Lucky day yesterday! One of the instructor was on MC. Hence there was another extra aircraft for solo cadets!

I requested to finish my NF solos and my instructor approved! I am so glad that I got the Night Rating just in time before I go back for CNY.

And so this marks the end of my night flying chapter.

0935 UTC time departure LGK-KUL. Ciaoz!

I finally got to do the Total Electrical Failure simulation this time.

He switched off the Flood Lights and Instrument Lights. Cockpit became dark.


Instructor: Ok, now total electrical failure. Do what you need to do.
Me: Yes sir. Switch on the Emergency Switch. Then switch on the Flood Light.


Now, the emergency switch for DA 40 only powers up the Attitude Indicator and Flood Light for 30minutes.

I joined downwind 800feet.

He took out my headset's sockets so that I could not hear anything from him nor the tower. I saw him talking, should be requesting for the simulation.

At finals, maintained 300 feet. I used the torchlight and flashed to the direction of tower for morse code R (.-.)

After passing tower, full power and climbed back to 800feet.

At finals, I tried to look at the light signals emitted from control tower.

None. wtf. Am I blind? I can't see any except for the white and green rotating beacons!!!

I glanced at the altimeter... 300feet...290...280...

I opened my eyes real wide this time...But still NO!!! Nothing!!! wtf!!

250feet..240...230... Land or not to land?!!

I was once told that if you are not sure whether you get the clearance to land and unable to contact tower, just go-around.
So I decided to go-around. But just to confirm again with my instructor, using hand signal, I told him I couldn't visual with the lights and going around.

He nodded.

Full power, climbed to 800feet again. He plugged in the sockets and told me that he requested the tower not to show the light signals to me just now. -_-"

Phew~~ If I tried to land just now, my ears probably would go deaf from the yelling of both instructor and ATC. Haha.

Coming back approach to land, at finals, I saw steady green light just below the rotating beacons. Kinda hard to see it, seriously.

***Steady green = Cleared to land***






The leave forms which we passed to the Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) to get recommendations were missing for 2 weeks. I had been looking for them all around in hangar and in ground school.


Flight ops staff: No, leave forms for your batch are not at here. We didn't see any!
CFI: Yea yea. I approved it already and passed to principal. Go ask him.
Principal: No. I don't have. Go ask SWO (Student Welfare Officer).
SWO: No. There is none here. I have leave forms from other batches but not your batch. Go ask the ground clerk.
Ground Clerk: Takde lah. Ah kak dah cari sana sini pun takde. Cuba tanya orang lain lah.
Admin Clerk: Not here.


No one knew where the hell are the forms until..............

Yesterday after my night flying sorties, I informed the CFI again. He searched around his office and finally found them. It was stacked in between other documents. You should see his office. Full of papers, logbooks and licenses. Enough to bury two people alive.

And guess what, our leave forms were not yet approved by principal and he himself, the CFI did not sign it. Cool~~

This morning I rushed back to the principal office just to get his signature.

Me: (nicely and politely) Sir, can you please sign the leave forms for our batch? I finally got them from CFI.
Principal: I don't what you all are thinking about. We have the system but you all don't follow at all! Do you think I am so free to just sit down here and sign your stuffs? The system is to pass the leave forms to SWO and he will pass to me. Not the students to come inside my office and disturbing me! Now just leave those forms here and go out.

There are only two words in my mind now: F*** you.

I left without a word after putting the papers on his table.

Whether the bloody idiot signs it or not, we don't give a sh*t. We are going back for sure.

Traffic was so busy that my instructor and I had to hold on ground for ten minutes. Then another 35minutes in the air.

We did 2 Touch&Gos and then landed. I had no chance to try out the simulated radio failure and total electrical failure.

I am not sure whether he's gonna clear me for my solo tonight without doing the two exercises.

It was actually my off-day yesterday. But my friend was sick, so I had to replace his slot with my IF32&33.

2 hours sortie with THAT instructor was not that nice. Kinda stressful with him as my safety pilot. Almost all the cadets here complained about him anyway. Even the fellow instructors say he doesn't know how to teach. Haha.

Skip that and now to Night Flying!!

Yesterday night 2200hours was my first ever night flying sortie. Oh my god, I tell you...Night Flying was fun (and dangerous)!!

Taxiway edge lights: blue
Runway edge lights: aviation white
Correct threshold lights: green
Wrong threshold lights: red
Taxiing out lights: green
Taxiing in light: green and amber alternate
##The reason we term it as aviation white is because its intensity is less than 50% of the normal white. A little yellowish.##


It was already pitch-dark at 10pm. Went into aircraft. Switch on Electric Master, then the Instrument Light. Followed by the Flood Light.

Continued on the pre-flight checks then cleared to taxy to holding point Charlie.

It was quite difficult to taxy on the yellow line. Simply because it's dark outside and switching on Taxy lights was not helping much at all.

Taxiing speed became more difficult to judge. So we used the lights at the edge of runway to help us determine how fast we were taxiing.


Cleared to line-up and wait.

Then cleared for take-off.

Full power with brakes ON. A quick scan on all instruments to make sure ALL OK.
Brakes RELEASED.


Runway centerline was much easier to see because it was WHITE in colour and with Landing lights ON during take-off.


Rotate at 60knots >> Climbed out 80kts from Upwind leg turning into Crosswind and then into Downwind.


Mountains were not visible. Sea and ground looked alike. Lighted-up boats and the civilian houses were very similar from the skies.

Just like day flying, in order to maintain sufficient separation with the runway, I had to make sure wingtip is 'sliding' on the runway. Runway lights were used as reference in this case.

Something stupid about the design of this aircraft is: There is no light for the compass. It is very troublesome to take out my torchlight and then shine on it to get the reading. At the same time still need to keep my hands on throttle and control stick.

**Just some technical stuffs here, the Direction Indicator is made based on gyro. And it tends to misalign after few manoeuvres. This is the reason why we have to tune the DI same as the compass.**


Downwind checks completed. Power reduced and turned to base leg.

Taxy and Landing lights on.

On approach path, 500ft, flaps put to Landing position.


Now at this moment, I couldn't see the runway surface at all except for the approach lights and runway lights.

Basically it felt almost like I was descending into a black hole with stars at the side. **Sorry, I can't think of any other sentence to describe that.**

It was only at 80feet I could visual with the 1000-foot marker.


Power was then idled. Flare. And touchdown for another 4 Touch & Gos.




Conclusion: Landing part is the toughest in Night flying. The timing to decide WHEN TO FLARE becomes very very important. One second late in flaring can end up in propeller strike. Flare too early might cause stall, heavy landing and hence damage to main wheels.


************


Did IF 34 this morning and now going hangar for GH44! Ciaoz..