kg “Zodiac” was one of the 48 aircraft that took part in the 5-day air show. It was a sad day not only for Rakan Muda but also to most of us to see the beautiful (Rm 220,000) aircraft completely written off.
Author with Capt. Chung
Rakan Muda “Zodiac” that was wrecked
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