Performance in simulator is better than yesterday. At least the departure and take-off briefs are more fluent.

Autopilot makes life so much easier. To climb/descent/turning, we just need to turn the knobs and the machine does everything for us.

Mental calculation is lesser today but not for tomorrow.

Such calculations involve sin and cos angle to correct for wind and drift effect.

Then we have the descend/climb and turning calculations.

Eg:
A rate one turn--->> 180degrees/minute = 45degrees/15second.

Rate of climb/descend--->> 500 feet per minute = 125feet/15seconds.

Every 15seconds, we have to call out the heading and altitude, at the same time we have to monitor the speeds, descent/climb rate, calculating the next heading&altitude for the next 15seconds.

Sounds alot of work to you?

Autopilot can reduce the workload but we cannot fly on that all the time. At least not for now.

I will try to memorize the figures for the next training.

After 12 days of not flying, finally I was scheduled to fly this morning. Felt kinda weird when flying just now. Control stick felt heavy. And I took more time to visual with aircrafts.


Yesterday was a very lucky day! Guess what, I got the once in a lifetime chance to enter a Boeing 747 cockpit!!!!

You see, my batchmate has a FO friend (from our company of course) who was scheduled to fly to Jeddah to fetch the Muslim pilgrims home. A 3-men crew flight. We requested to see 747 cockpit. Permission granted. Arrangements were made soon after that.

Departure time 1900hours. So we waited at the departure hall at 1700hours because we also not very sure what time they were supposed to arrive at the airport.

20minutes later and we saw 2 Captains and 1 FO arrived in a MPV. We sat down in a restaurant and had some coffee together with them while waiting for the immigration office to open. One of the Captains, Captain SH treated us the drinks! :)

It was quite awkward to share the same table with them! You know, they were wearing the black blazers, with the 4 gold bars on their wrist (not forgetting the 3 bars on the FO's). And 5 of us were..urmmm..just nothing compared to them!

Then we saw the FO took out all the necessary documents for the flight. Notams, METARs, TAFs, flight plan, load sheets, etc. I got the chance to have a look at their METARs, TAFs and Notams. Goddamnit! There were so many pages!

The FO said that they would read it during cruise phase. Fyi, such long-haul flight consists of many legs (or sections as you call them). So only certain information are applicable to certain legs. Reading everything at one shot will take forever, he said.

At around 1740, we proceeded to the aircraft! The climax! Haha.

Captain SH showed us personally (yes personally!) to the First Class seats. We passed by the Business Class cabin and seriously it was fantastic! Oh my god! But the First Class cabin was even superb! He showed us how to operate the chair-to-bed massage functions, touchscreen monitor, etc.
Call me anything you want. Haha. But I have never experienced a First Class seat until yesterday! Not even Business Class! Maybe I won't have the chance to fly one of those too!

Yes, we saw the cabin attendants of course! Busy with the final preparation before take-off. Hehehe. Fyi, they were all retired cabin crews hired specially for the haj flights. Why retired ones, you asked? I don't know!

But hey, they all looked between 25 to 29 years old. Very pretty some of them. And very professional indeed. The way they carried themselves, the way they talked, very friendly.
Except for one, a gay b*stard steward. Felt like punching him. Ok, please. He did not molest me. Haha. I just hate gays. I had seen too much in my school last time. So.....you know....yeah.

Anyway, all the steward and stewardess 'booked' the First Class seats. No passengers at all. Ferry flight, remember?

After that we walked to the upper deck, where it leads to the cockpit! =) Cockpit~~ It was awesome, folks!!!
Damn. Just seeing them at airliners.net or other online websites is certainly not enough! Haha. Being able to see it live is pure happiness!! Pure joy!! =D =D =D

As we were busy taking photos and looking around inside, the FO was busy doing his job. Keying in data into FMS, getting the latest weather info, checking the switches and buttons of instrument stuffs. The pilot in command, Captain SJ was less busy, it seemed. But he shared some of the the workload. Haha. As usual, most of the stuffs are to be done by the juniors!

The FO later went outside to do the aircraft walk-around. This is one of the pre-flight procedures to check the airframe visually for defections. (Even the small aircrafts that we fly have to be checked visually before each sorties.)

Captain SH showed us the crew rest bunk just left rear of the cockpit. Very small. Haha. Two beds, top and bottom. Two washrooms just on the right rear of the cockpit.





Departure time was just 15minutes away and we heard the gay b*stard announcing through the speaker to inform us to get out from the plane ASAP. We thanked the Captains and FO before we left.

From outside I just realised the aircraft's nickname is jb! Haha. I was the last to notice that actually. My friends saw that even before they stepped into the aircraft. Just in case you don't know, all the company's 747s side are named after cities of Bolehland.

Finally a nav sortie to WMKC (Kota Bahru airfield)! Weather was awesome all the way from take-off until reaching WMKC.

Made a big blunder today. Damn. You gonna laugh when you read this.

I was overhead KB town when the ATC told me to descend to 1000ft and to join Right Hand Downwind Runway 10.

But I joined the left hand downwind Runway 28 instead!!

The best part is I didn't even realise I was at the wrong runway heading until the ATC told me it was the wrong one!

ARRRGGGHHH.............

I requested to go around and resume navigation. He cleared for left turn, climb 3000ft.

But on the way to the next waypoint, the weather turned bad. One huge wall of CB was in front of me stretching from sea to inland.

Unable to divert, I had to track back to land at WMKC.

ATC cleared for right hand downwind Runway 10 to land.

I was afraid I did the wrong thing this time, so I asked for reconfirmation again.

Read back correct. But..

I joined the opposite side of downwind!!!

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH.......... *smacks head*
Wtf weh.. WTF!!!!

Luckily some of the APFT aircrafts kept a lookout for me this idiot traffic.

You know why I was that stupid?

Because I was holding the runway layout chart upside down!!! It's in black and white, which lead to the false assumption of land and sea areas.

So sorry to them and the controllers that I caused all the confusion. Sigh~~

But anyway, I landed and went to tower, you know, to apologize for my mistakes.

Since it's the first time I landed at KB, I took quite some time to ask around for directions to the tower.

The controllers were kind enough not to scold me but just advised me not to repeat it again. Phew~~

Another controller, Mr. Khairuddin invited me to have a drink with him since I had to wait for an hour or so for the weather to clear up.

It was already 1130hours by the time we came back. The Mr. Khairuddin called the WMGK to ask the weather. I was cleared to go.

Tracking back to KT airfield via coastal was not that smooth either. Had to avoid clouds all the way back.

A good lesson to learn today: We tend to see things that we want to see only.

After completing many of my solo sorties, I am now being scheduled to fly the remaining dual ones.

But aircraft seems to have problem with the propeller governor. It tends to over-speed.

My friend who flew with the aircraft yesterday faced with propeller over-sped in training area. (Power was only at 50%).

He did all the necessary emergency procedures and later requested to track back to airfield.

A journey from the training area to airfield (which normally takes 5minutes) took 20 minutes.

And hence my navigation solo sortie to WMKC has been canceled for two days already including this morning!!

Just few more sorties to go and it's gonna be my exam!! Nah, not theory anymore. Just pure flying!!



Just a random search using Google, I found a FB profile. The picture looked so much like her when she was just 9 years old.

I have been looking for her since 3 years ago but to no avail.

Is it really her, I wonder.

I sent her a message. Still awaiting her reply.

I guess it is hard for her to remember me anyway. 12 years we did not contact each other!




Just for humour ONLY:

http://baetzler.de/humor/differences_men_women.html

http://baetzler.de/humor/five_questions.html

New template. Feeling bored after just an hour sortie today, so decided to change blog design.

Calm winds result in hazy weather. At least that is what I observed these few days.

My instructor and I were turning inbound in the procedure turn for VOR/DME approach and contacted the tower for touch&go intention.

But tower instructed us to land due to IMC conditions.

Heavy downpour and we couldn't visual with runway until 3 DME from VKR (quite close to runway already).

The windscreen was like a piece of white sheet.

It was only at less than 1DME we saw the runway lights and managed to land.

A good experience though. I don't think I can get that in Lgk! :)

Flew pass some low-lying areas and they were all flooded very badly. Especially near the airfield.


My friend saw one guy trying to push his car out from his house even though the water level was at his neck already!

Finally after 6 days of not flying, I am back to the sky again! =)

As expected, my performance was below par. Especially instrument scanning. Again.


The road in front of my house is flooded. Ankle deep.

The ceiling in my room leaks during heavy downpour.

We informed the house owner already. Hopefully he can do something about this.

We did NDB (Non-Directional Beacon) tracking in and tracking out exercises. It's simpler in terms of procedures.

NDBs is a little similar like VOR (read previous post).

They are used as airfield approach (not runway approach) aids for airlines.

In aircraft, we have Automatic Direction Finding (ADF) equipment to detect the NDB signals, and that is why we can track towards a particular airfield.

The accuracy is lesser and more prone to errors compared to the more advanced nav aids, like VOR and GPS.

If there is a thunderstorm activity nearby, the ADF needle will point towards there! Other sources of error including:
-terrain
-night effect
-aircraft banking
-shoreline




It's nearing the end of the month and we have to update our flying hours in the logbook.

Me?

83:20

Long long way to go...........

Another normal day. Yeah, normal.

As usual, strong winds. And I mean really strong. At least 20kts.

Maximum crosswind permitted for solo cadets is 10kts. So only sorties with instructors were allowed to proceed.

We practiced procedure turns. 4 types altogether.
-Turn 80degrees to the right/left, then turn 260degrees left/right.
-Turn 90degrees to the right/left, then turn 270degrees left/right.
-Turn 45degrees to the right/left, then turn 225degrees left/right.
-Base leg technique: 180degrees one round turn.

Procedure Turn is used to position ourselves to intercept a particular VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) radial and then track to the VOR station (which in this case, the VOR here is named VKR).

There are 360 radials, with the VOR as the center, ranging from Radial 000 to Radial 359.

Try imagine VORs are like our toll booth (minus the toll fees obviously). And airways are like highways connecting one waypoint to the another.

Mutual sortie as usual, practiced for VOR/DME of VKR Runway 22. I messed up the procedure turn section. Dunno what the hell was I thinking. :P

Solo sortie: I went to Rusila Training Area. That was my first time to that training area. Hills all around and a small town at the rivermouth.

I thought I could fly at 3000feet but as I flew pass a layered cloud at 2000feet, I couldn't visual with ground at all.

It's kinda scary to fly without knowing what's below you.

Bright sunny day and a little morning drizzle. A rare weather to be seen during this season.

But cloud cover in the training area I went was quite low at 1700 feet. Only could practice some turns.

To practice stalls, the height requirement is 2500feet or above.

This training area that I went yesterday is actually the location of the crash of 9MHMT.

I was flying 1000feet to look for clearings or flat areas to practice the PFL. All around me were small hills, secondary jungles and palm oil estates.

Seriously, if there was any emergency, the only place that's suitable for forced landing would be the beach.

Flying inside cloud sounds fun. I thought it was fun too.

Yesterday low cloud was everywhere. Cloud base 1800feet. We had to maintain 3500 feet over VKR, so entering cloud couldn't be avoided.

Fyi, instrument flying emphasizes on 3Rs, namely:
Rely
Refer
Relax

I managed to do the first 2Rs. The last one was tough. I was feeling the leans.

The Attitude Indicator showed straight and level flight. But I felt the aircraft was turning&banking slowly to one side. Damn.

By the way, solo sortie today was boring. 4 Apex aircrafts came here for Nav plus 3 company aircrafts. Traffic was too busy. Bad weather in training area. I had to hold at training area in the rain for 20minutes. And another 20minutes at downwind!!

Only managed to do 2 touch&go and that was all for an hour sortie! -_-"




Yesterday another cadet here caused propeller strike on a TB10 he flew. The nose wheel is damaged quite badly.

The best part is, the cadet is the same guy who created history of the first TB10 propeller strike few weeks ago. Hahahaha.

I wonder what the hell he was thinking during flaring.

Perhaps he wanted to test the aircraft limit? :P

Or maybe he felt he lived to long. Wahahahahaha.

Today's my first solo at KT here. Training areas were full of low clouds 5-7octas. I had to settle with circuits&landing.

Visibility was not that good either. Less than 5km. Looking around, no CB, just nimbostratus. But not enough to stop the solo cadets from flying.

Through the second lap, it started to drizzle. Wind just light and variable. I guessed I could still continue flying since it does not pose much of a hazard.

Rarely I get the chance to land without strong crosswind!

Did you notice AK's latest advertisement?



I love the last sentence.

"We innovate, others imitate."

Just like GH18, this is another P1U/S sortie which checks on flying skills. Performance was ok for all the turns and stalls.

But for PFL overhead airfield, it wasn't good because I was told to use the reciprocal runway instead of the usual Runway 03 for PFL. In simple, PFL planning was not sufficient!

Anyway, here's a good news and one bad news.

Good: My batchmates and I are going to Kuala Terengganu to fly.
Bad: The school only informed us this afternoon that the bus to KT is tomorrow 2100hours!!


We know the school really likes to drop bombshell on us. But we did not expect such a huge one! Well, everyone started to rush to pack their stuffs since 6hours ago.

I myself have 2 big sets of luggage, one sling bag and one laptop bag. And oh yeah, my guitar too. That's 5 altogether! Damn.....


PS: Sharman, is the KT airport near to your school? I plan to visit you!!

I made a 180 degrees turn back for circuits& landing when I saw a bloody big CB covering both the training areas.

I was thinking that maybe I could do 6 landings with the one hour sortie.

First touch&go, OK.

Second lap, told to hold early downwind for airline departure.

After ten minutes, it started to drizzle. Over the sea, I saw another bloody big CB moving in from south. If I don't land fast, I gonna be in trouble.

ATC then told me to leave early downwind and proceed to hold late downwind for another 10mins.

By this time, the weather was just 3nm ahead of me. Gonna eat me up in another 10mins I think.

One of the instructor who was holding behind me, asked the ATC to let me land first.

But the ATC said no. Haha. He had to let another traffic to land first, then only my turn.

It seemed that even the thunderstorm activity nearby blurred the RT transmission. Static noise in the background could be heard.

But anyway, I landed without much trouble using flapless approach. Airspeed was kinda high during flaring of course. Compared to the 'crazy' landing I made the other day, today's just small case! :P

I thought I was able to clock 3hours altogether today. And again I was wrong. Weather, again!! Only 2 hours though..

Today's IF8 did some Limited Panel manoeuvres and Slow Flying.

Limited Panel simply means that the gyro instruments have failed on you and you only have other pressure instruments (Altimeter, VSI, ASI), TSI and compass to help you.

It was tough on the first try! You know, the scanning pattern changed and it took me some time to adapt fully.

Slow Flying is more for search&rescue purposes, that's what my instructor told me. To cut out the procedures, it's actually flying with Landing Flaps at slow speed (For Da40: 70kts). Quite easy. :)

I was assigned to use the same aircraft that broke down yesterday. Luckily the aircraft was 'obedient' enough to start-up this afternoon and my one hour did not go to waste. :)

**To clarify the difference between PPL steep turn & CPL steep turn:

Actually there difference is just the accuracy. In PPL, the altitude that we are allowed to overshoot is +/- 50 feet. While in CPL, we have to maintain VSI zero.**

Aircraft had engine problem when I was doing the pre-takeoff check at holding point. I had to taxy back to hangar and wait for another aircraft.

And this wasted me one hour. Damnit.